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
Department of Minority and Women-Owned Businesses adds Corporate Alliance Program
In addition to their government contractor certification, The M/WBE Program has launched the Corporate Alliance Program (CAP), an initiative that will connect City-certified Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises to contracting and capacity-building opportunities in the private sector. The CAP program will match certified Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises with private contracts, provide corporate skills training, and training for with the private sector. Read more about the program
How can the Division of Minority and Women-owned Businesses help your business?
By becoming certified as a Minority and Women Owned Business, you are eligible to receive increased opportunity for government contracts and financial assistance. Furthermore, by being listed in the Directory of MWBEs you will receive free advertising for your business. The MWBE Program can also provide you with courses on business, as well as one-on-one guidance on opportunities to sell to the government. If your business is 51% owned by a woman or an individual from a recognized minority group, you are eligible to become an MWBE. You also will receive exclusive invitations to networking events. You will also become a part of the Corporate Alliance Program (CAP Program). The CAP program will match certified Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises with private contracts, provide corporate skills training, and training for contracting with the private sector.
Interested in applying for the MWBE program? Find out more information on ACCION USA’s website or call Karla Pineda at 646-833-4534.
Microfinance Week In Review: Week Ending April 1, 2011
Some of the week’s news in the microfinance, green business intiatives and the small business sectors:
- “5 can-do companies made in America” – MSN Money
Despite the impressive growth in emerging markets, the U.S. still ranks consistently high for the kind of moxie and can-do attitude it takes to invent breakthrough technologies and products, and in creating fast-growing, job-producing companies, say academics at Babson College in Massachusetts who study these things. A recent count, by a Babson College professor, of the most entreprenurial companies in the world shows that 60% of them are based in the U.S., even though the U.S. accounts for only 23% of the global economy. Read More
- “Documentary looks at ‘rock star’ of banking” – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
When I first started reporting on women entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict zones in 2005, nearly everyone, from IMF officials in their offices to development workers in the field, told me the only women I would find would be “selling cheese by the side of the road.” Women, I was told again and again, did not own the kind of growing businesses that created jobs and economic growth. This, it seemed, was strictly the purview of men. Read More
To Catch A Dollar – Microfinance in the USA
On March 31st, To Catch a Dollar, a film that explores the beginnings of the Grameen Bank in the United States, will be shown in theaters around the country.
In recent months, many questions have arisen over whether microfinance is capable of achieving its goal of aiding the poor. However, in the United States microfinance has been hailed as one of the roads to economic recovery. The idea is that increased lending to small businesses and entrepreneurs will create jobs and stimulate the economy. Microfinance seems to appeal to the American Dream: If given the opportunity and if you work hard, you will be able to succeed. Is there something different in the microfinance approach in the United States? Perhaps To Catch a Dollar may hold some answers.
Discuss this topic and more at the Microfinance USA Conference.
Watch a preview for the conference here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcH1Y7lxQnU
How Does Microfinance Impact the United States?
In the wake of the controversy surrounding Muhammad Yunus and the recent anti-microfinance sentiment, one cannot help but wonder about the role of microfinance in the United States. The case study in India may present a negative view of microfinance, but in the United States there seems to be a different story developing. (Learn more about the case study in India at the Microfinance USA 2011 Conference)
The Small Business Jobs Act that was signed last year suggests that the United States is moving in the direction of microfinance to improve the economy. This Act increases the amount of loans available to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Will this help communities in the United States? From what I’ve seen as an Accionista, I believe that it will.
Microfinance helps the development of small businesses in the United States. Many budding entrepreneurs are unable to get a loan from the bank to start their business. Microfinance institutions are able to provide these smaller loans to medium to low income entrepreneurs. The impact of their small business then has a ripple effect on the local community and its economy.
Small businesses improve the community. When a small business opens in an area, that business owner creates ties to the area and the people in it. The health of his business becomes dependent on the health of the community surrounding it.
Small businesses create jobs. Small businesses on average create between 3-5 jobs each year. These jobs also tend to hire members of the community in which they open. Not only does this create jobs in the community in which it opened, but it also improves ties between members of the community.
Sandra Talks With Her Customers
Small businesses inspire quality.
