Lynn Jimenez: Se Habla Dinero

 

The second week of February, Women's Initiative hosted a Latina Leadership Luncheon. Our keynote speaker was Lynn Jimenez of KGO Radio. We thought her speech was so great we wanted to share it with you!
Here's an excerpt:

Respect is something I had to earn when I became KGO radio’s business reporter. KGO 810 am, is a news and talk radio station. It’s been number one for more than 28 years. Every morning I give reports on the market, the cost of money, housing, jobs, local firms, and pocketbook issues.  

When I used to listen to business reports, if I wasn’t bored—I was lost. I felt stupid. I didn’t understand the code words or how the reports applied to me. So when I took this job, I vowed I didn’t want anyone to feel bored or stupid when they listened to my reports. Which is why I go beyond the numbers.  

So..every morning very early, I skid onto the options floor of the NYSE, go through wires, newspapers, faxes, the internet…touch bases with one or two of my experts, write my reports and then go on the air. You may think that’s a lot of effort for one minute of business news each half hour. But it’s critical to put facts into context and to write clearly. It’s also a tribute to KGO radio that it believes money news and local business news is important enough for that kind of investment.  

... At some point, after 17 years as a business reporter I realized it was time to use what I had learned to invest in the future. And the numbers spoke to me. What numbers? Try these. There are 44 million Hispanics in the U.S.—more Hispanics live in the United States than Canadians live in Canada. We are the fastest growing ethnic group in the nation. Right now Latinos make up a third of California’s population, and by 2042 we will be the majority.  

... There are more than 2 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. One third of them are owned by Latinas. The majority are one or two person operations, but the rest provide jobs to the economy. Those firms both buy products and services, and provide them. Corporate America will increasingly depend on Hispanics not only as consumers, but as workers.  

The average age in the U.S. is 36.4 years. Among Latinos, it’s 27.4 years. That means as the Boomers leave the workforce, many of their replacements will be Latinos. ... Hispanic Boomers who are U.S.-born and speak primarily English use education to further themselves, while those who use both English and Spanish tend to further themselves by being entrepreneurial.  

We are making lots of progress—but we would make more progress if we, as a community, were better educated and better educated financially. Even though we are 14 percent of the popuation, in 2002 the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute found just 7 percent of Hispanic students were enrolled at 4-year colleges. Just 12 percent of us have a bachelor’s degree, compared to 30 1/2 percent of non-Hispanic whites.  

This is happening because the cost of an education rises faster than wages rise each year. It’s happening because Latino families may not have experience with applying for college, or with the financial aid process. Sallie Mae reports more than half of Latino high school graduates say they received no financial aid information before graduating.  

And the relatively low percentage of us going onto higher education has a huge negative impact on our earning power. People without a college degree earn a million and a half dollars less over their lifetimes than college graduates …on average, the Pew Hispanic Center says Latino incomes are 2/3rds that of non-Hispanic white Americans.

You can download the complete speech by clicking on this link:

Download latina_luncheon_speech_jimenez.doc

Yunus' "Social Business"

By: Pemala Mejia, Women's Initiative Executive Projects Manager

Grameen Bank founder and microcredit guru Muhammad Yunus published an article in the Christian Science Monitor last week titled, "How Social Business Can Create A World Without Poverty."

The article lays out Yunus' ideas about "social business." The term might seem, at first glance, similar to what is described by the catchphrase popular in the US, "social entrepreneurship." But Yunus emphasizes that "social business" is not about profits; it only emulates the structures of profit-making businesses to become self-sustaining.

A social business is not a charity. It is a nonloss, nondividend company with a social objective. It aims to maximize the positive impact on society while earning enough to cover its costs, and, if possible, generate a surplus to help the business grow. The owner never intends to take any profit for himself.  

... Traditional philanthropy and nonprofits generate a social gain, but they do not design their programs as self-sustaining business models. A charitable dollar can be used only once. A dollar invested in a self-sustaining social business is recycled endlessly.  

