Arizona business owners are promoting entrepreneurship to local youth leaders

It is becoming easier for young leaders to pursue entrepreneurship in the state of Arizona. Seasoned business people are extending a hand to these young businessmen and women in support of their efforts to get started and continue enhancing the business climate of the state. Hera Hub Phoenix, the co-working space and business accelerator for women, hosted a group of these outstanding business people through the Global Chamber of Arizona in order to continue fostering support for young entrepreneurs.

Nima Sadeghian is the owner of the fashion and lifestyle brand, Jahan Collection. Sadeghian grew up in New York, but eventually moved to Arizona for law school. When first moving to Phoenix, he noted that, “back then, I saw it as a very high potential city, but I didn’t imagine that it would grow as fast as it did.” He later came to the conclusion that “it’s the perfect place to start a business.”

His realization that Arizona is a place of immense opportunity and potential to grow and start a business came from the fact that Arizona is “very conscious of local businesses and local services and products.” Thus, Sadeghian launched his clothing line. The items in the collection are all made in the USA out of recycled materials where a percentage of the proceeds will go toward helping population displacement via a nonprofit in 2019.

Hector Placencia is another experienced entrepreneur. Initially, Placencia worked on the executive teams of large corporations including Qwest Communications, Gateway Computers and DirectTV. This later led to creating his own plastic injection company with fellow entrepreneurs looking to leave their corporate jobs and be their own bosses.

The manufacturing of the plastic goods occurs in a molding factory in Hermosillo, Mexico that is owned by an Arizona LLC. Hector expressed his affinity for Arizona and owning a business here: “I think anything goes here in Arizona and I think that is what makes it cool.” As some of his fellow panelist also noted, Arizona is diverse, not just in culture, but in businesses as well. There aren’t just large corporate businesses, but locally owned ones as well. One cause for the diversity comes from the fact that, “starting businesses [here] is a lot less than [in] most other states,” Hector explained.

Owner of Hera Hub Shatha Barbour worked in corporate global strategy for many years until moving to Arizona where she saw a need for a place where women can find support in a workspace. Thus, she created Hera Hub Phoenix. Barbour is the founder and CEO of the nonexclusive, spa-inspired co-working space that caters to female clientele. Barbour says she chose to plant a Hera Hub in Phoenix because , “even though it is a very large city, it operates still as a small city,” which she notes is a good thing. Although ideas and groups similar to Hera Hub exist, like The Wing in Minneapolis, evolveHer in Chicago, and Quilt in California and New York, Phoenix still has a lot of opportunity to grow in its business diversity. Barbour noted that “there is so much room for opportunity,” because Arizona can continue diversifying its business market.

Audra Carver

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