Our Part in the White House Urban Entrepreneurship Summit
What better way to boost the US economy than to rely on one of its oldest legacies – the American Dream. We are proud to be part of the White House Urban Entrepreneurship Summit! As entrepreneurship plays a central role in creating jobs and economic opportunity, the Obama Administration is committed to creating public-private partnerships to support current entrepreneurs and spark a new generation of urban entrepreneurs. Paul Quintero, thanks to the impact he has on entrepreneurs as CEO of ACCION USA, had the privilege to be invited to this White House event as keynote speaker.
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
Welcome ACCIONISTA Summer Interns!
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.
- New York Interns returning from lunch at client restaurant, Dardanel
Tags: accion, accion usa, Aspen Institute, kiva, kiva fellows, microfinance, microtest
Celebrate National Small Business Week – Anne Mironchik
ACCION USA is celebrating National Small Business Week by spotlighting some of our clients and their businesses.
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!
On the 41st Day Before Christmas…
Walking through downtown Boston this morning, I heard, for the first time this season, the faint but familiar sound of “Jingle Bells” ringing through the city blocks. It’s hard to believe it, but we are now six weeks away from Christmas and entering the bustling holiday season. And I’m not afraid to bring the first cheer to ACCION’s blog!
By doing so, I hope to plant a seed early in the shopping game: buy local. Now if you’re a regular local shopper, you don’t need any convincing. If you buy locally occasionally, you’re probably easily swayed (especially by the mobs at Target and Macy’s!). But I am particularly encouraging those who don’t fall into either of these categories (and it wasn’t long ago that I myself was in this mix) to simply think about shopping locally this holiday season.
Even if you use this mentality for one gift this year – just one! – you will play a vital role in supporting your neighborhood and the entrepreneurial community across our country. You will help alleviate the plight of small businesses, recently addressed in a poignant New York Times article. Part of ACCION’s work is to connect these hard-working entrepreneurs with the resources they need, including capital, financial education, and business mentoring.
How will you choose to shop this holiday season?
Today, we’re connecting them with another resource: you.
And we’re helping you by bringing a little ease and creativity to your holiday shopping! Here are a few ideas (all inspired by ACCION’s own clients from across the country) to get you started:
10. Pick up a cool piece of vintage clothing for your niece.
9. Save the pet lover in your family the hassle of cleaning the dog.
8. Grab your brother a gift card to a local coffee shop.
7. Extend the gift with a few weeks of housecleaning services.
6. Send personalized and memorable cards to family, friends, and (for you professionals) clients.
5. Treat your mom to a day of pampering.
4. Send tasty ethnic treats to your co-workers and neighbors.
3. Surprise your parents with a full car detail.
2. Buy a bracelet or CD from a foundation that supports ACCION’s clients.
1. Help ACCION continue supporting all of these entrepreneurs by making a donation in someone’s name.
This season has a different meaning to everyone. For many this is the best time of year; for many it is not. But the invariable truth remains that shopping locally can serve not only as a present for your loved one, but moreover, a gift for a small business owner. In many ways, it can be a gift for yourself, as well: the peace of mind knowing that you supported your local community and brought a greater sense of thought, creativity, and care to your purchase.
So, will you consider buying locally this year?
Tags: Boston, Buy Local, local business, microfinance, New York Times, small business, success story
Do You Know a Micro-Social-Entrepreneur?
This blog was published in a different version on the New York Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE) blog here.
I recently met an ACCION USA client named Maria. The day that I met her, she had just been approved for a loan to purchase more inventory for her NYC Green Cart, where she sells fruits and vegetables in the South Bronx. And just one week prior, Maria had given birth to her third child, who was in her arms while she completed her loan disbursement.
Upon meeting Maria, I immediately connected her business with the mission of many social ventures. And while I’m only beginning to understand the breadth of the conversation surrounding the definition of “social entrepreneurship,” I intuitively feel that all female microentrepreneurs have an inherent social mission. My logic is in part derived from my experiences working in the microfinance field – experiences that have entrenched my belief in localized social change and the positive reverberations that it can cause. I’m now becoming more comfortable defending the belief that all female microentrepreneurs are social entrepreneurs, since well… no one can seem to agree on the correct definition anyway.
