Those who visit this blog often know that I've had my fair share of newspaper ink this past year or two. I'm so very grateful for the publicity; as a small business with no marketing budget the exposure that comes from being in a national paper means a lot. My inbox is usually full for the next couple of days with excited messages from friends (and cherished customers - thank you!), a few more sales than usual, and a bunch of emails from women starting their own businesses and looking for some advice. It's flattering and I help where I can, but frankly I'm kind of making this up as I go along. I could use a mentor myself.
Unfortunately there isn't much in the way of support for micro-businesses in Canada -particularly when it comes to financing. Most of the entrepreneurs I profiled in the Chatelaine article last month got started the same way: personal credit. But, as I'm learning, it's not ideal. It's slow. It's messy. It can be stressful. It seems to me there is an opportunity here for a bank or venture capital group or benevolent hedge fund manager to work with us small timers.
Which brings me to Kiva. It's a really cool non-profit that matches microloans with aspiring entrepreneurs in developing countries. It could be a business loan to help the owner of a fruit stall in a market in Azerbaijan or a jewelry maker in Mexico grow their business. You can pledge as little as $25 and loans are paid back over a year or two. It's so good that uncomplicated, bootstrap financing exists for people who really need the help and it feels good to be a (small) part of someone else's success.
No comments:
Post a Comment