Bellevue center builds its own niche with entrepreneurs

The main clue of its presence is a small sign announcing the company's name, Asia Pacific Language School, in an aging two-story office building near Highway 520.

"We don't know where to advertise," said Sharon Gao, the school's principal.

On a recent day, a teacher worked with three little girls in one windowless room.

Looking for help, Gao turned to the Bellevue Entrepreneur Center.

The year-old Eastside program represents the first concerted effort by Eastside business and civic leaders to tap into the economic potential of entrepreneurs, particularly in the growing minority and immigrant communities.

Nearly one in four Bellevue residents in 2000 was born in another country, up from almost one in eight a decade earlier. The minority population rose to 26 percent.

With that has come an increasing number of newcomers trying to start their own businesses.

Ellen Miller-Wolfe, the city's economic-development director, began hearing from city officials in the Crossroads neighborhood, a center of immigrant settlement, fielding questions from aspiring entrepreneurs.

"The difficulties they were encountering had to do with: How do I get started? Where is the information for permitting and licensing? How do I market my business? Are there other financial resources I can qualify for?" said Miller-Wolfe. "Then there were all of these cultural issues. Do I feel comfortable walking in to talk with one or the other agency? Do I even speak the language?"

Fledgling businesses of any kind face daunting obstacles: finding investors, navigating a maze of government rules and attracting customers.

Those challenges loom larger when regulations are in an unfamiliar language, when entrepreneurs lack connections with lenders, or traditional advertising venues miss potential customers.

In response, suburban Bellevue took a page from a program to cultivate business in impoverished parts of urban Seattle.

The entrepreneur center began turning business students at Bellevue Community College and the University of Washington's Bothell campus into teams of consultants. The students — six teams so far — are assigned to help companies figure out how to improve the bottom line.

Students get a real-world lesson in what it takes to make it in business, said Michael Verchot, director of the UW Business and Economic Development Program, which runs the Seattle operation. Companies get free help.

Four BCC students recommended that Gao boost lagging preschool enrollment by hosting more community events, giving discounts to parents who recruit other families, creating a monthly calendar of activities and overhauling the company's Web site.

The nonprofit company launched its preschool two years ago, aimed at families who want to keep their heritage alive through their language and at parents who adopted children from Asia and want to create a connection to their child's birthplace.

Gao, an immigrant from Guangzhou, said she thinks the advice will help her.

"We never thought young people like these four students could help us so much," she said.

But it doesn't address the problem with her location along a commercial strip, which deters some would-be customers. That will take money, which she hasn't been able to raise from lenders, she said.

Entrepreneur-center backers hope they can help make those connections. They want the Bellevue center to act as a gateway to the chamber of commerce, professional business counselors, lenders and government regulators.

The center has attracted $30,000 from BCC and UW, the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, Bellevue, the Port of Seattle, King County and several area banks.

The center needs help of its own. It operates out of BCC's Small Business Development Center office with director Cory Hansen as the de facto staff person. It doesn't have a Web site, though they plan to start one soon. They would like to raise $60,000 to pay costs and hire a staff person.

And they still need to build relations with minority and immigrant community leaders who can encourage business owners to seek assistance.

"We have some growing pains, and the most obvious one is we need to work really hard to reach the constituents — the cultural barriers, the trust issues, the language barrier," Miller-Wolfe said.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com