Delicious Caribbean Dishes, As Seen Online!
On Sunday an authentic Caribbean eatery in Manhattan serves up Bintou’s Famous Pepper Soup and on Monday, try Sauce Arachide (Peanut Butter Stew w/ Beef), each for just ten dollars. Unless you lived near or strolled by ‘New Ivoire Restaurante’, you probably wouldn’t have ever visited the delicious spot… until now! With the help of a volunteer and Yola.com, restaurant owner and ACCION USA client Cheick Cisse has a website that he hopes will bring in some extra business.
ACCION USA has a diverse base of clients ranging from small local restaurants like Cheik’s to small, tech saavy media companies like Maureen’s, Moped Productions. But for many microloan clients at ACCION USA, a business website has often seemed too advanced, too expensive, or even unnecessary. Busy restaurant owners like Cheick simply don’t have time or the extra money to invest in web development.
ACCION USA struck an immediate partnership with Yola when we learned about the free web building tools that they were offering. And we began to think of simple and creative ways to introduce this service to our clients.
Lauren, an ACCION USA volunteer met with Cheick at his restaurant and was able to put together a simple and useful website. “I’m delighted I’ve been able to spend my free time volunteering at ACCION USA. It’s very rewarding to help clients at an organization that works so hard to empower people financially,” she says of the experience.
Now Cheick just needs a lesson on optimizing the searchability of his website on search engines like Google. Have SEO experience and interested in volunteering? Contact Erica Dorn edorn@accionusa.org, but first check out ‘ New Ivoire Restaurant‘ for a true taste of the Caribbean.
Survey Says … Microloans Working
Over 100 ACCION USA clients completed the 2009 MicroTest Client Outcomes Survey.
Despite an extremely challenging environment for small businesses during 2007-2009, the vast majority of ACCION USA clients managed to sustain their businesses, with many creating new jobs. So says a new report made possible by the hard work of two intrepid summer interns (thank you Max and Kathryn!) and the Aspen Institute’s MicroTest Client Outcomes Survey project. You can read the full report here.
To generate the data in the report, ACCION USA surveyed over 100 clients who had received microloans in 2007. We questioned them on number of employees, business contributions to household income, owners’ draw, etc. By comparing responses to those in the clients’ loan applications, we found several important longitudinal results, including:
- Job creation. Client businesses that received loans created or retained on average 2.4 jobs (not counting the owner), predominantly in low- to moderate-income communities.
- Wage increases. The median hourly wage provided by businesses owned by ACCION USA borrowers ($9 an hour) is 24% higher than the federal minimum wage.
- Business survival. 98% of existing businesses were still in business by year-end 2008 (compared to a national average of 70%).
2009 was a year marked by debate about how to measure the impact of microfinance in the developing world. Here in the U.S., MicroTest remains the gold standard for measuring client outcomes, and ACCION USA is pleased to participate in this project. We look forward to teaming up with the Aspen Institute once again in 2010. (And we’re looking for interns to help!)
Tags: Aspen Institute, impact, outcomes, recession
ACCION USA Success Stories in the News: Everardo Branford
A couple blog posts ago, we profiled ACCION USA borrower Everardo, the owner of Branford’s Original Hot Sauce. Well, success stories spread quickly, and Everardo was recently featured on Primer Impacto, a Spanish-language news show airing on Univision.
For those who are fluent speakers or can at least muster up their high-school Spanish, here’s the segment:
http://www.univision.com/content/videoplayer.jhtml?cid=2224075
Microfinance at Work in Boston: Video Success Story Series
Meet Adam Lantheaume, owner and founder of The Boston Shaker Inc., in the second post of our video borrower success story series, brought to you as part of our “Microfinance: It’s Not Charity, It’s a Chance” holiday awareness campaign and fund drive.
Adam is sprucing up the “specialty cocktail” industry by selling imported garnishes, hard to find cocktail bitters, staple barware and cocktail books. The Boston Shaker provides the ingredients and classes to build the ‘know how’ for hosting a cocktail party, or enjoying cocktails from the comfort of home.
How is Adam’s business making a difference?
The Boston Shaker Inc. is working to be ‘economy friendly’. “My business is helping people who, in this soft economy, are starting to do more things themselves at home rather than spending money going out.” Customers of The Boston Shaker are hailing from all over and latching to this idea! “That enthusiasm and the excitement I get from my customers is what keeps me going”, says Adam.
