Women's Initiative: Where Dreams Become Thriving Businesses

Friday Linkblogging: Microenterprise

• May 20-23 will be the first National Summit on Entrepreneurship in Anaheim California. More information is here.

• ABS-CBN News Online has an article about how a Filipino foundation is helping to break the cycle of migrant overseas labor by helping Filipinos to start businesses at home.

• The Citi Foundation and the SEEP Network are partnering on a new three-year $11.2 million international grant program "to advance the integration of microfinance inot the mainstream economies of developing countries."

• U.S. News and World Report online has some tips for how to steel your small business against recession. The main one is to keep marketing!

When money is tight, it's tempting to hold on to what you have and not worry about expanding your brand. But if you stop advertising and marketing, you'll do your business serious harm.

• Here's a terrific blog called How I Changed The World Today, about a woman's daily efforts to make the world a better place. She's been doing a lot with KIVA and international sponsorships so check it out for ideas for yourself, if you need any.

• Even the music industry is getting in on the microcredit action!

• And finally, this article in the Mercury News about Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, Barack Obama's mother, tells us that she spent the latter part of her life working in microcredit in Indonesia.

She became a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development on setting up a village credit program, then a Ford Foundation program officer in Jakarta specializing in women's work. Later, she was a consultant in Pakistan, then joined Indonesia's oldest bank to work on what is described as the world's largest sustainable microfinance program, creating services like credit and savings for the poor.

Monday Linkblogging: Women Entrepreneurs

• The Gulf Daily News has an interview with Huda Janahi, the first Bahraini woman to receive the GCC Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Getting a commercial registration (CR) was the biggest obstacle as I was told at the Labour Ministry that only males were allowed a CR for cargo businesses. However, there was a misunderstanding. When I joined the United Nations Development Organisation (Unido) for its Arab Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship and Investment Training (Arceit), I told them my problem and they said there was no law that stated that women cannot get CRs for cargo businesses. They advised me to go to the ministry after they contacted officials there and soon I was granted a CR.

• An article in the Maryland Gazette.net features Jennifer D. Collins, recently honored by Enterprising Women magazine.

Jennifer D. Collins had been steadily growing the event-planning company she started in 1997 until the hospitality industry was hit hard by the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. People stopped traveling to hold meetings, so she had to tap into her communications expertise to also provide clients with meeting strategies to keep her business afloat, she said.

• Entrepreneur.com has an article about women getting MBAs not to work at corporations, but to run their own businesses.

To be sure, getting your MBA isn't a prerequisite for becoming a successful entrepreneur. But one thing is for certain, at least according to our sources at some of the nation's top-ranked MBA programs: Whether you're looking for a program with the best professors, the best classroom experience or the greatest opportunity for women, business schools are the place to be--especially if you are interested in innovation, entrepreneurship and real-life case studies.

• Business Opportunist blog posts about niche marketing for home-based businesses:

You don’t have access to viable means and amenities to compete directly with large business houses and serve a broad spectrum of consumers. In such an adverse business scenario, niche marketing emerges as the most feasible and cost effective strategy that can help home business owners to stay ahead of their competitors and maximize their profits.

Wednesday Linkblogging: Women Entrepreneurs

• Patty Briguglio was named 2008 Enterprising Woman of the Year by Enterprising Women Magazine.

• Nancy Marmolejo at Vivavisibility.com has some tips on how to get yourself out there. It's a great marketing blog from a Latina entrepreneur, so check it out in general.

• Rolling blog has a long, passionate post about the state of women in India.

Reality is women are still unsafe, insecure, jobless and weak from malnutrition. She continues to be repressed, forced to abort her children, and if allowed to give birth at all, to abandon her own flesh and blood or face social ostracization unless society approves of the way it was conceived. She still cannot adopt easily, she cannot sign for her own surgery (kisiko saath mein layein hain aap?) or admit her children to school if the father refuses to acknowledge them. In most cases she is still deprived of her father’s property on one flimsy pretext or the other. She still can’t rent a house easily if she is alone in a strange city. (People think she is going to have sex and produce illegitimate babies or generally create some trouble or the other

• Know Your Place blog has a post about what you are doing with your voice. It's a woman entrepreneur blog, so check it out.

• Tulsa World has an interview with Yvonne Hovell, the only African American female Chrysler dealer in the country. Here's a little insight into owning a franchise.

• And another franchise owner, Carol Sluys of Snohomish County, has turned her Curves franchise into a base for health evangelism.

Wednesday Linkblogging: Microenterprise

• Entrepreneur.com has an article about microentrepreneurs. The second page of the article links to resources for microbusiness owners.

