By DYMPHNA CALICA-LA PUTT

Twenty years ago, Las Vegas residents had to brave several hours of driving in the scorching desert just to get authentic Asian goods from California. Ten years ago, a trip to Spring Mountain Road would transport Las Vegans to the sights, sounds and smells of Asia.

But these days, Asian-owned businesses can be found on almost every other street in Las Vegas. This shows how much Asian-Americans have changed the city's business landscape. It also echoes the huge increase in the number of Asian-owned businesses in the country.

In fact, from 2002-2007, the number of businesses owned by Asians in the U.S. grew a massive 40 percent to 1.5 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The number is more than twice the national rate.

"Asian-owned businesses continued to be one of the strongest segments of our nation's economy, bringing in more than half a trillion dollars in sales in 2007," Census Bureau deputy director Thomas Mesenbourg said in a statement.

The findings, released in April, come from the Census Bureau's 2007 Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons. The report includes more than 2.3 million nonfarm businesses with receipts of $1,000 or more.

This report also showed that the roughly 6,000 Asian-owned businesses in Las Vegas comprise 10.5 percent of all businesses in the city.

While the Las Vegas number may appear small, it is far from insignificant. This was evident at the opening of Lee's Sandwiches, one of the newest Asian stores in the city. Its March 25 opening was well-attended by legislators and business leaders alike.

Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley and Las Vegas Councilman Stavros Anthony both commended the restaurant's sudden contribution to the local economy. The event was also graced by representatives of Sen. Harry Reid, then-Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Joe Heck, who all lauded the business for giving a much-needed boost to the local business climate.

The Vietnamese eatery, whose headquarters is in California, had hired 150 locals in Las Vegas when it opened. This possibly contributed to the slight, albeit welcome, decline in unemployment in the city that month.

At Lee's, bánh mì, a sandwich that combines French elements like the baguette with native Vietnamese ingredients, is the main attraction and is the latest craze in the community.

"The fact that our products have a good price helps, too," said Benito Tseng, director of operations of Lee's Las Vegas. A quick look at the restaurant's extensive menu would show that not a single item is priced more than $5.

Judging from the perpetually long lines at its Spring Mountain Road store, business is indeed brisk. Already, a second branch is set to open within the year in the Henderson area.

"It will be a little smaller than (the Spring Mountain) branch, and we will hire about 50 employees," said Ivy Vo, the store's public relations officer.

Lee's Sandwiches is one of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese-owned firms in the country which, as a group, increased in number by 55 percent from 2002-2007. Based on the number of businesses added, it is the fastest growing subgroup among Asian-owned firms in the U.S., according to the 2007 Survey of Business Owners.

Chinese-owned firms ranked second as the number of firms grew a rapid 48.1 percent, followed by Asian-Indian businesses, which grew 38.2 percent, the survey also showed. Businesses owned by Filipinos, Japanese and Koreans, which grew at 30 percent, 25 percent and 22 percent, respectively, trailed not far behind.

"We have observed that Japanese firms are expanding their current investments to grow their businesses instead of taking on new investments," said Kathleen Blakely, honorary consul general to Japan in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, firms owned by other Asians, including Hmongs, Laotians, Thais, Pakistanis and Cambodians, grew a combined 72 percent.

Lightning-like growth in Las Vegas

In Las Vegas, this growth pace is similar, if not even more rapid, notes Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Duy Nguyen.

"There is definitely a lot of businesses moving here knowing that there is a growth," he said.

Nguyen noted that it is the chamber's goal to make sure that such expansion in the Asian business community is furthered even more. This is by bridging the gap between the Asian business community and the mainstream.

"Asian businesses come to us and say this is our business, this is what we do. The end goal is always how to get their businesses out there," he said.

"A lot of (Asian businesses) have great strategic plans but not a good promotion component," he observed.

Nguyen also noticed that most Asian businesses promote their products and services in ethnic newspapers that are circulated within their own ethnic community.

"First of all, it's the cost. ... Mainstream media outlets are a bit more higher priced," he said.

"But I always believe there are always negotiations. If you have partners like ACC, we have relationships with them. We can make the introductions," he said.

Lee's Vo noted, however, that the store's advertisements in Asian newspapers bring enough traffic to the store. Vo noted Lee's also makes use of social media like Facebook and Twitter in promoting its products.

For his part, Dr. Ben Calderon, managing director of Calderon Medical Group, said his business relies on old-fashioned word of mouth for its promotions.

"It's a cultural thing," he said, noting that most new patients come to his clinic, following recommendations of his current patients.

Calderon Medical Center's promotion strategy seems to work for them since it already opened its second clinic in February. The second branch on the east side is an expansion of services from its first clinic on West Charleston Boulevard. Both locations have specialists in cardiology, gastroenterology, general surgery and pain management.

The Filipino-owned and operated clinic is one of close to 200,000 Filipino businesses in the U.S. The group registered the third largest growth, according to the 2007 Survey of Business Owners, and some 49 percent of these businesses are in the health care sector.

