Three Cuban women, three businesses, one dream: How they’re building their future in Miami

In her pole dance studio, Mariana Alom welcomes other young Cuban women who, like her, chose Miami as the place to build a new life. Her recent venture resembles pole dancing itself: a test of willpower and determination.

Alom is part of a group of immigrants who have arrived in the city over the past five years with the goal of starting businesses, building careers and becoming their own bosses.

That’s also the case for Claudia Carreras, a former athlete who was once among Cuba’s most promising tennis players and now runs her own academy in Miami, Turn On Tennis.

“It’s tough to start when you come from such a different communist country. But Miami is an excellent place to grow,” Carreras says.

Heidy Martínez arrived with a different background from Alom and Carreras: She was already self-employed in Cuba, where she provided facial treatments from her home in Havana’s Playa municipality. Now, her salon in Hialeah Gardens has the resources she needs to continue building her career in cosmetology.

There’s a big difference between the island’s bureaucratic maze and South Florida’s small-business ecosystem.

Miami remains a destination for many Cubans seeking prosperity. But they’re not alone: A 2025 report found that 5.74% of workers under 40 in Miami are self-employed, the highest share among all U.S. cities included in the study.

A new landscape for startups

The cancellation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans, Hondurans, Haitians and Salvadorans has dealt a blow to the entrepreneurial ambitions of many immigrants in Miami.

ICE enforcement operations targeting people without legal immigration status have affected immigrant communities and the businesses supported by this vibrant population.

Cubans, who in the past could turn to the Cuban Adjustment Act — which allows eligible Cuban nationals to apply for permanent residency after being present in the United States for at least a year — face a different landscape today.

Those who crossed the border and were issued an I-220A form after being released by immigration authorities remain in a kind of legal limbo, facing lengthy proceedings as they await resolution of their cases, particularly amid measures by the current administration to increase scrutiny of immigration applications.

Carreras and Martínez had to launch their businesses while facing the limitations associated with their I-220A status.

By contrast, Alom’s path has been relatively smoother after entering the United States through family reunification.

Inside The WildCat Room

Located in Miami Beach, The WildCat Room is a pole dance studio that still feels small compared with its owner’s ambitions.

Inside, five poles rise toward the ceiling, surrounded by mirrors, while lilac curtains drape to the floor. At times, music and the voices of several women blend together, creating a sense of camaraderie.

When 32-year-old Alom teaches one of her students a move and the student successfully executes it, the others applaud and cheer her on.

It’s one of the benefits the young instructor highlights about the practice: It not only helps participants develop a healthier relationship with their bodies and foster self-love, but also strengthens the bonds among them.

“Right now I have 10 students and I schedule them at different times,” Alom tells el Nuevo Herald. Training options also vary depending on what students are looking for: pole fitness, choreography or sensual dance.

Alom arrived in Miami two years ago, but she had already left Cuba for Brazil in 2019, settling in Ubatuba, a small coastal city in São Paulo state. It was there that she first enrolled in a local pole dance studio.

With three years of classical ballet and acting training at Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), her technique improved significantly, eventually earning her first place in the artistic category at a Brazilian pole competition.

She says pole dancing has also had more personal effects on her life, including teaching her to take better care of her body and helping her quit a smoking habit she had had since age 14.

Once in Miami, her goal of opening her own studio remained alive, but she still had other obstacles to overcome.

Nights at E11EVEN

Alom worked for nearly two years as a pole dancer at the well-known nightclub E11EVEN. Her experiences there, however, exposed her to a concept quite different from what she had initially learned from her instructor in Brazil.

“I had learned that dance was more for oneself, but at E11EVEN it was done for the enjoyment of others. I felt a bit frustrated because I didn’t have an artistic purpose,” she said.

The late nights began to take a physical toll, but her work at the club also allowed her to save some of the money she needed to finally establish a space of her own.

In early June 2026, Alom installed several poles in a Miami Beach space, and The WildCat Room began to take shape. Besides leaving behind the hectic nights at E11EVEN, the new venture allowed her to focus on sharing her knowledge with others.

Alom says pole dancing has no requirements when it comes to gender, age or fitness level, although no men have contacted her so far.

“In some cases I can recommend floor work and teach moves more suited to each body type,” Alom says of the range of students who might come to her studio.

