New York SBDC Research Network

From the Small Business Administration The Small Business Profiles are an annual portrait of each state’s small businesses. They gather the latest federal data into state-by-state snapshots of small business health and economic activity. Limited economic data is also provided for the U.S. territories. This year’s profiles report on state economic growth and employment. They also answer the questions: How many small businesses are in my state? How many jobs do they create? Which industries have the most small businesses and small business jobs? How many establishments opened and closed? How many small businesses export, and how much? Which counties have the most small business employment?

The following appeared originally in the October 2007 "LaGuardia SBDC Quarterly Newsletter". It is an interview with an owner of a successful manufacturer & distributor of ethnic food items. I think that it could be of interest to any number of our clients. It is reproduced here with the permission of the LaGuardia SBDC. My thanks to them. *** House of Spices was started in 1970 with one store in Jackson Heights, New York by brothers G.L. Soni and Kumar Soni. In the following years they experienced extraordinary growth and opened up warehouses around the U.S. that import, store, manufacture, and distribute over 3,000 different food items from all over the world to the ethnic as well as mainstream markets. The following interview was conducted with Mr. G.L. Soni: Q: House of Spices has grown to be a large and successful wholesaler with exclusive distributorship of major food labels including several of its own. However, it all started as a small retail store. Lookin