A social business is designed to be both self-sustaining and to maximize social returns like patients treated, houses built, or health insurance extended to people who never had this coverage. An investor in a social business retains an ownership interest to hold management accountable and to get the investment back over time, but no dividends are expected, and any profits should be reinvested in the business or used to start new similar businesses.

I think this is a super-interesting discussion and falls in with the Pierre Omidyar philosophy of philanthropy.

For example, one could say that the City of San Francisco gets its money back from the lease grants it offers through taxes the new businesses are paying. The same is true of Women's Initiative's loan program: the revolving loan fund puts payments back out into loans immediately.

But how would we begin to get our money back from Women's Initiative's training program?
Becoming partners in the client businesses? How do you serve the very poor and become self-sustaining?

At first sight it seems that the “social business” model is limited in who and what can be served. This is a question that as time goes on would be important to resolve as more and more people are going to want to spend their philanthropy dollars where they can get them back.

Technorati Tags: microcredit, microenterprise, Muhammad Yunus, Pierre Omidyar, social entrepreneurship, women in business

Monday Linkblogging: Microcredit

• Here's a microfinance blog newly added to our blogroll (on the left, scroll down): Micro Capital: The Candid Voice for Microfinance Investment. The blog is basically a clearinghouse for other info sources.

• The Daily Star in Bangladesh reports that a new women entrepreneur's fund received only one application last year because no one knew about it.

“We need money badly,” Nahida Sharmin, owner of Shailpik, a Dhaka-based fashion and design house struggling to survive, told The Daily Star.

Frustrated Sharmin, who went to several banks for years for loans, said an instalment would cost Tk 27,000 if one borrows Tk 10 lakh from a bank. Moreover, the banks seek collateral, which she said remains 'a perpetual problem'.

“But nobody told us about the BB fund for women entrepreneurs,” Sharmin said.

• An opinion piece by Baik Ju-wang in The Korea Times lays out a few issues with microcredit programs in South Korea.

People often describe our history as a history of war: a war among people;a war against Mother Nature; a war against many. One of the most tragic legacies from these wars is the poverty and associated tragedy they have brought with and them for history. ... In Korean society, witnessing Grameen Bank's success, the microcredit lending has been an eye-catching social business for poverty reduction. Not only the private sector but also the government sector has shown its interest ...

However, there are also several concerns around these movements. Firstly, they point out that it will be difficult to apply a developing country case like Bangladesh to a developed country like Korea. From my study, I also found there are several important hidden agenda in the Grameen Bank's success that supported the microfinance industry, which the other countries might not have.

• The saintly Mohammed Yunus published an article in the Christian Science Monitor last week titled "How Social Business Can Create a World Without Poverty."

Traditional philanthropy and nonprofits generate a social gain, but they do not design their programs as self-sustaining business models. A charitable dollar can be used only once. A dollar invested in a self-sustaining social business is recycled endlessly.
A social business is designed to be both self-sustaining and to maximize social returns like patients treated, houses built, or health insurance extended to people who never had this coverage. An investor in a social business retains an ownership interest to hold management accountable and to get the investment back over time, but no dividends are expected, and any profits should be reinvested in the business or used to start new similar businesses.

• The International Fund for Agricultural Development is launching a new program to offer better access to financial services, markets, technology, and information to mostly women-headed impoverished households in Inner Mongolia with limited access to microcredit.

The six-year project will promote greenhouse and organic crop production with links to markets and buyers, and it will also establish village development funds to pay for infrastructure and activities selected by local communities

• And finally, microfinance is so hip these days, that Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour has started an MFI named Birima, and is promoting it together with multi-culti-image-making Italian clothing company Benetton. The campaign's slogan will be "Africa Works," and, yes, the website features Benetton-esque photos of the program's clients in colorful togs, against white backdrops. No information on whether they are wearing Benetton clothes.

Technorati Tags: economic development, microcredit, microenterprise, Mohammed Yunus, poverty

Friday Linkblogging: Women Entrepreneurs

• Online Athens has an article about the Athena Awards, honoring strong women leaders in business.