Miami-Dade leads small business creation

The WildCat Room is taking shape amid a boom in entrepreneurship across the county. At the end of 2025, Miami-Dade ranked as the top destination in the country for small-business growth, according to a Clarify Capital report cited by the Miami Herald, with nearly 4,900 new business applications per 100,000 county residents filed over the course of a year.

“Miami-Dade is the national leader in small business formation because we are investing in the people and ideas that drive our economy,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at the time.

The county has between 83,000 and 90,000 small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, more than 50,000 of which are minority-owned, according to 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Venezuelan entrepreneur Gisela Rojas recently moved from Orlando to South Florida, drawn by the business opportunities in the region, particularly in real estate.

“The first step is to have the right mindset,” says Rojas, who believes entrepreneurs are often seeking freedom from the constraints of a 9-to-5 schedule.

Forming an LLC, or limited liability company, allows entrepreneurs to separate their business finances and affairs from their personal ones. It typically costs at least $125, and Florida’s Division of Corporations website provides information on how to start a business in Florida.

Always optimistic, Rojas, who managed to overcome a difficult period in her life when she slept in her car, advises entrepreneurs to start building business credit from the beginning.

Businesses, like individuals, have credit scores, and one way to improve them is through responsible use of credit, which can be challenging when you’re just starting out.

“When you create an LLC, a bank gives you a credit card trusting that you’re going to have a business,” Rojas said. “They give you a card the same day for $5,000,” she said as an example. “You turn that into materials, pay office rent, and the score goes up.”

Rojas suggests exploring Net 30 accounts, a form of business credit in which balances must be paid within 30 days. “If you pay before a month, your credit offers increase more,” says Rojas, owner of Caissa Realty Investment.

In front of the mirror

For many years, Alom was very thin and struggled with deep insecurities about her appearance. Training has allowed her to gain muscle mass, but from the beginning, she says, it also transformed her relationship with herself and made her less concerned about how she looked.

Now she is confident enough to say that her pole dance venture will succeed no matter what.

The competition The WildCat Room faces in Miami is no small challenge. Alom knows that from firsthand experience, including her time training at the Silver Garden studio in downtown Miami before opening her own space.

Alom hopes to expand her studio in the future and add at least three more poles that reach the competition height of four meters. She also hopes to build a team of professionals specializing in complementary areas such as flexibility, yoga, massage and physical conditioning.

On the other side of the court

In Key Biscayne, Claudia Carreras hits tennis balls across the court, whether training herself or showing her students how to develop the best possible technique.

Her visor shades part of her face as she follows the trajectory of a shot. Mindset and focus are as important in tennis as they are in life.

Like Alom, Carreras found Miami to be an ideal place to turn a passion into a business, several years after representing Cuba at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz.

Carreras came to Miami after deciding to make the dangerous journey from Nicaragua to the U.S. border.

“I left for the same reasons as everyone else, among them the lack of opportunities,” says Carreras, who received an I-220A form when she entered the United States in 2022, a year that marked a historic peak in the Cuban migration crisis: More than 220,000 Cuban migrant encounters were recorded at U.S. borders, including at sea.

Carreras arrived determined to launch a venture of her own as soon as possible. Her connections in the sports world initially opened the door to a job at the Neighborhood Tennis academy in Coral Gables. It wasn’t long before she created Turn On Tennis.

The Tennis Key Biscayne website describes the former member of Cuba’s national team as someone who “offers a unique perspective on coaching, combining her experience as a professional player with her pedagogical approach to guide players in their technical and tactical progress.”

“In Cuba it was practically impossible to practice tennis due to the lack of equipment. There’s also no mass culture around the sport and everything belongs to the government, except a few spaces reserved for an economic elite like Club Habana,” said Carreras, 28, contrasting the situation on the island with Miami.

Carreras worked in Havana’s food-service industry but never gave up her athletic training, eventually earning a degree in Physical Culture from the Universidad Manuel Fajardo.

When she was getting started in Miami, she had access to courts where she could give lessons, although she did not yet have a steady roster of clients. Meanwhile, she used social media to promote her fledgling Turn On Tennis academy and even personally arranged visits to schools.

Her ideas haven’t been limited to sports. She soon added Turn On Healthy Bar, which she describes as “a healthy coffee cart that moves around the city bringing energy, flavor and good vibes to your events.”

Her services include tournaments and private parties, but her refreshing drinks and snacks have also made appearances at other local events, including gender reveal parties.