Small businesses have a lot of competition from large corporations here in the United States. One thing that small businesses can offer over many large corporations is a commitment to quality and customer service. Small businesses need to rely on their customer’s opinion of them, rather than the promise of cheap prices. Therefore maintaining a high quality product or service is more important to a small business than it is for larger businesses.
Because of its ability to help increase the development of small businesses, I believe that microfinance in the United States is extremely important, especially on the road to our economic recovery and I am happy to be involved.
Do you think microfinance in the USA is important? Share your ideas and come to the 2011 Microfinance USA Conference to discuss with top industry professionals whether microfinance is important in the USA. Register now to take advantage of the Early Bird Discount that ends today: www.microfinanceusaconference.com
The Issue of the 21st Century
“If you don’t know better, you cannot do better.”
On Monday, businessman, author, and social entrepreneur John Hope Bryant used this statement to support a Huffington Post op-ed in which he boldly asserts that financial literacy is not simply a goal for which all must strive, but is moreover, a universal right of every human being. Bryant notes that the struggle for civil rights characterized the 20th century; and he believes the challenge of achieving universal financial literacy will characterize the 21st.
But is financial literacy a “right,” equivalent to civil rights? I personally have to say no. We must use caution in characterizing anything as unequivocally endowed upon birth. What I do believe, though, is in the importance of education. I will always be an advocate for knowledge and believe in its power to generate progress, growth, and development – on both the micro and macro levels.
A year and a half ago, this core belief in education was the foundation for my support of financial literacy efforts. That was prior to the economic wake-up call of 2008 and prior to my time with ACCION USA. Now, my support is grounded in my everyday work, where I continually see the detriments of financial illiteracy.
My colleagues have spent hours working with clients to dispute credit report errors, resolve stolen identities, and create payment plans for collections accounts. After months of work, many of these individuals continue their struggles in resolving these issues.
Furthermore, payday loans, high-fee credit cards, check cashers, and other predatory services populate the financial world in which many of ACCION USA’s clients exist. For many, this is reality – and the only one they have ever known. And with the FDIC’s recent white paper reporting that 25% of the U.S. population lacks a relationship with a financial institution, financial illiteracy is quickly becoming an issue that permeates socio-economic borders.
Whether mismanagement, misunderstanding, or mistrust lie at the root of these situations, they all share a common solution and, more importantly, prevention: financial literacy.
It is our hope that ACCION USA’s financial education program may meaningfully address the growing issue of financial illiteracy. With each workshop, each counseling session, each webinar, and each article, we are helping people “know better”…and with that, as Bryant says, we can empower them to “do better.”
If financial literacy empowerment is the issue of the 21st century, ACCION USA certainly has a hand in the game.
Tags: accion usa, financial literacy, huffington post, illiteracy, john hope bryant, predatory lenders, right
A Second Look for Boston Small Businesses
Meeting with Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. Photo credit: Isabel Leon, City Hall Photographer
Last month, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino proposed a new ‘Second Look’ partnership between banks, ACCION USA and the City of Boston. Always a staunch supporter of small business, Mayor Menino wants to deliver to Main Street businesses the financing they need to grow, and believes that microfinance might offer part of the solution. “A sea change in lending is underway, and we can help facilitate it. Microfinance was invented for the underbanked. Now, it’s our small and medium businesses that are underbanked, and we can adapt the model for them,” the Mayor said.
Needless to say, I could not agree more.
Last Thursday I was privileged to attend a meeting with the Mayor to officially kick off his Second Look program. Together with nine of Boston’s major banking institutions, we spoke of ways to get capital into the hands of more small businesses. Through the program, businesses turned down for loans at traditional banks will be automatically referred to ACCION USA for a second look. While we all agreed that not every business is a good candidate for a loan (‘micro’ or otherwise), we also know that sending referrals to ACCION USA helps banks provide a real, tangible benefit to their customers. And it helps get credit flowing to the small businesses that will be the source of Boston’s economic recovery and prosperity.
With banks acting as a feeder system, the Second Look program represents a tremendous opportunity for ACCION USA reach hundreds – perhaps thousands – of small business owners who might never have considered that a microloan might be just what they need.
Think something like this would work in your city?
