I headed to Queens to visit her at her salon and esthetician school, and when I arrived she was busy running around helping students and greeting customers. She told me not to worry, she was used to it and was always busy. Lately, Carmen had been working harder than ever, but her efforts were paying off—she had just learned that she was going to receive “The Small Business of the Year Award” from New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Gracie Mansion.

When things calmed down for Carmen, we sat down to chat about her and her business. Before 2003, Carmen was running a successful salon when she recognized a new business opportunity. Frequently, aestheticians and hairdressers with licenses from their home countries would visit her salon inquiring about how to obtain a license in New York. Originally from Paraguay, Carmen was compelled to help women new to the U.S. find work. So, she decided to start her own aesthetician school, focusing on the Latin community and holding classes in Spanish.

Carmen says most of her business was built thanks to her loans with ACCION USA (we know her hard work had a lot to do with it), she recalls that before her first loan she only had two hair dressers on staff, and now she has nine. She also employs two doctors, one aesthetician and four class instructors.

Still, achieving this success does not mean that Carmen is ready to take a vacation! Instead, she is ready to continue growing her business by opening a second school in Astoria, Queens.

And about her well-deserved award: she says that it was completely unexpected, but she does admit this makes her really happy and she dedicates it completely to her whole staff and everyone who was so perseverant about succeeding in this wonderful project—including ACCION USA!

We hear this philosophy often, and I believe it to be true.  Think back to all those who have shaped your life, your thoughts, and your decisions: teachers and family, friends and mentors, coaches, neighbors, and pastors.  Sometimes, short, one-time experiences can be just as impactful. 

That is the hope of ACCION USA’s financial education team.  We aim to build lasting relationships with program participants, and often we do; individuals will attend a webinar, we’ll then invite them a speed coaching event, and they will eventually apply for a business loan.  Many times, though, we have only an hour – the length of a webinar or community workshop – to impact someone’s life. 

Samuel Adams founder Jim Koch (right) offers business advice to a Boston business owner at a recent financial education event.

With that understanding, ACCION USA recently developed and launched our first-ever financial education longitudinal impact survey.  We’ve gathered the names and contact information of financial education participants over the past year and half and are, through the end of July, surveying them on the quality, outcomes, and long-term impact of our financial education events. 

Thus far, the results are very positive.  Participants – even those from as far back as January 2009 – remember the events, remember what they learned, and can explain how the event content has since shaped their financial decisions.  I’m personally interviewing speed coaching participants, and nearly all remember specific business advice they received!  One man explained a coach’s advice to simplify his business logo, and another woman gushed about a coach’s suggestions to reach new clients with her niche business. 

Currently, we gather feedback at the end of each financial education event; it helps us understand the event’s immediate effect on participants.  But this longitudinal survey will be even more helpful by reporting the event’s long-lasting effects.  Does a woman now have a habit of making a budget?  Did she review her credit report for the first time and dispute an error?  Did she improve her credit score, qualifying herself for a small business loan?

Above all, the survey results will help ACCION USA learn what we are doing well and how we can change our programs to more effectively serve entrepreneurs. 

Stay tuned for the full survey report in August!

Although my soccer skills are limited to what I learned playing recreational soccer during elementary school in my New Jersey hometown, I have always been a soccer fan. When the FIFA World Cup arrives every four years I love seeing the enthusiasm and intensity as people come together in restaurants, bars, living rooms, and even the ACCION USA New York office kitchen to watch the games. What has been most exciting for me this year, however, is seeing how the World Cup causes people with a love of soccer to unite around global issues, including microfinance.

The World Cup was held in Africa for the first time in history this year. Having such an important and highly-viewed sporting event in the most impoverished and underdeveloped continent has brought several issues to the surface and given many nonprofits and charities the opportunity to reach out to soccer fans and players alike to become more involved in fighting poverty.

