Ask Rita Estremera why she started her business,Aloekui, and her answer is simple: “We have a mission. We just want to make you feel better.”
She started her company, which makes handcrafted soaps and body products, to help her kids who were suffering from allergies and eczema. She began making and selling her products in 2008 before taking on her business full-time in 2018. Five years, a website and a storefront later, Estremera is keeping her sights set high.
“One of my goals here in Milwaukee is to have a warehouse where we can make tons and tons and tons of soap and ship it everywhere in the world,” she shared.
That goal is what brought her to the classroom at the Latino Entrepreneurial Network (LEN).
The entrepreneurial network was created 17 years ago with the goal of empowering entrepreneurs through coaching. In its decades of service, the classes have helped thousands of Latino entrepreneurs across all fields make their mark on the Milwaukee business world.
The network's executive director, Dr. Nelson Soler, says creating this community for Latinos was needed in the city.
“I wanted to create a resource that will be inclusive and that will allow individuals that perhaps didn’t have ideal backgrounds, ideal education, ideal language skills to have access to the same information,” Soler said.
The organization now has a 98% establishment rate for businesses that go through their program.
“Many people think that we always migrate to one thing or we’re only restauranteurs and contractors, but I’ve seen a lot more innovative ideas in my 17 years running this than you will imagine.”
Ideas that foster passion and represent who entrepreneurs like Rita are.
“Dominican Republic inspired, I am a Dominicana!” said Estremera. “I’m always willing to move on, to move forward, grow up, learn something new and that’s the reason I’m here.”
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