Small Business, Big Dreams
Not so long ago our modern retail environment did not exist. There were no big box retailers or even chain stores. There was no branding to speak of and most communication still took place via the postal service. In 1883 Sears and Roebuck became one of the first competitors to go up against the general store. What if we could go back to those days just for a brief moment? What would we find?
Helping People Help Themselves
The answer is we can still get a feel for what it must have been like to start a business in a relatively undeveloped market. Through Kiva.org, a not-for-profit micro loan broker, you can lend interest-free money to small entrepreneurs in developing countries. What’s more you actually choose the individuals you lend to by perusing profiles and projects on the internet. Kiva has been covered extensively in the press and seems to do really good work for the people they serve. I would say that the most amazing thing about Kiva is their default rate is only 0.03%. It would seem that 3rd world business men and women are much more responsible with their finances than we are here in the US.
I would strongly urge you and others in your family to look through the web site, find a project you are interested in and fund it. This may be the only time that I will ask you to leave our site and to sacrifice the money you could spend on a dinner out to help hard working people feed their family. These people are the type of entrepreneurs that turned the United States of America into what it is today. Here is a look at my first loan to Constancio Giminez.
Find out more at Kiva.org
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