• 20 Centres for 2010, FIFA’s official cause for the World Cup, seeks to create 20 centers that will promote public health, education, and soccer in African communities. The cause brought fans together at the FIFA World Cup Kick-off Celebration Concert, where all net proceeds were donated.

• The 1GOAL Education for All campaign is using soccer to attract supporters in its mission to provide schooling to 72 million children globally by 2015.

• The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign has seized the opportunity to call attention to poverty and homelessness in South Africa and the exclusion of poor communities from the official World Cup through the creation of the Poor People’s World Cup, a local tournament that has been running concurrently with the FIFA matches.

• Other organizations attracted soccer fans through viewing parties, such as Common Threadz, a nonprofit that supports children in developing nations and provides microloans to women in Africa and Haiti.

• VISA created a soccer game to promote financial education called Financial Soccer.

• ACCION USA even caught World Cup fever, using a financial tip about soccer to provide financial education.

Although this year’s World Cup may be over, I believe its impact will continue to be evident in the success of nonprofits that have reached out to soccer lovers. It’s my hope that by the next World Cup we will be well on our way to a poverty-free world.

On Monday evening, ACCION USA and Samuel Adams staff traveled to Billings Forge Community Works, an organization making a splash in the Frog Hollow community through job training and education courses. Nearly 50 people with small food & beverage and hospitality businesses attended to rotate through 20-minute sessions with Samuel Adams experts in marketing & public relations, logo design, packaging, sales and distribution, along with local business development coaches, attorneys and accountants.

The room was hardly able to contain the energy, as entrepreneurs soaked up valuable tips from coaches and networked with one another.  Clearly there is a demand for these kinds of opportunities in a city like Hartford, where small businesses are looking for ways in today’s economy to, as one participant put it in a recent article in the Hartford Courant , “get a better sense of how [to] take [the] business from point A to point B.”  I was inspired to see the dedication and enthusiasm with which businesses like Southern Relishes (who participated in Monday night’s speed coaching) seek to further establish and grow their businesses, having a positive impact in their local communities.

How wonderful it is for ACCION USA and Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream to provide a space that can help pave the way for entrepreneurial success.

Without further ado, a blog post to commemorate the partnership!

On June 10, 2009 the first U.S. loan appeared on the Kiva website, Elizabeth Polanco. I did my best to be the first person to lend to a U.S. entrepreneur; Maria Shriver beat me to it though!

The weeks that followed ensued passionate conversation about the need for microfinance in the United States, compared to traditional Kiva partners in developing nations. A lending team on Kiva was created to support us, check out the Happy Kiva Lenders . There were also some interesting conversations going on in the blogosphere that have helped fuel more support and awareness for microfinance globally.

Since June 10, 2009, ACCION USA has raised almost $500,000 dollars to support 95 borrowers through Kiva.org. Each of these borrowers has had a chance to share their story of entrepreneurship with the lending community on Kiva. Their Kiva profiles help generate a narrative about the successes and challenges for entrepreneurs, and the need for access to small business loans.

U.S. microfinance has only reached the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. It is through partners like Kiva that we are inspired and become innovative to reach those in need. With our missions aligned, ACCION USA and Kiva will continue to grow and inspire interest in microfinance—together.

And now for the Thank You’s!

Dear Kiva lenders, we have been overwhelmed by your generosity and conviction to the mission of microfinance. Thank you for all of your support and kind words—we always look forward to hearing from you.  We hope that you choose to continue supporting ACCION USA through Kiva.org.

To our clients, a sincere thank you for participating in the Kiva program—your stories are the reason that we come to work everyday!

Please take a look at our current loans fundraising on Kiva!

Elements of financial education appear throughout the lending process. From teaching individuals about the high costs of payday loans to showing business owners how to separate their personal and business finances, ACCION USA equips and empowers entrepreneurs with the education to achieve their financial goals.