About 25 years ago, a successful Michigan business owner was invited to serve on the board of directors of her local chamber of commerce. Martha Mertz discovered that women had virtually no seats at the chamber's table. ... Stung by that realization, Mertz ... founded Athena International, the Chicago-based organization that provides support and encouragement to female business leaders, most visibly in the form of the Athena Award, given in more than 500 communities.

Click here for this year's nominees, and here for the awards' website.

• Utah's The Spectrum has an article about women business owners highlighting the trend of self-employment among Utah's working women:

Between 1997 and 2006, the number of privately held, majority (51 percent or more) women-owned firms in Utah increased by 47 percent, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Women's Business Research. From 1997 to 2004, Utah had the fastest growth rate in the nation for women-owned businesses.

• CBS 11 in Dallas/Fort Worth has an article about "mompreneurs":

Baby Einstein DVDs were created by one. So was a Dallas-based make-up giant. Stay-at-home moms are proving they can do more than raise children. Those who've done it say all you need is a good idea, great support and a little faith. Then you'll be well on your way to becoming a "mompreneur." ... Mompreneurs are beginning to flood the marketplace with new products and services. Patricia Cobe, coauthor of the book "Mompreneuers Online," estimates there are more than 10-million in the U.S.

• Lorissa at the All Things Girl blog has posted some resources for self-employed women, and especially for web designers.

If you are a woman business owner, freelancer or entrepreneur, don’t be shy to toot your own horn! Don’t be shy to say, “Hell yeah, I rock!”. Don’t be shy to let people know what you do. ... Yes, that’s right - spread the word about your work! Get heard! Get seen!

• Carol Davenport-Moncel posts about small-business in-house PR on Sarah Bashaw's blog:

Do small-business owners always have to rely on large PR agencies to get attention from the press? An entrepreneur recently asked me this question during a networking event for women business owners. Of course my answer was, "No," but not for the reasons one might expect.

Ultimately, I do believe the time comes when a company needs professional guidance from a PR agency -- be it a large or small one -- to secure media coverage. But I also believe that a really media savvy small-business owner, or a two-person marketing team can do a fantastic job in promoting an organization. Here s how I know it can work.

Read on for some good tips.

• And finally, check out this new blog called "Boutique Industry" by Ohio writer and shop owner Abby Kerr. She describes the blog thus:

A Boutique Industry speaks to creative women everywhere who have a desire to cultivate entrepreneurship within themselves, and particularly those drawn to shopkeeping. With the pathos and comedic timing of a screenwriter and the heart of a teacher, Abby shares the ups and downs, the joys and pratfalls, and the decisions and moments of destiny that go into starting and running a creative business of one’s own.

Maybe one for your bloglines!

Technorati Tags: businesswomen, small business, Women, women entrepreneurs, women in business

Women's Initiative in the SF Chronicle

If it looks like Julie (to the right) is throwing up her hands in delight, well, that's how we all feel at Women's Initiative this week!

The San Francisco Chronicle dedicated a wonderful, front-page, Sunday edition article to Women's Initiative last Sunday.

Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to make you see yourself anew:

Julie Castro Abrams, the organization's chief executive officer, said 68 percent of graduates are in business within 12 months of completing the 10-week program, which costs $100, although a sliding scale means the applicants most in need pay less.  

"A couple years later, they're too busy to return our phone calls," Abrams joked. "But they send checks and volunteer, or they come to be guest speakers and tell other women how to do it." 

The agency has served more than 16,000 women in two decades. The average client is 41 years old, and 78 percent are women of color. Twenty-nine percent are single mothers, 15 percent have a disability, and 46 percent speak Spanish as their first or only language - which is why Women's Initiative offers programs in Spanish. All of the women are struggling, with an average household income of only $13,000 a year, and some are illiterate. 

