In this video excerpt, Foulis and Paul discuss the special role of domestic microfinance as it relates to immigrant entrepreneurs, or “immpreneuers”.

To watch the full interview with ACCION CEO Paul Quintero click here!

Festival Fete’s Holiday Market embodies the spirit of small business, as an event featuring locally grown food, art and products from talented individuals across New England. The Holiday Market will include over 100 Contemporary American Craft artists, strolling entertainment, a farmers market, and children’s crafts and entertainment. The market is a 2-day extravaganza, taking place over Thanksgiving weekend (November 25^th and 26^th) at the Rhode Island Convention Center, 11am to 6pm daily. For entrepreneurs who are participating in the fair, we’d love to have you attend our credit seminar on November 26^th just before the fair begins at 11am. Don’t worry if you can’t make it, you can find ACCION USA at booth 223 – stop by and say hello!

Jesse from Brooklyn Taco serving his gourmet tacos!

Guests sampled a range of tasty, locally made dishes supplied by ACCION USA’s clients, from mouth watering Cola and Orange Braised Pork Shoulder Tacos courtesy of Brooklyn Taco to Sweet Plantain and White Cheese Arepas from Arepas Café. Dinner was washed down with either a complimentary Sam Adams beverage or a homebrewed beer sample from the homebrewer tasting competition (congrats to Jason Faulkner with his winning brew, “Lions Mane”!). And finally, no event is complete without dessert! Thanks to The Chocolate Swirl for providing their imaginative and gourmet brownie pops.

ACCION USA CEO Paul Quintero speaks about the impact of domestic microfinance.

To round off the night, ACCION USA’s CEO Paul Quintero spoke about the impact of domestic microfinance and introduced a few clients to share their personal stories about the journey of a small business owner. Underscoring the profound importance of financial inclusion, Jesse Kramer, owner of Brooklyn Taco, explained the challenges of securing financing for his business from a local bank. “As a recent graduate from culinary school with debt from student loans, no bank would take me seriously,” Jesse explained. Jesse’s dream of operating a culinary business that paid tribute to Mexican heritage while still celebrating a hip, modern Brooklyn culture was brought to life with a $5,000 microloan from ACCION USA. With it, Jesse expanded his business to a larger vendor space in the Essex Street Market, where his business continues to thrive.

It’s personal stories of determination and entrepreneurial spirit like Jesse’s that bring tremendous meaning to ACCION USA’s work  to support small business owners and job creation. We thank Jesse for his tireless work as a microentrepeneur and all of the guests and volunteers who made the Microfinance Harvest Festival an evening to be remembered!

Pictures have been posted to our Facebook page – check them out and tag yourself too!

Food industry veteran Gregory conceived Mi Kitchen es su Kitchen in 1996, as a time-share rental facility available to up-and-coming food entrepreneurs. As the hands-on director of this consulting firm, her role is essentially twofold: she forms strategic alliances with not-for-profits who have an existing kitchen space and transforms it into a business incubator rental facility, which generates new revenue for the host organizations. At the same time, each kitchen incubator provides a nurturing facility to encourage start-up food business clients. Gregory advises clients on food safety, license requirements and legal issues while they work on perfecting their concepts in a legal working environment. She also oversees and hosts seminars for potential clients of the facility. The first incubator was established in Brooklyn and the concept is being developed for a nationwide rollout.

Please feel free to contact us to learn more about the successful attributes of this partnership and how we can replicate it with you!

In New York—Erica Dorn edorn@accionusa.org

In New England- Elizabeth Garlow egarlow@accionusa.org

Nationwide- Jennifer Spaziano jspaziano@accionusa.org

October 4 marked a successful “Food Labeling” workshop (part 1 of 3) from the Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream program. Held at Sam Adams HQ’s in Boston, the event was led by industry specialists from Sam Adams and ACCION USA and had a fantastic showing of 46 local food and beverage entrepreneurs. The workshop, which covered a range of food labeling topics, is part of a broader mentoring campaign to help empower small businesses around the country with capital and invaluable industry knowledge.