Every so often, one of those days comes along that brings you back to the roots of what you do. It’s that client, that partner, that sale or proposal – that something that stands out and reinforces your daily work. It’s what causes you to go home with a smile on your face.

I’m fortunate to work in a place where these days come frequently – weekly, not quarterly. At ACCION USA, our success comes from our clients, and you’ve probably seen our many client success stories. Read one, and you’ll see the power of matching a microloan with the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s exciting, and it’s inspiring.

What you might not see, though, is the added value of financial education – an element of ACCION USA’s service portfolio that makes us unique among microfinance organizations. Elements of our financial education program are weaved into each and every client success story. Whether the client attended a legal counseling workshop, used our online budgeting worksheet, or received a half-hour of technical assistance from a loan consultant, financial education is ever-present in our work.

One of our most recent success stories is a true testament to this service.

Greg’s journey with ACCION USA began in February 2009. He owns an answering service business and needed a loan to keep up with his growing list of clientele. When a damaged credit history and low credit score meant that he didn’t qualify for a loan, Greg demonstrated two characteristics that entrepreneurs tend to possess: persistence and a desire to learn. He contacted our Boston office, determined to understand how he could improve his credit history.

That call was the first of many. Throughout the next year, my colleague Melissa led Greg through the process of improving his score. With her guidance, Greg took control of his debt, improved his credit score over 60 points, and regularly called to check in with Melissa. And his hard work paid off: last month, Greg was approved for a loan.

Greg is proof that financial education can give hard-working, determined individuals the boost they need to realize their entrepreneurial dreams. And all I’m left to say is congratulations. Congratulations to Greg on his persistence and drive to grow his business. Congratulations to Melissa for her dedication.

And congratulations to all of ACCION USA’s supporters for helping connect them.  You make this all possible.

Maureen needed a microloan to help expand her media consulting and production company.

By Maika Hemphill, Loan Consultant, New York

When I first met Maureen it had been two years since she started her own business, Moped Productions, a dream realized after eight years working in video editing and production.  At the time, Maureen’s sales were down due to the economy, but she knew that hiring an employee to develop a blog and newsletter would help her turn the corner.  Maureen received from ACCION USA a $7,000 loan to make the hire, and her loan was posted to Kiva.org, where it was funded.  Maureen’s relationship with ACCION USA led to more media coverage, and with it, increased sales.  A few months later she landed a deal with a major cable TV network, pushing her business to expand further.  With 40% paid down on her original loan, Maureen came back to ACCION USA in need of a larger loan to fund more projects.

Unfortunately, past family and personal matters resulted in a financial situation that was damaging to her credit, and her most recent credit did not prove she had experience handling large loan amounts.  It is always tough to see cases where a client comes to us with credit issues due to circumstances that were out of his or her control.  Maureen was left in a position where it would have potentially taken years to rebuild her credit to match the success of her business, impeding her ability to take on new projects.  Maureen needed to partially fund her upcoming project and, in the process, improve her credit quickly to prepare for future business growth.

Through partial cash securitization of the loan, ACCION USA worked out a loan that was larger than her first.  This gave Maureen the chance to pay off a larger loan amount and prove she could handle higher amounts of debt.  Now her business’ credit is quickly catching up to its revenues.  I worked for nearly seven hours on Maureen’s application, including the time I spent with underwriting to highlight her character and strengths.  It was incredibly rewarding to find an effective solution because Maureen, like most of our clients, is a successful entrepreneur at heart; she just needed the chance to prove it.

Every day we are bombarded with messages from every angle of society begging for our attention. Which ones receive it? What quality of attention is given? I find myself able to perceive much, but truly taking in very little. So how do we market microloans in a creative way as to be more than just perceived? As marketing becomes more and more difficult how can microfinance organizations remain relevant without overwhelming our potential clients and supporters?

