Archive for the 'Making A Difference' Category

On November 14th, 1915, Booker T. Washington died. Born into slavery, he had to teach himself to read. He formed Tuskegee Institute in his mid-twenties and recruited George Washington Carver to teach agriculture. Washington turned Tuskegee into an entrepreneurial incubator because no graduate was allowed to leave and consider themselves “educated” until they had learned [...]

Could it be that the self employment you seek involves providing a charitable service?   J.T. Houk, CEO of the National Heritage Foundation likes to say that “for every hurt, there’s a helper”. In the essay “Entrepreneurship in Charityland” he posits that quite possibly the “new frontier” of entrepreneurship is not in manufacturing or elsewhere but [...]

Seed America helps communities recover from Mass Layoffs. Their specialty could be called “making lemonade out of lemons”. Seed America takes a soon-to-be-empty or presently empty building that is both a financial drain on the company and a psychological drain on the community and helps both “move on” to greater profitability. The company receives instant [...]

DHL, the package express company, is taking an active role in funding Microenterprises. These are true grants of $1000 cash plus discounted services thrown in to build customer loyalty in the small business market. These Seattle area enterprises received these grants last April. Buisinesses in South Florida, Houston and Phoenix had received them previously. – [...]

I received an email today that the home based entrepreneur I helped fund in Cambodia has received her loan through Kiva. Kiva allows me to participate in microlending around the world in $25 increments using PayPal or a Credit Card. These entrepreneurs are helped by the intermediary agency that’s “on the ground” and administering the [...]

Muhammad Yunus got started in “Microlending” when – with money from his own wallet – he gave poor villagers loans of about 64 cents each. Though it sounded insignificant it enabled them to own the resources needed for their little family businesses. It didn’t make them rich but at the end of the day, it left them with [...]

Thanks to all the bloggers who linked back to my original post asking for help in assisting prisoners to think like entrepreneurs! From what I can tell we’ve had mention of this from all over the blogosphere all the way to Eastern Europe, Quebec, and Brazil. Barry Moltz who was near the prison in Nashville [...]

For some people the ideal home based business counseling children or some other activity best carried out as a non profit entity. It’s not that these services don’t generate income… often significant income… but they’re not intended to create marketable equity for a public or private sale. This is especially true if grants are sought. [...]

One thing that keeps people from taking the “entrepreneurial plunge” is not fear of failure per se. It’s the nagging question about medical coverage and a safety net in case of a catastrophic illness or in other cases the cost of ongoing medical treatment. What’s the news? Wal Mart announced a pilot project to sell [...]

When I got back from the prison today, they had been very appreciative of my time and the fact that Tom Spinks of Millionaire Blueprints had been sending his magazine to their library. One of the realities these men face due to their own stupid and evil choices that got them there is that it’s [...]