How the Path to Financial Success Has Many Roads and Why Microfinance is Often Overlooked

Imagine a woman who founded a courier company and now has offices and employees in two counties shuttling documents for clients such as architectural and law firms. Envision another woman who turns the love of her native country into a living by selling Colombian souvenirs, crafts, food and clothing. Or dream of a man and his staff who profit from their talents by crafting creative signage and painting custom designs on cars and boats.

These are just three of hundreds of hard-working South Florida entrepreneurs who have wielded maybes and can-dos into realized storefronts and American middle class status. And they’ve done this through a unique financial channel called microlending. While microlending is well known across Latin America and in developing nations, sadly its existence, popularity and prevalence stateside remain in a nascent phase.

Unfortunately, most of the news I read and hear about microfinance in the U.S. involves providing those services abroad when in fact a vast underserved population exists right here. Don’t get me wrong, helping the disenfranchised in places like Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is a noble thing. But I’m often left wondering why so little of the microfinance conversation involves helping out low-income entrepreneurs right here at home.

Now more than ever, microfinance can be the homegrown vehicle that turns this trend around - especially as the latest jobs report shows the same stubbornly high unemployment, lackluster job creation and consumer penny pinching across the board. The result is that hundreds of thousands of marginal-income families have slipped through the proverbial cracks and our snail-paced economic recovery continues to widen that fissure. Good credit becomes bad credit and access to traditional bank loans dries up.

People can help, and not just by giving donations or crowdfunding, the latest personal investing trend. Many of the recession’s forgotten casualties don’t want handouts; they want opportunities to work themselves out of a financial hole. Kiva Microfunds, a San Francisco-based tiny loan lender, clearly has the right approach. The company connects donors who wish to give money in as little as $25 increments and has lent out $335 million across 62 countries, boasting a 99% repayment rate. Closer to home, Our MicroLending, of Miami, has disbursed over 1,050 loans totaling $6.2 million to over 600 micro-enterprises whose owners use the funds to restock, remodel, expand and hire.

Fortunately there’s other good news as well. Microlending is also increasingly interwoven with the phenomenon of impact investing. Impact investing is the process by which investment takes into account not only direct ROI, but evaluates the social and environmental benefits of doing so. Like mircolending, social impact investing has numerous secondary and tertiary benefits. Blighted neighborhoods on the brink of collapse revitalize, crime rates fall, juvenile delinquency drops and a community or neighborhood has the chance to rebuild. And just this past spring, Morgan Stanley, inspired by its own studies on the matter, announced the launch of its Investing With Impact Platform. J.P. Morgan predicts that, by 2020, there will between $400 billion and $1 trillion invested in ways that have a positive social impact.

So it’s definitely possible to do well by doing good, no matter where funding comes from. A November 2011 report by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business put the number of microfinance institutions in the U.S. at 362. A strong start for sure. But clearly there can (and should) be more. Investing in microfinance for American entrepreneurs and making sure people out there know that this service is available, that self-employment is an option if they’ve lost their jobs, can do a lot to help ease the protracted financial suffering that has left so many of our fellow Americans penniless and without hope.

To dream is priceless. But acting on dreams comes at a price. Mircofinance and social impact investing are paving – and paying – the way forward to turn entrepreneurial dreams into reality. 

Hanging On by a Thread / from MediaPost

Today’s post comes to you courtesy of my Beyond The Press Release column in Marketing Daily, and opines about the work ethic of Generation Y (I’ve renamed them Y-Bother) and older workers who are struggling to find employment.

A recent article in the Palm Beach Post got my attention. I was sitting at a bar on the beach, reading -- I was playing hooky -- it had been a long week, and it was a Thursday -- yadda, yadda, yadda. Besides, I had my BlackBerry and iPad, so technically I was "working."

The headline read, "Middle-Age Workers Face a New Midlife Crisis: No Job, Little Hope."

It got me thinking: first about the fact that I was lucky enough to slip off early on a Thursday afternoon (without having to feign illness or ask permission) to have a glass of wine (or three). Second, and more importantly, that I had a career in PR and a job I absolutely love. Most of the time.

Reading these stories about people who at 49, 52, and 61 have struggled for a number of years to find work -- or upon finding work, are tasked with menial jobs that don't capitalize on their full potential -- pained me. I have never been unemployed, so I don't have firsthand experience with the fear or demoralizing effects. I can only begin to imagine, and when I do, I realize that I don't want to imagine any further.

But, back to the point. There is a huge workforce out there that has the skill set and, dare I say, balls to do whatever it takes to find a job and make it work.