CARD Act Gives Consumers a Break
I want you to think back to the very first time you opened your mail to find that golden ticket: a pre-approved credit card offer. Was it been everything you hoped it would be? Or did you fall for some of the oldest tricks in the book…
Were you the college freshman who now realizes that the free pizza, Frisbee, and bottle opener at the credit card company’s fall expo booth might have actually cost you more than you thought (cough, 70” flat screen TV with 24% APR, cough)? Did you find out the hard way that “due on March 17th” actually meant “due by 9:00am on March 17th, so it actually needs to be here on March 16th… which conveniently falls on a Sunday, so let’s have it here by close of business on Friday the 14th”? Or maybe it just took a little too long to realize that consistent $30 monthly payments on your $800 couch would make your payment plan longer than your sofa’s life.
Every year, a new crop of credit card users finds themselves in these types of predicaments. Fortunately, the new Credit Card Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act now makes each of these situations much less likely to occur.
The legislation is complex, but the highlights include limits on interest rate hikes, broader definitions of “on time” payments, new rules for pre-existing balances, and requirements on disclosures and extending credit to young adults. No more pre-5:00pm deadlines. No more interest rate hikes without 45 days of notice. No more credit card reps hiding in wooden horses allowed within 1,000 feet of college campuses.
The CARD Act’s transparency requirements may be particularly beneficial to small business owners in offering them an opportunity to strengthen their personal credit histories, further allowing them the opportunity to finance new employees, purchase inventory, or open a storefront. As an organization, ACCION USA’s goal is not only to provide small business owners with a transparent financing alternative to credit cards but also to teach them the necessity of managing credit card debt. The underlying message is simple: spending and paying responsibly keeps money in your business. And money in small businesses means economic recovery for our country.
Let’s hope that the CARD Act’s transparency requirements will mean the same thing.
Tags: accion usa, CARD Act, credit card, Financial Education, interest rates, legislation, microfinance, money management, new law, small business
Please Mr. President, More Support for Microloans
“The true engine of job creation in this country will always be America’s businesses,” said President Obama in last night’s State of the Union address.
While I couldn’t agree more, I wished that the President drew increased focus to America’s microbusinesses — the “mom-and-pop” establishments (typically with fewer than five employees) that are the lifeblood of communities nationwide. These are the businesses that start when “an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or [when] a worker decides its time she became her own boss.”
Mom-and-pop microbusinseses are the true drivers of job creation.
Eighty-seven percent of all American businesses are, in fact, microbusinesses, which represent 18 percent of all U.S. private employment (according to the Association for Enterprise Opportunity). These are the businesses that have proven to support job creation in previous economic downturns, and will be the businesses that guide America out of the current recession.
President Obama’s pledge of $30 billion in funding to help community development banks get critical capital into the hands of small business owners is a step in the right direction for American microbusinesses. It will be a bigger, stronger step in the right direction if microlenders like ACCION USA are included as part of the solution along with community banks. We are ready, and a proven path to deploy loans to deserving business across the country.
Regardless, the President’s commitment to small businesses was abundantly clear, and the importance of ACCION USA’s work with small businesses in good and bad economic times was reinforced. We’ll renew our focus on getting more attention in Washington for microlending programs, and remain committed to the small businesses we serve.
Honoring a Community Development Lion
Sen. Kennedy meets with an ACCION USA client from Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1999.
It is with heavy hearts that we at ACCION USA heard the news of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s passing.
As a great supporter of ACCION USA, Senator Kennedy will be missed dearly. His commitment to economic justice made him a natural ally to the microenterprise and community development fields. And as he did throughout his 43-year career in the United States Senate, Senator Kennedy put his beliefs into action – and got results. Among his long list of accomplishments, Senator Kennedy:
- Introduced legislation that created the SBA’s Program for Investment in Micro-entrepreneurs (PRIME), which has provided assistance to organizations that help low-income entrepreneurs for nearly ten years
- Fought to keep intact the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Consistently pushed for increased funding of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, work which appears to be paying huge dividends in the FY2010 budget.
Although Senator Kennedy is no longer with us in body, his advocacy and work on behalf of low-income Americans will endure for decades. And so on this day of mourning, we remember the words of Senator Kennedy’s iconic 1980 speech, in which he vowed that “the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”