• “Microfinance USA Conference to Ignite Action for Consumer Protection and Increased Microfinance Services in the United States” – San Francisco Chronicle

Despite an economy crippled by stubbornly high unemployment rates and an ongoing credit crunch, microlenders across the U.S. are creating bright spots of economic mobility and small business growth. At the 2011 Microfinance USA Conference (May 23rd and 24th), the nation’s top practitioners, investors, and researchers will convene to discuss the future of U.S. microfinance. There, they will be joined by international microlending organizations to announce a campaign for consumer protection standards. Read More

• “Small-Business Index in U.S. Fell in April to Seven-Month Low“ – Bloomberg

Confidence among U.S. small companies fell to a seven-month low in April, damped by a deteriorating outlook for the economy, a private survey showed. The National Federation of Independent Business’s optimism index decreased to 91.2, the lowest since September, from 91.9 the prior month, the Washington-based group said today in a statement. Seven of the measure’s 10 components dropped. Read More

• “Small Business Week May 15 through May 21, 2011“ - Press Release

Our country started as an idea, and it took hard-working, dedicated, and visionary patriots to make it a reality. Successful businesses start much the same way — as ideas realized by entrepreneurs who dream of a better world and work until they see it through. From the family businesses that anchor Main Street to the high-tech startups that keep America on the cutting edge, small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the cornerstones of America’s promise. Read More

As we explore new ways to jump-start our economy and create jobs, micro-finance continues to be a hot topic, and for good reason. The concept’s effectiveness in providing small loans to would-be entrepreneurs trying to launch a new business venture here or in developing countries around the world is compelling. However, the number of micro-lenders participating in this practice is still small, although micro-finance is a proven, powerful tool for helping local individuals live the American Dream or, more globally, pulling themselves out of poverty throughout the world. Read More

“How does a small business fund its growth?” - Forbes

Large, publicly traded businesses have a vast array of options when they want to capitalize growth. Small businesses? Not so much. In fact, there are only three primary sources of growth capital for a small business: Read More

“Can Business Inspire Consumer Behavior Change?” -The Guardian

Over the last few years, the penny has finally dropped that consumers are not going to change their behaviour when it comes to a more sustainable pattern of consumption. Only about 20% are enthusiastic enough about green issues to put their money where their values are and demand greener products. So what is a green-minded company to do? Should it be brave enough to change itself and trust customers will follow? And how does it reach past that 20% of early adopters to engage the vast majority of customers? Read More

• “Mexico’s Compartamos 1Q Net Profit Rose 14.8% On Higher Fees“ – Wall Street Journal

Mexican microfinance lender Banco Compartamos (COMPART.MX) said Monday its net profit rose 14.8% in the first quarter as the company generated greater income from delinquency fees and a voluntary life-insurance product.  Compartamos, which specializes in small loans to individuals and small businesses, reported net profit of 459 million pesos ($39.5 million), or MXN1.10 per share excluding shares repurchased, compared with MXN400 million or MXN0.96 per share in the year-earlier period. Read More

Hear Compartamos CEO Carlos Danel speak on balancing mission, profit, and impact in microfinance at the 2011 Microfinance USA Conference.

• “Micro-lending site Kiva goes green” - Reuters

Kiva, a site that enables person-to-person loans, has just added a new category of green loans to help borrowers move to cleaner and safer forms of energy, green agriculture, transport and recycling. Loans made through Kiva generally go to individuals or entrepreneurs in the developing world, but some do go to people in the U.S. Read More

•  “How to Cut Small-Business Operating Costs“ – PC World

Most people expect that running a small business means heading to the bank, hat in hand, asking for a five- or six-figure loan just so they can get through the month. Thanks to modern technology and the Web, however, that’s no longer the case. Savvy business owners know that numerous cheap and free tools work just as well as their expensive, brand-name counterparts. Here’s where to look for business bargains. Read More

• “Microlending Program Focuses on Hospitality Business“ – New York Times

Four years ago, Riccardo Romero could not find a bank to finance his first restaurant, so he ended up opening the Arepas Cafe in Astoria, Queens, with money from friends and a $10,000 loan from Acción, a nonprofit microlender that has seeded small businesses across the country. Riccardo Romero was unable to obtain traditional bank loans to open and expand his restaurant, Arepas Cafe, in Queens.  Read More

• “Credit Crunch gives ‘Microlending’ a Boost” - Wall Street Journal

With lending conditions still tighter than they were before the economic downturn, many U.S. consumers are turning to microloans to help them consolidate debt, pay medical bills, start a business or keep one afloat. Read More

