Growing your San Diego business with google places

Growing Your Business:

How to find financing and use free marketing tools like Google Places

Google and ACCION San Diego bring you a FREE educational workshop to boost your online visibility and increase your business’ financial strength.

At this workshop you will…

• Leran how to finance your business start-up or expansion
• Learn how to utilize Google Places to boost your web visibility and receive an overview of TalkBin, Punchd, and other Google Products
• Have an opportunity for a one-on-one consultation with a Local Business Specialist for Google Places

Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 8:30am – 11:00am

* Registration and networking starts at 8:30 (FREE continental breakfast)
* Presentations from 9:00 to 10:00
* One-on-one consultations with Google from 10:00 to 11:00

Procopio Building
Ground Level Conference Room
525 B Street, San Diego, CA 92101

Register today!

Phone: 800.949.8387 or 202.461.4300, Website: www.va.gov/osdbu

According to ReadWriteWeb (RWW), a tech, startup and social media news site, Kiva.org, Opportunity Fund, and Accion USA have teamed up to allow one version of microfiance to thrive domestically.  They’re partnering to allow you to invest in U.S. based small businesses at a time where we need the economic help from anyone who can provide it.

Although this is somewhat of a departure from what the original goal of microfinance was (to help the poorest of the poor), the opportunity is an interesting advancement in the economics of trust.

According to RWW,

“Kiva will work with two initial field partners for its U.S. loans: ACCION USA, a non-profit microfinance institute, and Opportunity Fund, a community development fund which works in California. A handful of the more popular entrepreneurs – such as in catering, child or elder care, and retail – have already been fully-funded or near to it.”

“Arariwa [a microfinance organization in the Cusco area] serves 78% women using a communal banking methodology. They pride themselves on serving zones where no other MFI is working and providing small loans to people in poverty (average loan size is $400).”

“Although the members of [Aririwa’s] communal bank are just beginning their businesses and they live with very few resources in comparison to what we are accustomed to in the U.S., as the communal bank meeting drew to a close, heaping plates of fish, potatoes and salad were brought in and served to all of us. As we ate alongside the bank members, we learned that sharing a meal together is a regular part of the bank meetings–revealing the social ties and friendships that being an Arariwa client helps to deepen.”

“Silveria Champi Choque works with her husband, Hernan, raising livestock and farming to support their family. Silveria spoke only Quechua, so our conversation was double translated—from Quechua to Spanish to English. She primarily uses her loans to buy feed for her 12 head of cattle, fattening them up for selling. Married for 27 years, she and her husband use the profits from their farming to educate their children. They were very clear that education is their top priority, as they want all their children to become professionals rather than living the harsh life that farming often is for Peruvian campesinos.”

“Ninety-six percent of FONDESURCO clients are in rural areas. And in recruiting loan officers to work for the organization, physical stamina and good health are necessary credentials. Why? Because FONDESURCO’s loan officers have to walk long distances, at high altitudes and across rocky terrain, to reach their clients. Even dirt bikes can’t reach the places they need to go.”

“[FONDESURCO client] Jesús and his wife, Eufemia, have about two-and-a-half acres of land on which they grow potatoes, beans, corn and wheat. They also have two bulls and one cow. Loans from FONDESURCO have helped the family buy the seeds and fertilizer needed to increase their harvest–as well as the cattle that bring income from milk, meat, and farming help (pulling plows). It was truly moving to see the pride that Jesús takes in his land and the care he gives to his beloved cattle.”

Read the full travelogue here.

[reposted from SeaMo: SeattleMicrofinance.org]

Eighteen months after Grameen America launched a pilot program of microcredit lending in Queens, New York, it has announced plans to expand its model into Omaha, Nebraska.

Although microfinance has been available in the United States for some time, most providers use a model that more closely resembles the traditional banking model. Grameen America uses the peer group as a substitute for collateral in order to make financial services available to those who might not otherwise qualify for credit. Grameen America describes itself as a “non-profit microfinance institution whose mission is to alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship by offering loans, savings programs, credit establishment, and financial education to the working poor in the United States.”

The announcement of Grameen America’s expansion into Omaha indicates a belief in the universal applicability of the peer group lending model, since Queens and Omaha represent two distinct faces of urban poverty in the United States.

For more information on the expansion, please visit the Grameen America website or the press release.

[reposted from SeaMo: SeattleMicrofinance.org]

Microfinance creates economic opportunities by providing business loans and other business development services to entrepreneurs who lack access to traditional forms of credit.

“When I needed a loan when my business was just getting started I, of course, tried with my bank first but did not get approved,” explained Oskar Thorvaldsson, proprietor of Dr. Clark Store (http://drclarkstore.com/), a Chula Vista-based nutritional supplement business. “I somehow found out about ACCIÓN and got my first $10,000. When the manufacturing plant of my main vendor was up for sale, I graduated from ACCIÓN to CDC Small Business Finance and, with lots of help from my loan officer and intense negotiations between seller, lender and buyer, I managed to buy the company. It could not have happened without ACCIÓN and CDC.”

The goal of the summit is to promote the effectiveness of San Diego’s microfinance organizations by sharing stories like Thorvaldsson’s and to promote collaboration across the area’s microfinance community. Partnering organizations include ACCIÓN San Diego, CDC Small Business Finance, Foundation for Women, Grameen Foundation, International Rescue Committee, Point Loma Nazarene University, Project Concern International, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at University of California, San Diego, and the Ahlers Center for International Business at University of San Diego.

The summit features a series of panels with speakers from across the national and international microfinance sector. In addition to practitioners, local microfinance clients like Thorvaldsson will offer their thoughts on how access to credit provides them with new opportunities. Lunch will be catered by local restaurateurs who are also current microfinance clients. During the lunch buffet, participants will be able to network with representatives of the microfinance organizations on hand. In addition to food, there will be a marketplace where other microfinance clients will sell their wares and services. Among the expected vendors will be artisans, musicians and bakers.

The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at University of San Diego is at 5998 Alcalá Park, San Diego. For directions and parking information, visit http://peace.sandiego.edu/about/directions.html.

The San Diego Microfinance Alliance, producers of the first San Diego Microfinance Summit, is a consortium of local microfinance practitioners, donors, students and educators committed to collaborating and raising the profile of microfinance in the San Diego region.

Phone: 858.268.0790, Website: www.sdchcc.com