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Many Louisvillians came downtown to a Hispanic Lending Festival a few months ago for food, fun, and facts about buying a home. First Omni Mortgage Lending was there, too.
In fact, the company coordinated, hosted and acted as the key sponsor for the event, which was held to "help educate the Hispanic consumer on how to buy a home," said Bart Miller, president of the mortgage company.
Other festival sponsors included Hoy en las Americas, a newspaper published in Shelbyville, and La Buena Radio, based in Louisville.
During the festival, First Omni Mortgage Lending provided Spanishspeaking representatives to better communicate with potential Hispanic customers, said Miller.
Reaching out to Hispanic consumers is part of a strategy First Omni implemented in the past year in the form of an Emerging Markets Division, which has representatives in Louisville, Houston, Nashville, Indianapolis and Atlanta. Those are markets where we feel Hispanic consumers are very much in need of financial solutions we provide," Miller said. "The Hispanic market is an ever-growing sector, but the communication barrier is a problem. We're trying to break down that barrier and create an environment in which Hispanic consumers feet comfortable."
The Emerging Markets Division isn't focused solely on the Hispanic market, he said. First Omni also plans to communicate with customers in Russian, French and other languages and to expand the efforts of the division nationally.
Reaching out to new markets already has helped the company grow.
This year, First Omni increased its staffing by about 30 percent and is on target for $325 million to $350 million in loan volume, which represents an increase of about 15 percent to 20 percent over 2003.
Brothers doing business together
Bart Miller and his brother, Mick Miller, who serves as First Omni's vice president, grew up in Anchorage. Bart Miller attended Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., earning a degree in public relations in 1992. Mick Miller graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1998,...