Which is more than I can say about some insipid and whiny Gen Yers. Yes, how about we call them Generation "Y-Bother." Okay, maybe that's a bit strong -- probably an over-generalization (send your hate mail to Ihatevanessa@axe-to-grind.com) -- but I don't think I'm far off the target.

According to Carolyn Martin, who wrote "From High Maintenance to High Productivity: What Managers Need to Know About Generation Y," "Managers were shocked when Y ers said they would make a long-term commitment to an organization only to discover that 'long-term' meant one year." Furthermore, she found that Yers required more encouragement to stay on track and finish assignments. Now, I'm sure works such as Martin's fulfill the needs of large firms that are in the position to hire and maintain Gen Yers (entire books have been written on how to manage Generation Y), but what about smaller businesses and agencies?

In most instances, I am involved in the recruitment process at my agency and work with the practice area managers to find great talent. The hit-and-miss of this process (more miss than hit) is astounding. We consider our work environment to be very tolerant, flexible, and nurturing -- our goal is to bring out the best in our people and give them the tools and knowledge to be great.

And yet, we have found that many "Y-Bothers" are a disappointment: preferring to focus on impressing rather than doing, and not listening. Because they know it all already. Of course, you can't tell a know-it-all how to do anything.

And why should I waste my time doing so, when the Palm Beach Post is telling me that there are plenty of seasoned workers out there? These people not only know the ins and outs of the "real world," but they are also hungry, spurred on by the knowledge of what life is like hanging on by a thread.

In 2009, the Springboard Project, a business roundtable commission, found that over 61% of U.S. employers were having difficulties finding qualified workers to fill job vacancies. Furthermore, companies' biggest problems were finding candidates with sufficient "soft skills," or skills in such areas as work ethic, self-motivation, personal accountability, punctuality, time management and professionalism. In other words, companies are having a hard time finding the skills that Generation Y-Bother lacks, and aging Xers and Boomers have.

So why aren't companies hiring these aging Xers and Boomers?

Well, it appears that nobody wants to talk about it (age discrimination being a topic that companies apparently don't like to discuss), but I've heard the usual list of reasons in the PR industry: they need too much in salary; they're gone as soon as the next-best offer comes around; they've got so much experience that they're reluctant to learn new techniques; etc., etc. But guess what? These are exactly the issues that we have had with Yers.

Personally, I'd rather take a chance with someone who has proven experience, needs little training in "soft skills," and doesn't have to be encouraged (read: coddled) daily and hourly just to get a quality pitch out the door.

So as of today, we've changed our hiring policy. We're only looking for people who can bring skills and knowledge to the table, without the attitude.

Wet behind the ears need not apply.

The Dropout Economy, Innovation and More…

Two great reads today, one in today’s NYT courtesy of Thomas Friedman called “Just Doing It” and another, The Dropout Economy from the March 22nd issue of TIME.

What’s so special about these two articles? They both talk about the new, next wave of innovation in the United States. Born out of necessity, frustration, need and, well, pursuit of the dream that anything is possible – the American way, right?

From all walks of life and backgrounds, we are being forced to look at new models, invent new ways and eek out a living for ourselves. Unemployment be damned!

The past two years have been awful, to be sure, but they’ve given birth (or rebirth I should say) to a dynamic innovation culture that had fallen off the bandwagon.

Not innovating yet? Get out there and start doing it!

An Open Letter to The Unemployed, Wherever You Are…

In Florida (where our main office is located), unemployment stood at 12.2% in February, according to NYT’s Economix Blog of March 26, The United States of Unemployment. Catchy title, huh?

If you are currently employed and looking for a new gig, good luck. I really mean it. You’re up against some very hungry people out there, especially college leavers and those who’ve fallen into the interning cycle of “employment,” absolutely desperate to put their multiple degrees to actual use – anywhere.

Now, if you are currently unemployed, even better wishes. Especially for those using the crappiest resumes and introduction letters known to mankind. I am not sure what kids are taught in college these days with respect to putting their “piece of paper” to work, er, like finding a job? It’s been a while since I had to dole out my resume to prospective employers but surely the art of resume writing and selling yourself in 400 words or less has become more important than ever?

Sadly, my assumption is totally wrong. Over the course of 4 days, a colleague and I have sifted through hundreds of the most god-awful applications for a recently opened position within our company. Emails with no subject lines. Emails with no introduction, only attachments. Emails with introductions and plenty of attachments – for completely different job descriptions !#%#$@$.

To be sure, it’s a cruel, cruel world out there. The job market? I don’t envy those looking for work. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and all those clichés but surely job-seekers right now would be focused on creating compelling resumes and pitches to make any prospective employer sit up and pay attention?