Thursday, July 02, 2009

Micro-loans and Entrepreneurial Enterprises

I was just looking at KIVA, one of the organizations that allows individuals to make micro-loans ($25/each) to meet the loan request of people all over the world. It impressed me that such small amounts can make such a difference. A group of women request $1800 to purchased more product for their sales business; A man requests $750 for the pesticides and oil/fluids for his farm and farming equipment. This system has quite a good record, and the people requesting are generally from underpriviledged parts of the world.

It made me wonder a couple of things: 1) if I can start lending right away, and 2) how little money would it take for me to begin an enterprise right here in the U.S.A.? I have an idea or two floating around in my head and wonder what it would take to get them going...

What ideas do you have that would take just a bit of funding to start?