Elizabeth Garlow, Business Development Officer at ACCION USA, commented that many food and beverage business owners in the audience were very impressed with how relevant the training was, a small business owner remarking that “it’s impossible to get this information anywhere else.” One attendee learned that local businesses were at an advantage because it is easier to create brand loyalty, considering that today many customers want to meet the owner and know the history of the business. Another attendee learned that listing “whole peppercorn” as an individual ingredient instead of listing all spices/flavors as “spices” will mitigate risk for a company. If you want to learn the logic behind this and other industry related advice from the event, check out a blogpost about the workshop from one of the attendees, Bienne Foods.

Register for part two of the “Food Labeling” workshop series to take place on Tuesday, October 11 called “Federal Regulation and Marketing Your Product.”

ACCION USA joined Citibank in Upper Manhattan during the week of May 16th to celebrate Small Business Month.  Together, we worked to connect entrepreneurs in Washington Heights with the financial and educational resources needed to keep their businesses thriving. Sonia Baba-Shahverdy, owner of Step by Steps Daycare , received a loan with ACCION USA and Citibank’s support and is using it to invest in her daycare business.

ACCION Microfinance- Inwood, New York.

In our microlending work, we often hear that ACCION USA is “the best kept secret” from clients, partners and local government officials.  Since our work depends on word of mouth, I would like to change this perception and that is why ACCION USA supports the Kiva City Initiatives by Kiva.org.

Kiva.org through the Kiva City program will be bringing visibility to the issue of job creation by focusing on the top 10 areas of the country that were hit the hardest through the recession.  I am proud to announce that ACCION USA will be playing an important role on this program and that we are positioned to assist in 7 of those 10 markets. However, without the collaboration of civic leaders, local economic development groups and technical assistance providers who have the trust and access to talented but unsung entrepreneurs, our ability to succeed is limited.

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it will take a community of interested stakeholders to ensure access to capital for needy entrepreneurs.  Please do not keep this a secret—pass it along, and know that doing so increases the chances of funding big dreams through small loans for thousands of entrepreneurs across the country.

Also don’t forget to WATCH LIVE as President Clinton announces the launch of Kiva City today at 1:00p.m. EST

According to the results of our field tests, each AUSA small business loan recipient creates 3 new jobs on average. Wages provided by ACCION USA borrowers are 24% higher than the national minimum wage. The business survival rate among ACCION USA clients is 89% for start up businesses.

Joann recieved a sprout loan from ACCION USA for her home based cheesecake business

Culinary student, Joann spent 30 years perfecting her cheesecake recipe and decided to start a pastry business out of her home. With a loan from ACCION USA, she was able to expand her advertising and her selection of products. She now rents a space at the local green market and sells her wares once a week.

Not only do we provide capital for entrepreneurs to start their businesses, but we are also invested in seeing them succeed. One of our most successful financial education programs is the Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream Program. Run by Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams and fellow entrepreneur, this program offers small business coaching sessions for entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industries. Sit in on a session on June 13!

Check out more about the Urban Summit: Use hashtag #urbansummit on twitter:

@SteveCase: WATCH LIVE: Urban Entrepreneurship Summit http://bit.ly/m0dGbM #StartUpAmerica #UrbanSummit

CEO Paul Quintero inspiring us to think beyond any limits we have set for ourselves

On Wednesday we had a orientation at ACCION USA for our summer interns- 14 interns joined from New York and remotely from Atlanta and Boston through our gotomeeting platform and via Skype.

A few of the most memorable moments were when our “historian” Carmen told stories about our first clients, seeing the interns in Boston live through Skype video and of course, our CEO Paul Quintero uplifting everyone’s spirits and dreams about the limitless possibilities at ACCION USA.

A warm welcome to our entire Summer ACCION USA intern brigade!