Creative marketing. Microfinance and microlending programs are gaining national recognition and the time is now to harness that exposure and turn the interested public into life-long advocates. Here are a few examples of recent events designed to get the word out:

Emory University recently invited Muhammad Yunus to present the 2010 Goodrich C. White Lecture to a packed auditorium of students, faculty, and community members. Gary Hauk, deputy to the president at Emory, said that the committee had zeroed in on Yunus because his work and compelling message are likely to appeal to a broad spectrum of the University community. Marketing for this event was successful due to the dual recognition of Emory as a leading educational institution as well as Dr. Yunus as a pioneer in microfinance.

MicroBrews for MicroLoans was an event that took place at the Atlanta Brewing Company to raise awareness of microfinance and microdevelopment. The night was filled with thinking and collaboration about the industry as well as enjoyment of microbrews from around the Atlanta area. No better way to ponder the sustainability of microfinance than with an Atlantan microbrew in one hand.

Lastly, small business lending has received some news attention as well. In a recent interview with Fox Business, Jim Koch, Founder of Boston Beer Company, explains his interest in helping entrepreneurs in the Boston area receive microloans to start businesses through ACCION USA. He started his company small and understands how hard it can be in the first years to have people trust you with small loans. His partnership with ACCION USA is one way he is able to steer entrepreneurs towards possible funds to get their businesses started.

Each of these strategies targets different segments of the population and provides awareness of the industry, as well as tangible ways for people to get involved in their communities. It is a tough task, but we at ACCION USA are committed to providing economic opportunity to communities in need. Won’t you join us?

Luz with her father, Carlos I. Gomez (1936-2006)

The StoryCorps Historias trailer came to town in late January and I had the opportunity to talk about why I’ve worked with small businesses for over a decade. My husband interviewed me about my dad, Carlos Gomez Arriola, who passed away in 2006.  If you haven’t heard about StoryCorps, it’s an amazing oral history project that travels throughout the U.S.

Dad was a proud immigrant from Medellin, Colombia who owned his own home-based company in Los Angeles—COEXPO—for 30 years.  When I started working with ACCION in New York, he came to visit several times and I would drag him along to site visits of clients all over the five boroughs.  He even sat in on credit committee meetings! And when I moved to Miami to start ACCION’s Miami operations, he was there too, helping set up office furniture or providing advice for working with export clients.  He totally got the concept of this work since he himself didn’t qualify for financing when he was first starting out in the early 1970’s.  Even though I didn’t take over the reigns of his business, you could see that the importance of supporting small business was not lost on me.

So if you’re working in microfinance today—tell us your story about why you got involved.

ACCION USA's Little Haiti, Miami-based clients are among those mobilizing to help Haiti recover.

From loan consultant Joann Milord in Miami.

It is more than one week later and the images on the TV have not changed. Haiti is still in chaos and people continue to die daily. I turn on CNN every chance I get to watch the latest news, the most recent rescue, or the updated death toll. I’ve never experienced anything close to such a traumatic event and cannot even imagine what the people of Haiti are experiencing. Speak to anyone in Haiti now and they tell you what you see on TV is not even close to the reality of the amount of suffering.

Every Haitian has been affected by this earthquake, no matter where you live in the world. I see it here up close in Miami’s Little Haiti—home to the largest Haitian immigrant community in the nation. Our families have either lost members, friends, colleagues, businesses or homes. We are all victims and heroes as we scatter to collect water, food, clothing and medical supplies. Those that can, add names of the missing to list on the Internet or send messages on Facebook. What about those who can’t or don’t know how? How are they able to find out about their families without access to electronic communication? They turn to fellow Haitians for assistance.

One thing is evident in Miami, Haitian organizations, government officials, and individuals are working hard to provide support to their homeland. Whether it is done collaboratively or independently, it is done with great momentum, love and dedication. Everyone has the same goal of progress for Haiti. After these immediate needs are met, then the process of rebuilding livelihoods is the next step. Hopefully this passion will continue and drive efforts to build a better Haiti in the near future.