• “Make the Next Bailout Serve Small Business” - Bloomberg

TARP did a better job of helping Wall Street firms than it did at solving the problems of small business borrowers. While the TARP panel disbanded on Apr. 3, policy makers should learn from the shortcomings identified in its report to prevent small business from getting hammered again during the next financial crisis.  Read More

• “Will SBA’s New Online Tool Boost Small-Buisness Lending?” - AOL Small Business

As part of the Small Business Administration’s newly redesigned website, the agency announced Friday the launch of its online Lender Toolkit, a section of the site intended to give small-business lenders access to more in-depth information and resources on the SBA’s loan programs. According to the SBA, the new site strengthens its collaboration with lending partners in order to make it easier for lenders to provide small businesses with the best loan programs and financing options. Read More

• “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

Banking doesn’t have the best reputation right now, after decades of more and more complex and risky financial innovations collapsed into the Great Recession. One innovation, however, seems to point to a different future for banking, by working with those who are typically excluded by the banking system entirely — the very poor. Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank started lending small amounts of money in his native Bangladesh to poor women who had no collateral because they owned nothing.  This seemed to violate a core tenet of how banking is supposed to work. But 35 years later — after millions of micro-credit loans and a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2006), Yunus decided to bring his concept of micro-lending to America by starting a branch of Grameen Bank in Queens, New York City. Read More

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

• “Speaker Quinn Launches Citywide Small Business Initiative ‘Credit Ready NYC’” – Press Release

City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn today launched Credit Ready NYC – a Citywide initiative to increase lending throughout the five boroughs by providing resources to small businesses struggling through the credit crunch. The Council partners included: ACCION USA, Chase Bank, Citibank, New York State Small Business Development Center, NYC Business Solutions, Project Enterprise, Queens Business Outreach Center, Seedco Financial Services, Inc., Sovereign Bank, State Bank of Long Island, Sterling National Bank, TD Bank, N.A., Dime Savings of Williamsburgh, United States Small Business Administration, and the NYC  Department of Consumer Affairs. Read More

• “Small Business Needs Funds to Compete – Geithner” – Wall Street Journal

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday told policy makers and entrepreneurs that U.S. small businesses need greater access to capital to spur innovation. “The financial crisis caused a great deal of damage to the capacity of innovators to access capital, and we can’t promote innovation and investment in the United States unless we help innovative companies get the funding they need to succeed,” Mr. Geithner said in remarks prepared for a Treasury-sponsored conference. Read More

• “Crowd-funding sites getting attention from investors“  - Los Angeles Times

Fundraising websites that rely on social media focus on helping people raise money for such things as hospital bills and tuition. But recent six- and seven-figure campaigns show that they could be another way for start-ups to secure funding. Read More

• “To Catch a Dollar: Poor Women, Small Business And a Chance to Succeed in America” – Huffington Post

To Catch a Dollar, a documentary opening at the end of the month, follows industrious women on their quest to pull themselves out of poverty with the help of Grameen America, an arm of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’ iconic microcredit bank. The film explores Grameen’s efforts to empower struggling women by providing them means to establish their own businesses. Read More

• “Claudia Cardozo from ACCION USA to Address RILPBN” - Providence Business News

Claudia Cardozo a business development officer at ACCION USA, to address RILPBN Friday April 8, 2011 6:00 PM at El Macuto (Ada’s Creation) 1137 Broad Street Providence, RI 02905. she will be talking about access to capital for micro-entrepreneurs in Rhode Island. Read More

• “Online Video Offers Low-Cost Marketing For Your Company“ - New York Times

Online video is becoming a first stop for many customers. It is akin to what the Web page was a decade ago — something that can give early adopters an edge over competitors. It gives them a channel to talk directly to customers in ways previously accessible only to large companies that could afford TV advertisements. Read More

• “Record 128 Million of World’s Poorest Recieved a Microloan in 2009” - PR Newswire

More than 128 million of the world’s poorest families received a microloan in 2009—an all-time high, according to a report released today by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. Read More

• “SBA Salutes Small Businesses that Drive America’s Economy at National Small Business Week May 18-20“ - Business Wire

The nation’s top entrepreneurs will be honored at the U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Week events May 18-20 in Washington, D.C. Under the theme, “Empowering Entrepreneurs,” a series of events and educational forums will mark the 58^th anniversary of the agency and the 48^th annual proclamation of National Small Business Week. Read More

• “ACCION USA micro-lending organization aids immigrants, women, and small-business owners” - New York Daily News

It’s not every day you see somebody hugging a banker, but at Accion USA it happens all the time. Especially uptown, where the pioneering micro-lending organization gives immigrants, women and minority small-business owners the financial tools to work their way up and out of poverty. Read More