Calderon, who just ended a three-year term as president of the Philippine Medical Association of Nevada, explained, "It is widely known (Filipinos) have a very caring and compassionate culture," thus, the leaning toward opening businesses in the health care field.

"We have so many medical providers that are already in the system. There are 2,000 (Filipino) nurses and 300 (Filipino) doctors in Las Vegas and they are already exposed to the medical system," he said.

This is what happened to Millie Martinez, administrator of Staffing Specialists, a nursing registry that serves the staffing needs of numerous hospitals in Las Vegas and nearby cities.

Martinez, a registered nurse who was educated in the Philippines and licensed in California, had set up a nurse staffing registry in Los Angeles in 1981.

Given this background and experience, Martinez noted that she "has a pulse on market demand."

"Until the recession, Las Vegas was in such economic growth that it reflected in the health care industry as need for facilities and (health care) professionals increased," she said.

Martinez and her team thus hit the ground running when they set up Staffing Specialists in Las Vegas in 2001. Since then, this Filipino-owned company has become one of the leading health care staffing agencies in the city.

hiring in Asian firms

The wealth of Filipino health care professionals in the country that Calderon pointed out, meanwhile, may yet be furthered by the clinic's leaning toward fellow Filipinos.

"We are open to hiring anybody from other cultures, but (these employees) get frustrated because of the cultural differences (with patients)," Calderon said.

A deep understanding of the Filipino culture is paramount in Calderon's practice and it is what contributed to the success of his clinics in Las Vegas, where 90 percent of all his patients are Filipinos.

Though the clinics also employ non-Filipinos in administrative positions, health care professionals who are hired are those who understand Filipino customs, traditions and habits that directly or indirectly affect their health, Calderon explained.

While this spelled the success of the physician's flourishing practice, it is not typical, even in the health care field.

Staffing Specialists -- which hires registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, and physical therapists for fielding in its various client hospitals -- has a good mix of Asians, Latinos, Africans and Caucasians in its roster of employees.

"Beyond (racial) background, we rightly put emphasis on their commitment and competence. They know that job assurance is determined by how well they work," Martinez said.

Like Staffing Specialists, Asian-owned firms in Las Vegas are by and large open to hiring non-Asians, despite common perception that points otherwise.

"It's without a doubt that (Asian firms) are very welcoming to non-Asians. They enjoy that even more," the chamber's Nguyen said.

"We are a very diverse community and we understand diversity more than anybody. We don't have a common language and we don't have one exact common culture," he added.

This is illustrated by Lee's Sandwiches, which employs many non-Vietnamese and non-Asians on its staff. "(Our basis for hiring) is not so much the culture, but their competence," Lee's Tseng said.

Nguyen further described Asian firms' hiring practices by likening it to a family unit. "They are like their own family within their own business," he said, adding "Even if some of them are not related, they are treated like family."

Because Asian family members give a high regard to loyalty, respect, honesty and hard work, such values are also expected of employees in an Asian-owned business.

"That is the basic that they want to instill in everybody (in the business) whether family or not. It's those cultural traits that are somewhat understood from the job candidates themselves," explained Nguyen.

"They look at (hiring) as adding another family member to the equation. That is something that many non-Asians have a hard time understanding," he said.

It seems this hiring practice among Asian-owned firms in Las Vegas is the force that drove its rapid growth in recent years, so much so that even with the recent downturn in the economy, a large majority of these firms stayed afloat.

In the Asian Chamber of Commerce, Nguyen noted that non-Asians he meets often ask him the same questions about Asian-owned firms: "What are they doing that we are not doing? How can they sustain themselves through these economic challenges?"

To this, the chamber executive director cites the way owners of Asian firms treat employees like family and expect certain values from them as what they would from family members.

"In a family, everybody sticks together. Everybody is really cohesive in driving that boat," Nguyen said.

"That cohesiveness makes them empowered to steer the ship away from the perfect storm. The hardship brings them closer together. It creates new ideas that really overcome the issues," he added.

Everybody owns a rice cooker

The strength and swift growth in number of Asian-owned firms in Las Vegas reflects the rapid growth of the Asian population in Nevada. At a massive 116.5 percent, the group's increase in population from 2000-2010 greatly outpaced Hispanic residents in the state, data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed. Hispanics, which for decades was the fastest growing group in Nevada, grew by 81.9 percent in the same period.

This can only mean an even stronger and much larger Asian business community in Las Vegas, notes Nguyen.

And its steady assimilation into the mainstream culture will solidify it even more, he added.

"Almost everybody owns a rice cooker now. Even non-Asians are becoming familiar with our culture now. The mainstream does not really have the same meaning it used to have," he said.

Nguyen said further expansion of the Asian business community in Las Vegas is inevitable and its pace amazing. "This growth is something that will surprise us. From that aspect, politically and economically, it's a very neat place to be in right now," he said.