This article originally appeared in the January-February 2005 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Family Economic Success

"A little store on a busy street"

Microenterprise programs help low-income moms start their own businesses

By Eve Pearlman

With an $800 small-business grant, Cecilia Becerra was able to buy a sewing machine, fabric, thread, and other tools she needed to get her in-home alterations business going.

But equally important was a six-week course in small business basics from the BizWorks Microenterprise Training Program housed at the Valley Economic Development Center in Van Nuys.

"They taught us how to start the business, to manage the business," says Becerra. Classes offered several times a year, sometimes in Spanish, cover marketing, product pricing, financing, and bookkeeping. Homework assignments become pages of a mini-business plan, so Becerra, like other participants who complete the course, came away ready to launch her business.

Though disabled by arthritis and receiving public assistance, Becerra, a single mother of one, has been able help support herself and her daughter by working part-time, doing alterations for people in her neighborhood. Now she's working on developing a stronger marketing strategy to attract more business. "My dream," she says, "is to have a little store on a busy street."

Welfare client to businesswoman

The City of Los Angeles launched Bizworks in 2000 with CalWORKs funding, to help parents move from public assistance to business ownership. Almost all--97 percent--of the participants are women. Now any low-income person can participate in BizWorks.

A full-time outreach worker, working with job training and community organizations, recruits Bizworks participants. "People usually come with a lot of ideas or something they do on the side," says Jenni Kwon, VEDC's director of workforce development. "Maybe it's a great salsa they make for their families, or that people have always told them they should try catering."

Getting started

Most businesses started by BizWorks participants are in catering, child care, retail, housekeeping, or repair services. There are also an increasing number of technology-related businesses, like computer repair or bookkeeping. "These are generally very small businesses," says Kimberly Frelow, Biz-Works program manager. "They have a better chance of survival than most businesses because they don't need much capital to get started."

BizWorks helps the new entrepreneurs file the necessary legal papers and connects them to financing--small loans or grants. It can be difficult, says Kwon, to get access to financing because participants often come with poor credit and no collateral. Also, she adds, for people who've been on public assistance, the idea of a loan can be brand new. But through contacts with organizations such as Trickle Up, an international organization providing training and "seed capital" for microenterprise, VEDC helps line up funds.

Making more money

Like most BizWorks participants, Michele Lucas, a 39-year-old single mother of two, had the idea for her business before she started the program. But unlike most, her business has become full-time in just a few short months. Working in the fashion industry for years, Lucas had long wanted to start her own business selling or designing clothes. "The program enabled me to focus my business, to come up with a name for it, and to define a target market," says Lucas, who now buys and resells clothes and accessories for women 18 to 40.

Lucas sells her wares at street fairs from her "mobile boutique" called "Sazzy"-"Sassy with a twist," she explains. She has three regular gigs each week--the farmers' markets in Century City, Brentwood, and Wilshire. "There are women who work nearby," says Lucas. "And they come back because they know where to find me." Lucas meets with a BizWork consultant regularly to discuss the development of her business. Already, she says, "I'm making more money then I could have at my job."

Ongoing support

When Becerra or Lucas run into problems, they can turn to the consultants who taught their training courses or to VEDC's in-house Small Business Development Center. Some clients, depending on their credit and business plans, are eligible for financing through BizWorks. About 100 people complete the BizWorks training each year, and around 30 percent go on to launch businesses. "We try to help them take those business ideas they come in with," says Frelow, "and turn them into viable ventures."

"Considering the population we work with--extremely low income; a lot of single moms and people on public assistance," says Jenni Kwon who oversees BizWorks for VEDC, "it gives them a certain level of skill and a chance for supplemental income. But one of the greatest things they get is an improvement to their self-esteem, because they've learned something and gotten some skills." Even the people who don't go on to start their business have gotten some valuable training in financial literacy, and some skills that make it easier to find a job.

"What makes BizWorks unique," says Kwon, "is that the program is extremely comprehensive. We have the training, consulting, and the financing."

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Microenterprise resources

• Trickle Up, training and seed capital, 866-246-99890,
  www.trickleup.org

• Association for Enterprise Opportunity, information and advocacy, 703-841-7760, www.microenterpriseworks.org
  

• FIELD, (Microenterprise Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination), information, 202-736-1071, www.fieldus.org

California

• CAMEO (California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity), information, support, advocacy, 510-238-8360, www.microbiz.org

Alameda & San Francisco counties

• For a list of Bay Area CAMEO member organizations:
  www.microbiz.org/html/san_francisco.htm
  

• AnewAmerica Community Corporation, 510-540-7785, support for new immigrant entrepreneurs, www.anewamerica.org/
  

• CEO Women, (Creating Economic Opportunities for Women), training, ESL, financial planning, Oakland, 510-879-2947, www.ceowomen.org/
  

• East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), business planning, marketing assistance, loans, 510-287-5353, www.ebaldc.org
  

• Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, services for small business owners, business incubator, 415-541-8580, www.rencenter.org
  

• Women's Initiative for Self Employment (WISE), training, coaching, counseling, individual development accounts, loans, peer networks, Spanish and English, San Francisco and Oakland, 415-641-3460, www.womensinitiative.org

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BizWorks Highlights

• Founded to help women make the transition off welfare
  

• Now serves any low-income person wishing to start a small business
  

• Years in existence: 4
  

• Participants completing the training: over 300
  

• Businesses started: more than 100
  

• Cost to participants: none
  

• Basic program: six-week training and development
  of basic plan
  

• Follow-up: access to start-up grants, financing, business consultants, and other resources
  

• Staff: five, administrative assistant, outreach coordinator, program manager, class coordinator, and administrator
  

• Courses: taught by consultants

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