One blessing of microenterprise is that it gives people a taste for entrepreneurship; many like the life so much, they go on to run a string of small but successful enterprises. Makela began his first elder-care center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and operated it for five years. Then he and his wife decided business ownership had lost its luster and sold the center. But after only a year or so, they found they missed the flexibility and independence of running their own show and found an existing center they could take over.

"This type of business is certainly not for everyone," says Makela. "We both work almost every day for at least part of the day. But, at the same time, we have a lot more time and money for our hobbies, recreation and our [children] than most people do." Those attractions are what keep microbusiness blooming despite the obstacles.

• Speaking of the wonderful Entrepreneur.com, they have a searchable Small Business Encyclopedia online, and their blog has posts about home-based businesses, among others.

• Independent Bangladesh has a problem with microfinance:

The non-government organisations that run micro-credit business have failed to help the ultra-poor come out of poverty trap and get self-employed with dignity, resulting in scourge like monga — seasonal joblessness, economists have said.

They also criticised the government’s manpower training bureau and overseas recruiting agencies in the private sector for failing to create job opportunities for the northern poor.

... ‘Yes! Micro-credit can pay dividends to moderate poor and be effective only if the economy grows in a healthy manner.’ Both Muzaffer and Akbar termed the monga ‘nothing but a poverty syndrome’, let alone a seasonal distress, because income opportunities have not been created.

"Monga" means famine, by the way.

• Terrible, but perhaps inevitable news: unlicensed Microfinance institutions in Bangladesh are swindling the poor.

No NGOs are allowed to do microfinancing without the licences from MRA under a law that came into effect on 27 August 2006.

“We've no mechanism of our own to detect NGOs engaged in micro-financing without licences,” a top official of the MRA said in the wake of recent scandals.

In the last couple of weeks, some NGOs disappeared with around Tk 500 crore after swindling poor villagers in northern districts.

... According to government statistics, there are some 49,000 NGOs registered under the Social Welfare Department, about 10,0000 under the Cooperative and Joint Stock Companies and another about 2,000 under the NGO Affairs Bureau.

• India is facing a loan crisis:

With rapid economic development, for years the banks have easily granted small loans, raking in very high rates of interest. Now many professionals, small businessmen, and farmers are no longer able to pay. Experts: the phenomenon is contained, but there is the risk that it could expand.

... In February, the government said it will cover 15 billion dollars in debts held by farmers.  Many have observed that this will not so much help the rural population - which is in any case strangled by rising costs for fertilisers and petrol, and by the pollution of irrigation water - as it will the credit institutions, which will immediately recover the entire value of loans with difficult prospects of repayment.

• Kiva.org has fellowships and sends their fellows out to the field ... from whence they blog! It's a pretty extensive blog. Check it out!

Friday Linkblogging: Women in Business

• Mary Robinson was the keynote speaker at Woibex 2008, the tenth annual Global Businesswomen and Leaders Summit, in Dubai.

“Every development expert knows that, in order to have stable development, you must empower women and girls,” she said. “Businesswomen have an important role to play in development because every successful woman encourages another.”

She added that it was very important that leaders think globally and act locally. “We have to be interconnected internationally but we have to make a difference in our own environment.”

The event also hosted the Seventh Middle East Businesswomen and Leaders Achievement Awards.

• The Fort Worth Business Press has an interview with m strategies inc. founder and CEO Michelle Smith.

I’ve always made a point to continue to promote diversity in my firm, from women, men, black or white – every kind of thinking and disciplines. For me, being a woman has not hindered me at all, in fact it has kind of added to the diversity mix I like to keep at the firm. And I think it is incumbent upon a leader to send in a different kind of person to close a deal. It doesn’t always take a woman’s touch – sometimes it takes a man’s. But to have that depth on your team really helps.

• Via Anne Reeves' blog: Country Living magazine's annual conference Women Entrepreneurs: A Celebration of Creativity, which happens in Chicago this weekend. (Sadly, the conference is already sold out.) But check out the profiles of women entrepreneurs on the site.

• The Minneapolis Star Tribune has an interview with three businesswomen about women's challenges in the workplace.

How far have women come in the workplace?

Carlson: With the Fortune 500, not very far. We've gone from one CEO in the last 20 years to 10 CEOs. But if you're talking about women in small businesses and as major shareholders of companies, it's astonishing. In that perspective, women are finding ways to lead and contribute.

• Emirates Business 24/7 reports that Hydra Properties is developing a new skyscaper in Dubai called "Eve's Tower," which will only allow woman-led businesses to lease space.

The 20-storey project is also offering cheaper rents in order to attract more interest from women-only companies.

