Inga’s Subs & Salads, Saigon and Roly Poly are three Northgate restaurants with different cuisines and loyal customers, but they share more than proximity.
Their owners are all women who came from other states and countries to start their own businesses in Baton Rouge.
Inga Kim, owner of Inga’s Subs & Salads, came to the United States from South Korea at age 20 with her parents and brother in 1974 because her father had a friend living in Baton Rouge. The family bought a Blimpie’s restaurant, which Kim bought from her parents in 1984 and renamed Inga’s Subs & Salads.
Small businesses are very attractive to individuals coming to the United States to find new opportunities, Kim said.
Kim said it was not difficult to manage her own business because Blimpie’s was already an established business.
“I wasn’t starting a new business but learning how to negotiate and hire people – it takes a lot – especially learning the English needed to work,” Kim said.
Tara Aucoin and her brother, Jarrod, own Roly Poly franchises in Louisiana and Arkansas, and they plan to buy franchise rights in parts of Texas, including Austin.
The Aucoins, who are from Atlanta, Ga., met the original owners of the Atlanta-based franchise and decided to invest in the company.
“We highlighted cities on a map that we thought would work during breakfast one day,” said Tara, who was a chef. “We decided on New Orleans, but we had a 30-day window to find a location. We decided on Baton Rouge because LSU is a main draw.”
Tara said she has seen some male Roly Poly owners give her brother more attention when talking about business, and some customers look to other employees as the manager.
“They never think I’m the manager,” Tara said, wearing a baseball cap and jeans. “They think I’m a student.”
Small businesses owned by women are on the rise, as women are throwing off the stereotypes of a male-dominated business world and investing in their own private businesses.
According to 2004 statistics from the Center for Women’s Business Research, women owned about 47 percent of all privately-held firms in Louisiana, and those businesses earned almost $33 billion in sales and employed more than 300,000 people.
Between 1997 and 2004, women-owned businesses in Louisiana also increased overall by almost 18 percent.
In the nation, firms that minority women own are growing at twice the rate than women’s businesses in general are growing, according to the center’s statistics.
“Not only are [women-owned firms] starting to grow … but they’re growing in areas you might not expect,” said Carol Carter, assistant director of the management department who teaches entrepreneurship classes. Carter also helps coordinate “Women in Business,” a program geared toward women opening their own businesses. The program is part of the E.J. Ourso Business College’s Entrepreneurship Institute.
Carter said many women have no business background, making it difficult to transfer a great idea into an actual business.
“They may have a good idea, but unless they buy into a franchise with a really strong background, they don’t know how to market their business and they don’t know how to put together financial statements,” Carter said.
Carter also said more women use personal savings to finance their businesses than men.
“Men feel comfortable going to the bank,” Carter said. “Women are taught to be nice. Money’s uncomfortable for a lot of people to talk about. A lot of women have trouble separating business from their personal lives.”
Carter said flexibility is one of the main reasons many women go into business for themselves.
“It provides them a way to work out of their home,” Carter said. “Traditionally it’s still the case – women are still the traditional caregivers. Business becomes another family.”
Carter said many women who manage both businesses and family feel guilty because they cannot devote enough time either. “Women have to learn how to juggle this, how to find time for themselves,” Carter said. “That’s a very valid issue.”
Bien Le, owner of Saigon, had both the background and idea for her restaurant coming out of college. Le and her family escaped Vietnam in 1987 on a boat and settled in Cut Off, about 27 miles southeast of Houma, where Le graduated from high school. Le graduated from Southeastern University in business management.
Le said she planned to get her master’s in business administration from LSU but decided to open her own business instead because she likes interacting with people.
“I’m opposite – I wanted the restaurant for the atmosphere, to be around people. The food came later,” Le said with a laugh. “Slowly as the business opened, I came up with recipes and adapted them to American tastes.”
Le, who saved money for her restaurant in college, said Saigon will move out of the shopping center at the end of December at the request of FirstWorthing, a development company which owns The Venue apartments. She said she hopes to eventually open a restaurant on Perkins Road near her yoga studio, Anahata Yoga Center.
Le said she wants the new restaurant to attract a high-end clientele but is unsure whether she wants to deal with two businesses.
 ”A lot of my family members think it’s not right to keep working,” said Le, who is single. “They think it’s not healthy.”
Le said she sometimes feels pressure as a female business owner because she feels like she has to choose between her career and marriage and a family, which she also wants.
“I like to be busy,” Le said, who is in her early 30s. “It’s hard to see myself taking care of kids. If women can have babies at age 55, I would have kids at age 54.”