• “7 Women Leaders Speak On The Role Of Microfinance In Women’s Entrepreneurship” – Huffington Post

If I were to have written a piece to commemorate the first International Women’s Day in 1911, I imagine that I would have spoken solely of our ongoing campaign for suffrage, political rights, and equality worldwide. Instead, on the 100th anniversary of the celebration, I have the honor of speaking to our collective accomplishments, and the millions of women and girls empowered thanks to the struggles of our mothers and grandmothers. Read More

• “Small Business News: The Miracle of Small Business Budgeting” – Business Insider

• “Virtue of ‘microfinance’ turning to vice?” – The Washington Post

Long heralded as an enlightened way to lift the downtrodden out of poverty, “microfinance” has come under a cloud. The stories of lives being changed by a $27 microloan and picture-perfect scenes of smiling women with colorful handlooms, empowered by affordable credit, have been replaced by headlines about borrowers driven to suicide.  At best, microfinance seems to be failing to achieve its most noble goal: poverty alleviation. At worst, some lenders are contributing to a cycle of indebtedness and abuse, just like the loan sharks they were to replace. Read More

• “Small Businesses Weigh Recovery Act” – Wall Street Journal

In the two years since President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, some small-business owners attribute their companies’ survival to the stimulus package—yet many say the provisions in the 1,100-page law have fallen short of their expectations. Read More

• “US Geithner:  Small Businesses Still Struggle to Access Credit” – NASDAQ

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Tuesday said bank lending is improving for small businesses but remains constrained as community banks continue to repair balance sheets and adjust to new regulations. Read More

• “ACCION San Diego celebrates $15 million in micro-loans” – San Diego Union Tribune

ACCION San Diego, a local micro-lending organization that provides financing and free educational resources to small businesses, announced that it has issued $15 million in loans to San Diego County business owners since it was established in 1994. The nonprofit organization has grown steadily over the past 17 years, and saw a surge in demand during the recession for its loans, which range from $300 to $35,000 and are issued to business owners who lack access to traditional financing. Read More

• “10 essential online tax resources for small businesses” – USA Today

With record-keeping and quarterly payments, tax planning is a year-round event for the small business owner.Tax-related activities, though, inevitably take on a new sense of urgency as April 15 looms near. While tax time can seem overwhelming for the time-pressed small business owner, there are many online tools and forums available to make the process a little easier and stress-free. Here are ten of our favorites…Read More

• “Ten Minutes with an Entrepreneur: Tory Burch” – Tory Burch Blog

Check out this great advice by Tory Burch in spirit of last night’s great Small Business Mentoring Event by the Tory Burch Foundation for ACCION USA’s loan recipients… enjoy!

• Citibank Survey Finds Increasing Optimism Among Small Businesses   – Press Release

            The majority of the nation’s small business owners believe 2011 will be better than (44 percent) or the same (42 percent) as 2010, with only 15 percent expecting it will be worse, according to the latest Citibank small business survey. Moreover, Citibank’s latest survey shows an increase in entrepreneurs’ optimism about both current and future business conditions, offering a strong indication that after battling through the recession, small businesses are finally poised for growth. Read More

• “Small Business Administration Faces 45% Decrease in U.S. Proposal” – Bloomberg

The U.S. Small Business Administration faces a 45 percent drop in funding under President Barack Obama’s budget request after receiving extra funding in economic stimulus legislation. The agency, which supports companies through loan programs and disaster assistance, would get $985 million in the fiscal 2012 plan Obama proposed today, a cut from the spending levels of 2010 supplemented by $962 billion in stimulus funding. Read More

• “Peering into the Peer-to-Peer Lending Boom” – AOL Daily Finance

Peer-to-peer lending, or social lending, refers to financial transactions that occur directly between individuals without the involvement of a traditional financial institution. And it’s not some passing fad. The Lending Club recently announced it had passed $200 million in total loan originations. Not bad for a business that opened its doors in 2007. And it’s just one of many sites such as Kiva.org, Zopa.com, GreenNote.com, and Prosper.com. Read More

• “Boston Beer founder brings loan program to Ohio” – Cincinnati Enquirer

Founder of The Boston Beer Co., Jim Koch, center, was on hand Friday to announce the expansion of the philanthropic Samuel Adams Brewing The American Dream program, in conjunction with ACCION USA, the country’s leading not-for-profit micro-lending organization, and local micro-lending organization Bad Girl Ventures during a press conference held in the brewhouse of the Samuel Adams Brewery in Over-the-Rhine Friday February 11, 2011. The program will provide funding for qualified Ohio applicants of current or aspiring small businesses in the food, beverage and hospitality industry. Read More