Social media, a crucial ally

Carreras also produces content for Turn On News, a digital magazine she created to share news about sports, business and lifestyle in Miami. “It’s a platform for those who are building, growing and creating opportunities,” her Instagram profile says.

The former Cuban athlete acknowledges the importance of social media to the success of her ventures. Digital platforms have become essential tools for launching a new business with relatively little financial investment.

Social media has also helped businesses like The WildCat Room. Alom says she can manage schedules, class options and prices through her Instagram account.

Starting a business: Where to begin

Experts recommend first researching the type of business you want to create and, if possible, starting from home to establish an initial profit margin without investing in office space or taking on additional rent.

“If you’re going to start a real estate company, the first thing is to sell. You are the human capital,” says Venezuelan entrepreneur Gisela Rojas. “That gets you over the fear, you practice, gain confidence and clients while you learn.”

Rojas says women “are more creative” but tend to take longer to act, so she recommends overcoming fear and starting small.

“Get the client, go door to door, then open a salon,” Rojas suggests.

The face of migration

Heidy Martínez — whose immigration situation is similar to Carreras’ because both received an I-220A — needed a salon with enough space to serve more clients seeking facial treatments.

“Leaving Cuba was total craziness,” says Martínez, 35, who made the journey to Del Rio, Texas, with her husband.

“I felt like we had arrived in lands of freedom, truly, but it was also many feelings at once,” Martínez recalls.

Their immigration cases, however, took different paths. Unlike Martínez, her husband received parole, or legal permission to enter the country. After receiving an I-220A, Martínez filed an asylum application. She is now awaiting her second immigration court hearing in 2028.

They both arrived in Miami in May 2022. For a time, Martínez thought she could be content working for someone else. But she quickly abandoned that idea after finding a course at the Rossie school in Hialeah, where she eventually earned her certification as a facial specialist.

In Havana, Martínez ran a small business out of her home in the Playa municipality, where she provided facial treatments. “I’ve been doing this since I was 20,” she says.

Her new business, Mimos SkinCare, has challenged her in Miami to overcome her “fear” of social media and create her own content.

In Havana, Martínez’s business consisted of a small space inside her home in the Playa municipality where she worked as a facialist, her main trade. “I’ve been doing this since I was 20,” she says.

However, her new business Mimos SkinCare now challenges her in Miami to lose her “fear” of social media like never before and produce content herself.

“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions. It’s very difficult. You arrive here and you’re totally lost. You face a process of adaptation, but at the same time with the desire to start a business and move forward quickly,” Martínez says.

Before opening Mimos in Hialeah Gardens in late 2024, Martínez worked out of a “very tiny” space inside a shared salon, where she experienced the ups and downs of client demand.

“I’ve had to work hard, keep improving my skills, but the business is already growing,” she says.

‘Working with the heart’

Mimos focuses on quality service and “working with the heart.” That philosophy has helped her move forward, Martínez says. “Thanks to that, clients recommend me a lot to others,” she says.

“I do everything myself. I even made my business cards on Canva. I’ve had to learn on my own. The videos I share on social media I also edit myself, after learning how to do it,” she adds.

Martínez is aware of the fierce competition in Miami’s cosmetology industry, but she believes her personalized service will set her apart. “I keep the essence of my work, and it’s the same as in Cuba,” she says.

The three young Cuban women agree that Miami can be a place where they achieve their personal goals. Carreras says it’s a place where there will always be opportunities to start a business, while Alom sees pole dancing as a metaphor for the constant challenge of forging your own path.

Ultimately, passion may be one of the strongest foundations for their ventures. “I love doing this; I can adapt to something else, but it will never be the same for me,” Martínez says.

Opportunities to start or grow a business in Miami-Dade

Miami-Dade County offers the RISE Fund (Reinvesting in Our Small Business Economy), which is designed for small businesses that have difficulty accessing capital. Among the key requirements, businesses must have operated in the county for at least two years and have gross revenues of less than $5 million. Loans of up to $75,000 are available through Dade County Federal Credit Union. Here’s how to apply.

The Miami Downtown Development Authority helps businesses in downtown Miami navigate the permitting process. Its “Permit Clinic” offers free guidance on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Flagler Street Construction Office, 166 E. Flagler St.

The City of Miami provides information for entrepreneurs looking to open a business through its MiamiBiz website, where applications can also be submitted online. The system allows the city to retain a record of the application, which will be available when the applicant visits a NET office or the Zoning Office to complete the process and pay the fees required for the applicable business license.