Adam is working hard to start small and expand his business, and opportunities for future employment. Adam recently moved into his own storefront space, after finding an innovative way to share rental space with a local retail store. “It was a really positive experience for both parties. [After sharing space], I better understand my future business goals and now, with my own four walls, I can do a lot more for the community that I’ve been trying to help.”
Encounter with ACCION USA
Adam learned about ACCION USA’s business loans by attending one of our free financial education seminars, The Fundamentals of Running a Successful Small Business. When he was ready, he applied for a small business loan to purchase materials for his classes and attend an annual gathering of the top individuals in his industry. As a recipient of the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Loan Fund at ACCION USA, Adam has taken advantage of the program’s speed coaching events, meeting one on one with experts to gain valuable advice.
Cheers to that!
Check out The Boston Shaker for your holiday shopping needs.
Microfinance at Work in Miami: Local Success Story Video Series
ACCION USA’s “Microfinance: It’s Not Charity, It’s a Chance” awareness and holiday fundraising campaign launched earlier this month and has since won critical acclaim. Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word by sharing our video on Twitter, Facebook, email, and more. With nearly $3,000 raised, we’re at a steady pace to reach our final goal of $10,000 by the end of the year!
As part of the campaign, Main Street Microfinance will be bringing you video blogs of donors and borrowers from across the United States to inspire others to join the cause. Check out our first client video interview, from Miami, Florida:
Meet Everardo, owner of Branford’s Originals Hot Sauce. Using family recipes from his native Panama, Everardo concocts a wide variety of unique hot sauces and barbeque sauces (try the best selling Roasted Garlic sauce to add tangy spice to your grilled chicken.)
With a small business loan from ACCION USA, Everardo was able to expand his business and he now carries 10 sauces. You can find his sauces in Sedano’s Supermarkets and Whole Foods throughout Florida. If you’re outside the state, pick up a gift basket on the Branford’s website for the spicy food lover on your holiday gift list.
Thanks to Benjy Himmelfarb in Miami for the interview and video footage!
The Story of Tanto Dulce Cafe
Monica's drawing of her cafe, Tanto Dulce
When ACCION USA borrower Monica Gonzalez designed the interior of her new Harlem café, she did so from a hospital bed. Monica was recovering from major emergency surgery in the months before the opening of Tanto Dulce (“So Sweet” in English), a dream which had been years in the making.
Eight years ago, Monica moved to the U.S. from Venezuela, where she had worked as a lawyer, in order to give her children better opportunities. Not knowing English, she found it difficult to secure a legal job, so she turned to her hobby: baking. After an apprenticeship and classes where she learned to make classic Italian desserts, Monica opened up a wholesale basement space from which she sold to local food trucks serving the Hispanic community.
ACCION USA gave Monica a loan to open up a storefront on Broadway in Harlem. However, she started having stomach problems around the same time. When they became too painful to ignore, she saw a doctor, who told her she would need to have surgery immediately. As her family and friends were completing the move into the Tanto Dulce space, Monica directed their efforts from her hospital recovery room, drawing pictures like the one above.
Monica’s unassuming demeanor hides a fierce entrepreneurial drive that is evidenced by her perseverance. In addition to continuing to sell wholesale goods from the basement space, she is taking more classes to broaden her cooking repertoire so that she can open a wine bar one day.
On a recent visit, I found the tiny café full of both students and local patrons, all enjoying their late-morning snacks and coffees as studying as reggaeton radio music softly played in the background.
Check out a behind-the-scenes video here on our YouTube page!
Tags: baking, cafe, microcredit, pastry, small business, success stories, us microfinance, venezuela
Back to School, Back to Small Business
Patsy and her daughter, Yanique, at Expressions Education Center
With the end of summer upon us, our minds turn to fall, when kids (and some adults) return to school and the rest of us return to work from our late-summer vacations. Patsy and Yanique, of Expressions Education Center, have already been thinking about and preparing for back-to-school season for the last few months. As they wrap up their summer camp session, they are registering elementary-school students for the fall term of their after-school tutoring program.
Patsy, a native of Jamaica and a teacher by trade, started Expressions out of her Brooklyn home fifteen years ago when she saw that her students needed more one-on-one help with their schoolwork. Soon after, Patsy’s business grew to occupy a building in Flatbush, and her daughter Yanique joined to help her mother develop business strategy. They hired additional teachers to meet their community’s growing interest.