In Atlanta:

• David McNeill is a Lending and Outreach Intern who recently returned from his Kiva Fellowship in Sierra Leon- he is very excited about combining his international microfinance experience with work in Atlanta at ACCION USA.

In New York:

• Airi Kobayashi is a Communications Intern studying IT Business at Notre Dame University. Airi speaks Japanese and Mandarin and has worked in marketing, technology, and design.
• Alvaro Gutierrez is a Lending Intern. Alvaro studied Business Administration and has experience teaching and working with entrepreneurs in his home country of Chile. Alvaro also worked as an Business Executive in The Nielsen Company.
• Kimberly Edwards is a Lending and Financial Education Intern from Columbia University doing her year-long field placement at ACCION USA. Kimberly has previous microfinance experience working at Self Help in North Carolina.
• Alicia Quinn is a Volunteer Partnerships and Business Development Intern. Alicia is graduate intern from Columbia University doing her year-long field placement at ACCION USA. Alicia worked in health care administration for 7 years in Vail, Colorado.
• Etel Echevarria is a Lending Intern. A native to Argentina, Etel is completing her MPA at City University of New York. Etel previously interned at Make The Road New York.
• Matt Roth is a Lending In tern. Matt recently returned from the Peace Corps in El Salvador and is also working part-time in homeless outreach in New York City.
• Lauren Yothers is a Communications Intern who studied at the University of Miami. Lauren speaks Spanish and Portuguese and also worked in community development with a renowned activist and anthropologist in Haiti.
• Mauricio Delgado is a Lending Intern. A native to Ecuador, Mauricio completed his Business Administration degree from Queens college. Mauricio has many experiences working with small business in his home country and in the U.S.
• John Remson is a Resource De velopment Intern. John recently graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Government and Politics. John previously worked as an enumerator for the United States Census Bureau.
• Marisa Casellas is the Kiva Intern and a graduate student at NYU Wagner. Marisa worked for three years at the Hispanic Federation of New York and is fluent in Spanish and Italian.

In Boston:

• Hajar Elaalej is a lending summer interns.  Hajar recently graduated from Boston University with a double major in Economics and International Relations.  She is from Morocco however, moved to Boston to finish her studies in 2008.  She served at BU as the President of the Arab-Israeli Peace Alliance.
• Brinya Bjork is a Microtest Inte rn studying Business Administration from Notre Dame University. She has many experienences working as an advocate for the disabled, immigrant, women, homesless, and victims of natural disaster.
• Ryan Quillard is a Microtest Intern hailing from the University of Notre Dame where he studies Business Adminisatration. He has interned and/or worked at the Center For Homesless, Big Brothers and Big Sisters and as a swimming instructor in New Orleans.
• Carolyn McMahon is Managing Intern for Microtest. She is completing her Masters degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She has vast experience in Justice working at a microcredit bank in Senegal, with a peace and justice organizations in San Fransc iso and San Deigo. She is driven to combine her experience and knowledge of microfinance with peace building initiatives.

Welcome to our newest Accionistas-Much of the success of ACCION USA is owed to the extraordinary talent and efforts of interns and volunteers.

Talk about sticking with something you love – Anne Mironchik has been playing music for over 30 years! After graduating from the Manhattan School of Music in 1988, Anne started teaching music to help support herself as she pursued her music career. She recently released a new album entitled Cookin in the Kitchen which includes her original work as well as the jazz standard “Laura” by Johnny Mercer. She was selected as a finalist with the UniSong International, which dubbed the demo version of Cookin’ in the Kitchen “…a juggernaut of a song!”

Anne runs her own production company, through which she released her most recent album. Anne’s loan from ACCION USA helped her with the production of this album. She also provides consulting and administrative assistance to two companies on a regular basis. Anne has recently started studying with jazz piano great, Mike Longo, and has really started to work on becoming a mature, accomplished jazz performer.

Celebrate small business week and check out Anne’s website to check out her music. Also don’t miss the chance to meet Anne Mironchik during the client tour at the 2011 Microfinance USA Conference on May 23 and 24th!