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BY
NELL MERLINO
erving
time in jail gave Adrienne Smalls an unusual business
idea: selling prison-approved amenities to those
making long journeys to visit loved ones in prison.
Credit was hard to come by for Adrienne when she
got out of prison until a $2,500 loan from Count
Me In helped her get the business online and move
her inventory from the subway car to a company car.
Count
Me In is a non-profit organization dedicated to
helping women achieve economic independence by making
micro loans, training, and business education available
online. The organization is dedicated to increasing
all women's access to credit and capital by making
systemic changes in credit scoring and small business
lending.
The
first online micro-lender, www.count-me-in.org
uses a unique, women-friendly credit scoring system
to make loans of $500 to $10,000 available to women
across the United States who have nowhere to turn
for that all-important first business loan.
Founded in 1999, Count Me In has lent more than
$1.1 million, and we continue to make steady progress
toward our major target goal of 2,000 loans-a level
needed to prove the viability of the unique, women-friendly
credit scoring system developed by us, and for us,
in partnership with Fair Isaac, the largest maker
of credit-scoring software. The achievement of this
milestone will provide the depth and breadth of
information that will enable us to build a case
for changing how women are evaluated for financial
products by a variety of financial institutions.
Count
Me In reaches an average of 150,000 women each month
through its online Web site presence. Count Me In
has a distinguished national board of directors,
opportunities for social investing, and pioneering
relationships with major corporations, including
American Express, Office Depot, and MetLife.
Increasing
Economic Opportunities for Women
Count Me In's new Invest in Women Notes Program
offers a unique opportunity to individuals and institutions
that want to invest in the economic independence
of women.
The
purchase of Invest in Women Notes, a security with
a value of $2,000 or more for one- , three- , or
five-year terms, allows individuals and institutions
to make an investment as diverse as womankind and
get a modest return on their investment. Investors
choose the interest rate of between 0 percent to
3 percent, as well as the terms of the investment.
The
assets are lent directly to women, particularly
those who have difficulty securing that all-important
first loan, like Claudia Mendoza, who was an architect
in her native Colombia, but who found that she needed
to begin all over again when she came to the United
States as a refugee.
Ready
to start her business in Miami, Claudia spent months
preparing to get her general contractor's license
by reading books about law, payroll, accounting,
and worker's compensation, all the while learning
English and taking care of her daughter. But, she
found that securing financing for someone like herself
who is new to this country with no track record
was nearly impossible. Then, she found Count Me
In.
Claudia came to this country with big dreams
for her family, and she turned to Count Me In to
help finance those dreams when no one else would.
With her Count Me In loan, Claudia bought furniture
and tools and paid the fee for her license. Today,
she is the owner of a growing general contracting
business.
The
Invest in Women Notes program represents a new kind
of investment opportunity called community investing,
which mobilizes investment capital toward philanthropic
goals. The full value of the lender's capital is
lent to women entrepreneurs, who use the loan proceeds
to develop their own small businesses, generating
livelihood for themselves and their families.
While
community investing earns a modest financial return,
it provides immeasurable profits by helping women
create opportunity in their lives and in the lives
of others.
Under
the Invest in Women Notes program, we're able to
use the full principle value of each loan again
to help women entrepreneurs throughout the term
of the investment. Upon maturity, the lender's community
investment is returned with interest and the knowledge
that she or he has helped change the course of countless
lives by helping women build their businesses, women
like Rose Davis.
Rose
Davis founded her business, Totleys, in 1999 in
Hempstead, NY to help bridge the digital divide
that exits in urban minority neighborhoods by providing
computers to residential customers on a rent-to-own
basis. As time passed, Rose realized that her business
strategy was, indeed, instrumental in helping some
people obtain computers, but that a large majority
of people in her community were still being left
behind technologically.
Rose decided to expand her company and open
a computer training/technological center packaged
as an Internet café to provide in-house computer
training, computers for general use, and food and
beverages. She's using her loan from Count Me In
toward start-up costs associated with adding the
computer training/technological center to her current
operations.
At
Count Me In, we envision a future where women anywhere
in the United States who have the dream, aspirations
and need to start a business will know to go to
www.count-me-in.org for the guidance and resources
necessary to get them through the challenging and
exciting process of starting and growing a business.
Please join us.
NELL
MERLINO is co-founder, president and CEO of Count
Me In for Women's Economic Independence. She can
be contacted at 212-245-1245 (e-mail: nm@count-me-in.org).
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