Having no luck with local banks, Patsy had to rely on expensive credit cards to finance her initial business investment. She received a loan from ACCION USA last year in order to make some renovations required by the city government, and used part of the loan to begin paying down her expensive debt. For small business owners like Patsy, who have to rely on credit cards for large investments, ACCION USA provides one of the only low-cost options available.
Patsy and Yanique’s business is much more than just an after-school day care center for kids with working parents. They have created a fun environment for holistic academic and nutritional learning that kids are excited to come to after school. Patsy and Yanique have even begun expanding their music class options from piano and flute to more unique instruments like trumpets and drums. They also plan to continue their popular baking contests – in addition to being a good way to teach kids the valuable lesson of how to follow directions, there aren’t any complaints about consuming the resulting sweets.
For the Fall schedule, check out the events page of Expressions’ website!
Tags: education, expressions, success story
Takin’ it to the Web: Online Microbusinesses Thrive in Recession
Dan and his self-designed greeting cards
Dan is certainly no stranger to the internet’s powerful reach—his social media savvy shows, even though he claims to be a novice. His greeting card company, iZon, was started at his dining room table, and has expanded beyond his wildest expectations. Now he is planning to bring his business into the internet age with a new website and marketing campaign.
Internet-based businesses in ACCION USA’s portfolio have been performing extremely well lately, largely because they have low overhead. Freed from the obligation of rent, they have fewer financial burdens to manage in the event that sales take a turn for the worse due to the recession. Joshua, for example, runs his vintage clothing business solely on the internet. Instead of investing capital in rent for a storefront, he sells his handpicked items online.
The economy may or may not be on the path to recovery, but it’s clear that jobs will keep dropping for a while longer. This means that more and more budding entrepreneurs are seeing the recession as an opportunity to go into business for themselves. While ACCION USA provides vital financial services to this population of entrepreneurs, the internet provides a low-cost marketplace for their ideas.
Though online businesses may not be the first thought that comes to mind when thinking of the typical microfinance borrower, I know I’m definitely curious to see if the internet becomes a more common marketplace for microbusinesses over the next few years. Business presence on the web may also become a metric for social impact as we work with our entrepreneurs to develop cost-saving solutions to doing business.
What Makes an Entrepreneur an Entrepreneur?
ACCION USA borrower Frederick at his emissions testing center.
“The driving need isn’t different, and the dreams aren’t different, and the final outcomes may be influenced by different factors, but in essence [U.S. and international borrowers] aren’t different,” said Gina Harman, ACCION USA’s CEO, shortly before the organization formed its groundbreaking partnership with Kiva, regarded primarily for its work in the developing world. She stressed the importance of conveying what a massive change small business ownership can mean for a client – “it’s about the human desire to provide, and the devotion to doing whatever has to be done to make it work.”
Her words describe exactly what I’ve been experiencing for the last few weeks, as I meet with clients and hear stories revealing their drive for success. I know if I had a business idea that my local bank didn’t seem to believe in enough to give me a loan, I would probably just resign myself to thinking it was harebrained in the first place and call it a day. ACCION USA borrowers do just the opposite—when they are turned down by a bank, they come to us instead.
Just last week I spoke with Frederick, an ACCION USA borrower who had tired of working for government agencies as a fire inspector and dreamed of starting his own emissions inspection business. After he told me he was turned down by a bank before he came to ACCION USA, I asked him why he was so devoted to starting his own business.
“What makes you happy?” I asked him.
“Giving others the best service I can,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t do that unless I was working for myself.”
How often do we complain about our lack of professional fulfillment without attempting to do something about it? When people like Frederick share their stories and express the devotion with which they tackle, as Gina said, “whatever has to be done,” it should make us all reflect on the choices we have to pursue our own ambitions.
Elise Tosun has a background in economics and has worked on designing financial products for farmers in India and for a microfinance investment fund in New York. She is currently the Kiva Program Intern at ACCION USA.
Tags: accion, accion usa, elise tosun, entrepreneurship, gina harman, kiva, kiva.org, us microfinance
Can a podcast make you hungry? You tell me…
Ok, so there was an instant affinity for this client when I heard that she served up some really good Peruvian ceviche (full disclosure: I’m part Peruvian). But as I sat down with Marcela Mezones to hear about how she came to the US five years ago and scrimped and saved to start her own small business, I remembered why I work in US microfinance—our clients’ grit are true inspiration. Watch Marcela’s video podcast to get a real sense of what it took to open “Sol del Cuzco” Restaurant. And, if you happen to live in Miami–spread the word about the awesome food.
Tags: marcela mezones, sol de cuzco, video podcast