So if many female microentrepreneurs don’t intentionally incite a wake of social change, can they still be categorized as social entrepreneurs? Let us know what you think…
Tags: entrepreneurship, green cart, new york city, social entrepreneurship, success story, us microfinance
Destination: Karl’s Sausage
ACCION USA client Karl’s Sausage Kitchen & European Market is a destination for meat lovers throughout New England and beyond. On Tuesday night, it was a destination for ACCION USA staff, as some of us drove to Saugus, MA to participate in a ceremony celebrating the installation of their new business sign.
It was for the design and installation of this sign that Karl’s applied and was approved for an $18,000 loan from ACCION USA’s Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Fund, a partnership between ACCION USA and Samuel Adams designed to provide access to capital and mentorship for small business owners in the food, beverage and hospitality sectors. “The credit crunch and recession have really made it difficult for businesses of our type to secure a loan. We were lucky to hear about the program,” said Anita, one of the owners of Karl’s.
As we stood outside for the lighting of the new sign, a fresh and catchy look that fully maintains the Karl’s tradition, I glanced around me at the family, friends, distributors, and loyal customers that had gathered for an evening of German Sausages and celebration with the owners of Karl’s. I thought about how much the business is impacting the community, not just in the lives of their 6 employees (soon to be 7), but their neighbors, long-time customers and especially Doris, the first employee of Karl’s who has worked there since 1958. ‘It’s been my life’, said Doris when selling items at the cash register. I was tremendously proud that ACCION USA was a part of this celebration, and could be a partner in the new life and energy that Anita and her husband Bob are pouring into this landmark business.
Check out write-ups in boston.com’s business updates and the Lynn Daily. Congratulations Anita and Bob! ACCION USA is thrilled to be a part of your business journey.
Karl’s Sausage Kitchen, located at 142 Broadway (Route 1 North), is open Tuesday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9a.m. to 6p.m. Reach the business by phone at (781) 233-3099 or online at www.karlssausage.com.
Sex Discrimination and Credit Cutbacks
Change.org recently posted a fascinating (and enraging) blog on the latest phenomenon in credit cutbacks. Women are facing nothing less than sex discrimination in that mortgage lenders are now considering loss of income due to maternity leave as unemployment, resulting in disqualification or severe reduction in the loan amount.
The article couldn’t have been timelier—the very same day that it was released, I was participating in a brainstorming session with ACCION USA’s loan consultants about the challenges that our women borrowers face. As a single woman with an independent streak—especially when it comes to finances—I was shocked to hear the laundry list of credit, family, and financial issues that make it harder for many women to get loans:
- Divorces can be costly and bitter, leaving women high bills to pay and ruined credit
- While a majority of women act as the financial managers of their household, many keep their bills, credit cards, and finances in their husband’s name. This doesn’t allow a woman to build her own credit history, and therefore qualify for her own loan when she needs it
- Women frequently do not want to involve their husbands in their businesses, while lenders of ten require husbands to co-borrow or cosign loans. While this could be because of pride and independence, I can’t help but think that sometimes more sinister issues are at play (control? anger?).
If you’re a microfinance lender that works with women—what issues can you add to this list? What do you think are the most important things to address in terms of increasing access to capital—be it for personal or business use—for women?
ACCION USA borrower becomes “Small Business of the Year”
Ever since my first day at ACCION USA, I have been dying to get the chance to get in the field to meet some of our clients in person. After all, our borrowers are the reason and inspiration for everything I do daily at ACCION USA. Finally, I was got the chance to go visit our client Carmen Ledesma, and I was more than thrilled.
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!
New Summer Survey Under Way!
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” – Jackie Robinson
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!
Tags: Financial Education, impact, Sam Adams, speed coaching, workshop
Fighting Poverty through the World Cup
By Clare Scanlan
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.