Timika Thrasher, owner of Thrashers Cleaning Services is shown in her Frederick offices.

The number of Asian-owned businesses in Frederick County has skyrocketed in the past several years as other areas of minority- owned businesses have seen modest growth, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data.

Between 2007 and 2012, the number of reported Asian-owned businesses in Frederick County rose nearly 70 percent, according to recent data from the federally-funded Survey of Business Owners.

The survey is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau every five years to collect data on the characteristics and demographics of more than 1.75 million businesses and their owners nationwide.

Officials announced the release of data from the 2012 Survey of Business Owners in December 2015.

Chinese-owned businesses in the county increased 300 percent over the five-year timeframe from 80 in 2007 to 322 in 2012. Similarly, Asian Indian-owned businesses jumped from 149 in 2007 to 286 in 2012, a 92 percent increase over five years, according to data from the Surveys of Business Owners.

Black-owned businesses in the county also saw an increase during the five-year timeframe, growing 5.6 percent. The number of white-owned businesses decreased almost 4 percent from 2007 to 2012.

In addition, Hispanic-owned businesses in Frederick County rose from 775 in 2007 to 1,041 in 2012, which equates to a 34.3 percent increase, according to data from the Surveys of Business Owners.

“I feel that the numbers are very impressive and reflect the attitude of the minority businesses here in Frederick,” said Sherman Coleman, head of the Frederick County Office of Economic Development’s minority business outreach program, which provides resources and support to business owners.

Coleman said he could not specifically comment on the rise of Asian- and black- owned businesses between 2007 and 2012 because the minority business outreach program and his position did not exist until 2015.

Over the past year, Coleman said he has been working to help minority business owners succeed through the program by connecting established and new businesses for mentoring purposes as well as directing prospective business owners toward agencies and organizations that can assist them.

However, Coleman noted it would take several years before the county or its business owners began seeing results of the program.

“There’s no quick fix to this,” he said. “It’s a long haul, but it’s a road worth traveling. It’s going to take time, hard work, effort and everyone’s cooperation and collaboration.”

Elizabeth Chung, the executive director of the community nonprofit Asian American Center of Frederick, agreed, saying more needs to be done to support the existing and any future minority business owners.

“At a county level, economic development can do better outreach to support the existing businesses and attract future business within the minority, which means they have to be … friendlier and support the existing minorities that are here,” she said.

Chung also stressed more needs to be done to help organizations like hers, which provide direct help, support and resources to the community.

“I’m a community-based organization, so who’s supporting me to support them?” she said. “I think our government very much would like to get help from the community, but what do they do to help the community to help them?”

In 2014, the Asian American Center of Frederick reached an estimated 26,000 individuals through 71 events, including the center’s annual Frederick Community Health Fair, according to Chung.

Chung said the center’s mission and purpose is to serve the community, but the government and other agencies need to play a larger role and reach out to the minority community if they want it to grow.

Local minority business owners react

Felix Soto, owner of the Frederick-based junk removal service American Junk Solutions, said the rise in minority-owned businesses is a boon for the community and economy.

“For Frederick County to be diversified, that’s definitely better for the whole community,” he said. “Regardless of what some bad apples would say in Frederick County, everybody just wants to make a living, everybody just wants to help, everybody just wants to be part of the community.”

“Everybody is just looking to pay their bills and make a difference in the world,” Soto added.

Born in Guatemala, Soto moved to California with his family when he was 15 years old. He soon found himself in Hyattsville, Maryland, where he would finish high school.

Over the next several years, Soto jumped from city to city in the region. He moved up to Frederick in 2008, where he now resides.

Since he has grown up and lived in America for the majority of his life, Soto said he does not consider himself a minority. Regardless, his race and ethnicity has not had an impact on his business, he added.

“It hasn’t really helped me and it hasn’t really hurt me,” Soto said of being a minority in Frederick.

Longtime Frederick County resident Timika Thrasher, co-owner of Thrasher’s Cleaning Service, said she believes her identity as a black woman has influenced her business.

“We’re a minority-owned, woman-based business and I think that that has helped in Frederick, but I also think that because I’m in Frederick, I live here so I’m local and my husband is … born and raised Frederick and he knows people … it helps,” she said.

Thrasher co-owns the business with her husband Greg, who is white. Given their diversity, Thrasher said she believes they are able to reach a larger demographic of potential clients.

“I feel like we have the best of both worlds,” she said.

Thrasher, a native of the Bronx who later moved to the Frederick area and attended Walkersville High School, said she has seen the area become more diverse and change for the better.

“If I started a business 20 years ago with Greg, I may not still be in business after a year,” she said.