"Low-income women in particular have a whole set of issues about their self-perception and some of those demons that have become roadblocks for them in the past," Abrams said. "We help them visualize and get rid of them - like not pricing themselves appropriately because they don't think they're worth it, or giving themselves all the million reasons in the world not to go out and shake a hand or make sales because they're terrified." 

The organization, which has a $4.9 million budget this year, relies on donations from foundations, corporations, government and individuals. In 2007, Women's Initiative made 160 loans to clients to help with their businesses, totaling $311,363 and ranging from $1,000 to $25,000. 

In San Francisco last year, eight graduates received first-time leaseholder grants of $9,000 apiece, with the assistance of the Mayor's Office of Community Development, to help overcome a frequent problem: prohibitively high commercial rents.

The article also contained some praise from a peer:

Bob Graham, founder of NamasteDirect, a microcredit organization in San Francisco, said people often ask him if microcredit is being done anywhere in the United States as successfully as it is in much of the developing world.
"I always reply that it is, in a few cases," he said. "And the best example is Women's Initiative. It has a track record second to none."

Can you see us blushing?

You can read the whole thing for yourself here. And please talk back to us in the comments below! What did you think of the article? What would you add if you were writing it?

Business Insights, Super Stars, Women's Initiative |

Wednesday Linkblogging

• A San Jose Vietnamese American legislator is being attacked by a group in her own community for daring to go against their wishes and name the Vietnamese ethnic business district "Saigon" instead of "Little Saigon." As the Merc article points out, it may seem like a petty squabble, but it covers a number of issues important to Vietnamese American communities.

The process reminded them of a communist tactic, said some in the community, which is highly sensitive about such matters. There was an illusion of choice but, in the end, the people had no true say.  

Many Vietnamese refugees remain vigilant against communism, especially the older generations who vividly remember their homeland and the fierce war that swallowed it, killing millions. Most of the regular City Hall protesters are at least middle-age and carry tales of dead parents, communist jails and months spent languishing in refugee camps. 

They have rebuffed the complaints that Little Saigon - used by communities from California to Australia - doesn't set San Jose apart. My Phuong Le, one of the protesters, notes that Chinatowns dot the globe without causing any apparent confusion.  

Supporters may not have articulated their case well to outsiders - reason and emotion swirl into sometimes rambling, defensive speeches - but they expected Madison Nguyen to understand their concerns. After all, she shares their history.

This article helps to illustrate why immigration remains such a volatile topic: it's hard for outsiders to understand why or what will be important to an immigrant group, and insensitivity runs in all directions.

• A Philidelphia women's squash star has opened her own business in, what else?, a fitness club with squash courts.

When it was time to venture into a new field, Holleran did her homework, conducting exhaustive demographic research and taking a class at Wharton to hone her business skills. She gathered a group of investors made up almost entirely of Philadelphia-area squash players. 

Zug said Holleran's business style mirrors her approach to squash. 

"She was a grinder, wearing you down," Zug said. "That's how she operates with this business."

Read the Phildelphia Inquirer profile on her. It's a great article!

• Here's an article from the Denver Business Journal about a Colorado entrepreneur whose business is making opportunities for other women entrepreneurs.

Seabold's 7-month-old company, A Boutique for the Soul, arranges shopping boutiques in homes and women-owned businesses in the Denver-Colorado Springs area. Hundreds of women business owners have signed up to show off their wares.
Think a Tupperware party, but with lots of different vendors, plenty of one-of-a-kind items and creations you'll brag about for months.

Unfortunately, you'll have to be a subscriber to access the rest of the article, but check out A Boutique for the Soul's website. What a great idea!

• RetailSmart blog has an interesting post about using 12-step program strategies to improve your customer service.

Learning from alcoholics seems contrarian but it makes a lot of sense. The first step in the program is an ADMISSION. Alcoholics must admit their addiction before progressing to the next step....“My name is Joe/John/Julie/Jane – and I am responsible for the poor customer service in my store.”

• Alphablogs is hosting a "Canada 9-5" business blogging carnival. A blog carnival is where a group of bloggers pledge to post on a certain topic, and the carnival host links to all of their posts. Check it out.