... men are not banned entirely. Companies are allowed to have male employees, but women will take priority and have certain privileges, including their own lift and the opportunity to set their own rules.

... "the ultimate goal of Eve’s Tower is to provide women with an environment that tends to their needs, allowing more comfort and freedom,” he says, adding that it will also act as a forum for female executives.

Eve’s Tower is the first project of its kind, not only in the Middle East but anywhere in the world. The developer plans to introduce the concept to other cities in the future.

• An article in the Arizona Republic turned us on to the Make Mine a Million $ Business program:

Make Mine a Million $ Business is a program of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence — and founding partner, OPEN from American Express®. The program provides a combination of money, mentoring, marketing and technology tools that women entrepreneurs need to help grow their businesses from micro to $millions.

The program's goal is to "inspire one million women entrepreneurs to reach annual revenues of 1 Million $ by the year 2010." Count Me In is a national nonprofit MFI (microfinance institution) offering women loans of up to $45,000. Taking part in the initiative involves signing up for their online community here.

• Russia Today wants us to know that Russia has more female-owned small businesses than any other country in the world.

Elena Safonina ... says the country’s unique geographical location and some quintessentially Russian character traits define the country’s female entrepreneurs.

“Russian women are not quite European and at the same time not exactly Asian. Since our country is somewhere in between these parts of the world, our women manage to combine rationality with being highly expressive and creative,” Safonina says.

Some say female-owned businesses in Russia are less likely to become the leaders in their sectors as women focus on creating a family-like atmosphere rather than stifling their male competitors.

Hmmm ... we'll take the statistics, but we're not so sure about the "analysis."

• The Taipei Times reports, based on an online study they conducted, that sexual harrassment at work remains a top concern for working women in Taiwan.

The results showed that 61.5 percent of the respondents said they were worried about sexual harassment. Responses to further questions revealed that 37.2 percent of them had been victims of sexual harassment.

The survey showed that 37.4 percent of the victims chose not to seek help.

"In Taiwan's work environment, [sexual harassment victims] can't just stand up and report the case," Jennifer Wang, director of the committee, told a news conference at the TBA. "If you do so, you'd likely be forced to leave your work." Survey results support Wang's remark.

• And finally, speaking of sexual harrassment, Japanese Police blog tells the story of a Japanese woman business owner who was hit up by a cop for free massages, and then hit ON. Naturally, the cop was a police inspector in charge of monitoring the sex industry. It seems she might have been vulnerable to this cop because her business was operating illegally but this is unclear.

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.

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• 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.

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!

Wednesday Linkblogging: International Microcredit

• Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announces the opening of the Bright Future Foundation for Microcredit in the Kurdistan Region.

The project will start in Erbil, the capital, and later offices in Suleimaniah and Dohuk will be opened.

We are confident that if we are successful in this effort we will have more funds available to sustain this project.

When we first had the idea to establish this project we looked for a specialised partner with experience in managing projects such as this. I am glad to announce that the BFF has found a well-known partner in the field of microcredit, US-based CHF.

Apart from teaching us the principles of microcredit, this institution has agreed to make a considerable contribution to this programme. That is why, before activating BFF, we are happy to have gained the support and cooperation of CHF.

This is a good opportunity for us to develop a widespread and beneficial network of contacts at the international level. I would like to thank CHF for its readiness to help this project as a full partner. I appreciate their generosity and financial support.

Iraq Updates gives the news very little spin.

• Pagol Nari of Unheard Voices posts about victims of Cyclone Sidr not getting the expected relief from their microloan debt in the wake of the Cyclone devastation.

These debt cancellations will impact the micro-credit sector, but to what extent will only be seen over time. Critics have noted that many NGOs have used micro-credit operations as money makers among their other activities. Last year, as New Age noted about a World Bank report most NGOs survive and run their programs on micro-credit interest and not local donations... Others have complained that although national offices made announcements about suspension of collection, often this message failed to trickle down to field staff who were under pressure from higher levels to collect loans.

• Israeli blogger Shahar Golan posts about using Kiva.org to make the holiday festive.

This is Shazia Nawaz, photographed here with one of her four children. She and her husband live in the town of Vehari in Punjab province, Pakistan. Yesterday she applied for a micro-loan of US$250 to buy a new dry cleaning machine for her dry cleaning business. Yesterday just so happened to be the day that I decided to log on to Kiva.org, a non-profit organization that transformed microfinancing into an interpersonal experience. ...The money I loaned will gradually return to my account, and I would then decide whether I want to withdraw it or loan it to someone else.