Today, a more diverse population has brought about a more diverse and accepting way of thinking that is reflected throughout the county, including the businesses and owners in Frederick County, she said.

‘I have to make it’

For Soto, starting the business American Junk Solutions was a way to fulfill his longtime dream of being his own boss and be an answer to his health nightmare.

Soto spent more than 20 years working in the information technology field, climbing his way from a computer specialist position with a local tech company to network engineer for the federal government.

At one point, he was the main tech support for former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

During this time, Soto was on call 24/7 and worked long hours. He sat at a desk staring at computer screens for long stretches of time, typically only venturing outside to go to and from work.

“Just like everything else, the stress of the job and deadlines caught up with me,” he said, shaking his head. “I developed panic attacks and anxiety in 2009.”

Soto’s doctor told him to quit the field and find a new job, saying his health and life were at risk.

“It was just killing me, basically,” Soto said.

In 2011, Soto quit his job at the National Institutes for Health, where he worked as an IT specialist.

“That was the hardest decision ever,” Soto said of leaving his job and the IT field. “Because of the high pay in salary and the safety of being a federal employee.”

He worked as a web design and development freelancer for a few years, but stopped after realizing he did not have the salesperson persona, which made it hard to find projects and jobs, Soto said.

“I realized I love talking to people, I love driving and I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty,” he said.

In late 2012, Soto bought a truck for $5,000 and started American Junk Solutions, a junk removal business based in Frederick. His clients range from commercial entities to residents, he said.

Finding ways to attract clients and build a customer base was hard at first, but Soto said he is constantly working to grow his business. However, he no longer worries about funding as much as he did initially.

“The first year was really scary because I basically didn’t make any money,” he said. “Second year, I basically doubled what I made the first year and the third year, I went up.”

“So I see it increasing, I see it going up,” he said of business revenue.

Soto said he still encounters stress in his new venture, but he described it as a thrilling, almost euphoric kind of stress. Since starting his business, Soto dropped 20 pounds and added some muscle. He no longer feels the need to take vacation or wait for the day he retires because he loves what he does.

“I want to work until I die,” he said.

For Soto, there is no other option.

“I have to make it, no matter what,” Soto said. “Because I’m not going to go back.”

‘It was do or die’

For Thrasher, the idea for her eco-friendly cleaning business Thrasher’s Cleaning Service was born eight years ago after spending hours in medical facilities for her son’s allergies.

“We would go to doctors’ offices and things would look so dirty and grimy,” Thrasher recalled. “And we’d be like, ‘Oh my God, don’t let him touch anything!’”

After multiple visits and the same reaction to the cleanliness of the facilities, Thrasher said her husband came up with the idea to start a cleaning services business.

“My husband made a comment … He said, ‘God, if you cleaned these offices the way you clean our house, you know he’d never be sick,” Thrasher said. “And, just like that, a light went off.”

The two decided to take an environment-friendly approach to their new venture and bought only green-based products. That, along with a handful of other cleaning supplies – a mop bucket and a vacuum were the major expenses for Thrasher before launching her business from her home in Frederick.

“Starting a cleaning company is not an expensive start-up. … Maybe $200 to $300 and you’re good to go,” she said, noting most of the money goes toward supplies and resources.

At the time, Thrasher worked at a mortgage company while her husband continued his job with the electric services company Potomac Edison, so they found time for the business when they could.

This often meant answering phone calls from clients on breaks, going to walk throughs of buildings or homes during lunchtime and cleaning for clients at night after they both got off work, Thrasher said.

“The biggest struggle was trying to fit it all in and make it all work and having those sleepless nights,” she said, noting the business sometimes took away from quality time with their children.

Everything changed when Thrasher was laid off from her job in March 2014.

“At that point, it was do or die,” she said, noting it was then that she decided to take on Thrasher’s Cleaning Service full time and work to truly grow her business, spend time with family and pursue her passion.

After the business grew and required a physical space for meetings, Thrasher operated out of a shared office space for some time. When it closed, she moved into her own location at 412 Pine Ave. in Frederick.

“It was a dump,” Thrasher said of the place prior to renovations. “It was horrible.”

But with some time, construction and brightly colored paint to match Thrasher’s Cleaning Service’s logo, the place became exactly what Thrasher had envisioned. The business relocated there last July.

Today, Thrasher’s Cleaning Service has 24 employees and multiple clients throughout the region. Thrasher said she’s not sure she would’ve left her former job had she not been laid off.

“Everything happens for a reason; everything is about timing,” she said, musing over the past. “And I think it was perfect timing.”