de la Torre Wind Entrepreneur Award @ Association of Free Community Papers.

The Association of Free Community Papers (AFCP) awarded Martha de la Torre with the AFCP’s first Entrepreneur Award. De la Torre is the founder of El Clasificado.

Orestes Baez, President of The Flyer in Tampa Florida, presented the award to de la Torre in San Francisco at the AFCP’s 2005 Annual Convention, attended by over 500 members. The Entrepreneurship award is awarded for outstanding success in overcoming the challenges of building a successful enterprise in the free community paper industry.

“We joined the AFCP in 2001 and it has been one of the most worthwhile organizations to help grow our business” states Martha de la Torre. “It took us 13 years to reach annual sales of $3,000,000 but since joining the AFCP we have grown to over $7,000,000 in annual sales in just four years. We could not have achieved this growth without the training and networking opportunities provided at AFCP conventions and the resulting relationships from mentors like Dick Mandt, of the Tampa Flyer; support from Pete Gorman, Orestes Baez, and Carlos Guzman from Harte Hanks and direction from Peter Lamb, our strategic consultant. The AFCP is what a trade organization should be, a place where colleagues and competitors in the free community paper industry come together and develop “Best Practices” for all member publications. In particular, El Clasificado learned from AFCP members how to sell more value to customers, how to expand effectively and strategically and how to maintain and hi! re the right people to carry out our mission. El Clasificado is a much stronger organization since joining the AFCP and we look forward to our future opportunities with their support.”