With the season's holidays drawing near I wanted to urge you to get into the spirit of giving, and less into the spirit of buying.

Meanwhile, A Harbor in the Tempest updates on that blogger's Kiva projects, Janet at Feminist Mormon Housewives blogs about Heifer International, and this gifts blog points to a few other online giving opps.

• If you'd like to go them one better, check out Philantopic's "Ten High-Impact Giving Opportunities" post.

• Ian Welsh of The Agonist blog links to One Campaign's comparison of presidential candidates' statements about ending poverty.

One thing One's done which I wish more advocacy groups would do is put up a page which compares the statements of various Presidential candidates to each other. You can pick up to three, so, of course, I pulled up Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

• Pratish at Saving the World One Bar Chart at a Time posts about the Indonesian Microfinance Sector.

Whittle On Charity and Microcredit

Dennis Whittle talks about microcredit programs in the San Jose Merc.

GlobalGiving Chief Executive Dennis Whittle said: "There is no silver bullet in development and poverty reduction. Some things can be funded through microcredit and others need grants." To be successful, Whittle said, people need such basics as health care, clean water, education and transportation. The Web site lets you pick a project and see the results of your donation.

Then he blogs a clarification in the Huffington Post.

They are right about the appropriateness of charging market rates of interest for micro-credit in developing countries. But they are wrong to conflate that with charity or grants. In fact, subsidizing micro-credit via lower interest rates is usually a bad idea.

... There can be a healthy role for outside finance in micro-credit. Modern banks borrow through national and international bond markets all the time. There can even be a role for grants when micro-credit organizations are initially setting up operations, which can be very costly. Grants can also help bring excluded, vulnerable or traumatized populations into the micro-credit system. ... But overall, market-based financing works best for micro-credit.

I agree with Whittle up to a point. Microcredit programs that are market-driven are forced to streamline operations more than non-profit organizations that run on grants, and this of course makes them more sustainable.

However, the focus on profitability has led banks away from microcredit’s original focus on lending to the poor. Studies done in Bolivia showed that, as more microcredit banks established themselves in the same areas and began to compete with each other, the banks began to move away from serving the poor to serving people who were low-income but who were not the poorest of the poor.

Reaching the poorest of the poor, especially in rural areas, requires a great deal of overhead in terms of physically reaching the borrowers who may be widely scattered and maintaining the contact necessary to reduce default rates.

When microcredit banks begin to compete with each other, they tend to cut costs by dropping these very poor people from their portfolios. Without grants and subsidies, it becomes impossible to continue serving these populations. But the media tends to highlight only the fact that such agencies continue serving “the poor” without closely examining who these poor people are.

I of course agree with Whittle that grants are needed to provide the basic services (water, health care, etc.) before people can begin to take advantage of financial products. But I also think that there is a role for grants in generating the funds necessary to continue helping the poorest borrowers and savers take baby steps towards establishing themselves as legitimate financial services consumers.

---Julia Brown, Women's Initiative Research and Policy Assistant

Wednesday Linkblogging

• Counter Intelligence blog quotes a New York Magazine article interviewing New York women chefs on why they don't get the money to open their own restaurants:

RC: Also, I’ve found that landlords will listen politely and then lease their space to a man with a track record. I had a long track record at the time I started Pearl Oyster Bar—twenty years as a chef, but not as a business owner. And that was the kind of track record they were looking for. I was lucky to find the guy that I found.

• If you want to talk to business owners like yourself: A yahoo group for Latina small business owners.

• The French foreign minister thinks that a microcredit fund in Myanmar (Burma), could help the cause of (capitalist) democracy. He doesn't propose where the money is to come from, though.

• A plea for Chinese microcredit aimed at rural people with HIV could well apply to any microcredit program anywhere in the world.

Up to three-quarters of China's estimated 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS are rural poor, concentrated in Yunnan, Guangxi, Henan and Xinjiang. Microfinance can be an impressive tool for the social and economic empowerment of thousands of women, men and children living with HIV/AIDS, and their families. Measures must also be taken to counter discrimination against such people in microcredit programmes generally.

• And finally, an interesting article from the federal government's US Info site discusses a World Bank report on international reforms to encourage women in business.

In its recently released Doing Business 2008 report, the World Bank says countries ranked highest on its “ease of doing business” scale “are associated with higher percentages of women among entrepreneurs and employees.” The bank ranked 178 countries in such policy areas as paying taxes and entrepreneurs’ ease in obtaining licenses, registering property and getting credit. It also ranked countries’ investor protections, contract enforcement and cross-border trade laws.

The top reformers are Egypt, Croatia, Ghana, Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China and Bulgaria.