• And finally, some straight talk from ezine articles about poor credit loans.

-- Claire Light, Women's Initiative Blog Editor

Technorati Tags: bad credit, business women, entrepreneur, loans, microcredit, microenterprise, small business, women, women in business, women's issues

Mises Misses with their ‘Myth of Microcredit’

Part 1 of 3
"Microcredit won’t make poverty history” said a Guardian Unlimited article shortly after Grameen Bank entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Prize in 2006.

Von Mises Institute researcher Jeffrey Tucker cites this article in lambasting what he calls the “micro-credit cult.” In a November 2006 blog post Tucker writes that Grameen is not a genuine market institution, unlike pawn shops and pay day loans which the "anti-capitalist left" despise. Yet they somehow have the gall to shower the Grameen Bank with praise.

We get it, Tucker, but Grameen won the Nobel Prize for PEACE, not economics. Von Mises himself missed this boat but some of his adherents such as F.A. Hayek and U of Chicago founder Milton Friedman did ascend to Nobel Econ greatness. Besides, does that make Dell, Gates and the Google Duo--among other microcredit philanthropists--a part of the "anti-capitalist left"?

Continue reading "Mises Misses with their ‘Myth of Microcredit’" »

Technorati Tags: business, entrepreneur, grameen, micro-credit, micro-loan, microcredit, microenterprise, microfinance, microfinance institution, microloan, poverty alleviation, women entrepreneur, yunus

Get The Message Out!

 By: Julie Castro-Abrams

A wise colleague told me this week that she doesn’t make resolutions, she creates a theme for the year. So here is our theme for the year; GET THE MESSAGE OUT!

Housing foreclosures, poverty at an all time high, inflation
outpacing income and women and people of color clearly hurting the most: it is urgent that we immediately, loudly and with great conviction, address the issues of poverty and discrimination.

It wakes me up at night, the drive to get the message out – this works! Low income women of color are great assets which are underutilized. The looming deficit in California hangs heavy but it is unnecessary.

Women’s Initiative is watching our economic return on investment results go up every year. Every year we are more effective in helping women turn a small investment in their dreams into big returns for the local economy.

Want to change society? Invest in a low income woman entrepreneur and you can turn the tide of an entire economy!

GET THE MESSAGE OUT!

Technorati Tags: microenterprise, microentrepreneurs, people of color, poverty, women

Monday Linkblogging: Women Entrepreneurs

• Siam BBS Weblog has a Top Ten Women Entrepreneurs' Empowerment Tips list. These include "Enlightenment" or faith in a higher power, empowerment of self, balance in family life, and the power of networks.

• Black Enterprise has an article about Dr. K.H. Wang, the businesswoman behind the Smart Reader preschool learning system.

"The objective of being an entrepreneur is, of course, to make money. But immediate profit is not the objective. Money is not the be it and end all. Your business must be able to affect change for the better," affirms this successful woman entrepreneur.

• Check out the new GWN Lifestyle: The Online Magazine for the Woman Entrepreneur. "GWN" stands for Girls Who Network.

Our mission is to help women create the lives they love and deserve. Life becomes a lot easier and much more fun when you have money in the bank. Once finances are taken care of, it is amazing to see the wild, crazy, and outrageous lives women lead. That’s what life is all about, right? Having the BEST time of your life!

• And finally, check out this interesting article from the San Francisco Chronicle about entrepreneurs making New Year's Resolutions for their businesses. The article isn't specific to women entrepreneurs, but all the examples they use are from women:

Two years after starting a business making healthy frozen meals for young children, San Franciscan Jill Litwin resolved that 2007 would be the year she introduced her products at a trade show. 

... But simply renting a booth would cost $4,000. Outfitting it with high-quality displays would be another $10,000 to $12,000, which was more than she could afford.  

So Litwin came up with a creative do-it-yourself solution. A designer friend used PVC pipe and Velcro to create a beautiful booth for free. Litwin drove it down to Anaheim in her jeep. Her mother flew out from Milwaukee to help staff the booth.  

