Entreprenuer Article Summary

Mamie Salazar-Harper just recently received the Minority Small Business of The Year Award. Her business’s industry is in the field of rent-to-own, lease or sale of furniture and appliances. Not only is Salazar-Harper ethnically a minority, she also fights the odds of being an individual female small business minority. She was initially a franchise manager for a Color-Time rent-to-own store up until 1994.

In 1991, her management skills were put to the test as she nearly went bankrupt as a result of a large quantity of her rented products returned at once from active duty soldiers being dispersed out to the Persian-Gulf. She managed to solve her problem by adapting her sales pitches to facilitate soldier’s wives and family.

In 1994 she was the only employee of a one facet focused business that had annual revenues around $200,000. Since then, she has climbed to 15 employees, increased revenues more than tenfold and greatly diversified her business operations and focus to facilitate corporate and military leasing contracts. In fact, her business’s revenue has doubled in the last twelve months alone as a result of $2,000,000 of newly acquired military contracts. She is the primary supplier of washers and dryers and house furnishings for Camp Lejuene, NC, and off-post housing at Ft. Bliss.

Salazar-Harper’s business skills are shown through her incredible success as a small business owner;