... The upshot? Litwin landed a national distributor, which had been her second goal for the year.

A Retailer Decommercializes Christmas

By: Tracy Watson, WI grad '06 and Publisher, Our World Books - Books That Inspire Falling In Love With Your Life!

I remember smiling wryly when I became old enough to understand Charlie Brown's dismay over the selling of Christmas. Old enough to resent the predatory-lending tactics of credit card companies and the profane abuse of all things St. Nicolas by department stores. I remember when I began to bristle at the way Christmas was foisted onto the haunches of Thanksgiving . and then, when that failed to sate the titan appetites of the mighty retailer, onto Halloween. Did they pay their employees overtime, I wondered, to strip all the Halloween decorations and replace them with Christmas ones in one unhallowed night? Grrr!

 

But, many years later, I have come to accept that Christmas and commercialism are inextricably bound. Anyone who listens to the radio, watches TV, or dares to leave their house during the month-and-a half leading up to The Day knows this well. And what of we small business owners? How do we respond to the onslaught that is the Holiday Season? We get in there and fight like the rest of them! Sale, Sale, Sale!

Yes, I confess to tacking on a "Holiday Special" to my shopping cart and hoping to get in on the biggest online shopping day in years, but it seemed almost like sleeping with the enemy to do so.

And so to cure my commercialism-malaise, I gave myself a dose of the classics, "It's a Wonderful Life", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", and of course, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown". If you've seen these, you know that they are strong medicine against getting-for-the-sake-of-getting, dog-eat-dogitis, and other varieties of capitalist disease. Or to put it simply, they are just plain old good medicine for what ails you, be that bills that need to be paid, the threat of having to return to a 9-5 job to pay them, or what have you.

Do you remember the line in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", where the narrator says [to paraphrase], "It came without presents. It came without bows..Maybe Christmas means just a little bit more."? Darn that Dr. Seuss! That one really got to me. Now that I am in the world of business, of customers and clients, now that I am a purveyor of goods, what does Christmas mean to me?

The chicken in me wants to focus on the way I celebrate Christmas in my personal life and to exempt Our World Books from the question. Chicken Me says, Why should I have to hold myself to some noble standard in all things when there's shoppers to be caught and money to be had?!?

I acknowledge that being a business owner is not easy and a principled one even less so. But I can't shake those immortal words of Dr. Seuss and Linus' speech of the true meaning of Christmas - something about peace on earth and goodwill toward men, I think - and I can't separate who I am in business from who I strive to be in everyday life. A person of decency and honor. And although I allow that I will not always meet all of my expectations, on this year, the first full year of my life as a business owner, I've decided to make the foundation of my company about contributing value to society.

So, I sat back and thought about what I could contribute this holiday season through my business. What can I give? Last year I was able to make a significant donation to two charities I strongly believe in www.WorldofGood.com and www.ProliteracyWorldwide.com , but as of now my money's way too funny to do that. So what then?

Like many of you, I came to owning a business after a bit of life experience, and sometimes being financially limited is the best way to remember that we have much more to offer than just money. Time, experience, wisdom, compassion, advice, these are free to give and priceless to receive.

After some reflection, I remembered an article on pursuing dreams that I'd wanted to post on my site for some months. It was one of the many offerings I saw myself providing to any and all who visited my website www.ourworldbooks.net. And in thinking on it, I recalled that in my business plan I'd mentioned making life-affirming, uplifting, educational and entertaining content a regular feature on my site. I'd forgotten. That's what I'd contribute, I decided. And if you go to the lounge tab on my site you'll see my gift to all of you in the form of 15 Action Steps to jump-start your dreams (of course owning a business is only one of a zillion!) and a questionnaire you can use to help clarify your dream(s) and focus your actions towards realizing them.

I am delighted that I started this new tradition for Christmas this year, one I will cherish and renew in the years to come.

Much continued success to you!