At Salon Business Expert, we are a community of salon and spa owners that are devoted to empower beauty business owners around the world.
We loan because we help other less fortunate salon owners to build a better future for themselves and their families.
Pay It Forward, Let’s Grow our Community
As your dreams and goals of having More Freedom, More Profits and More Fun begin to come true for you, I ask you to be the spark that starts another women entrepreneurs dream by considering helping a micro entrepreneur in less than ideal conditions and circumstances enter the world of entrepreneurship by joining our Kiva Lending Team. Kiva enables you to lend small amounts of money (loans start at $25) to entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Why Does the Word Kiva Mean or Stand For?
Kiva is Swahili word meaning “agreement” or “unity”
Why Kiva?
In my opinion former president, Bill Clinton said it best…
If you look at Kiva.org, people with a very modest amount of money can make a huge positive impact all around the world. There are so many people who want to give but don’t really know how to do it. Through Kiva.org, people around the world can become micro-bankers to developing world entrepreneurs, who have their own ideas, so we can give them a chance to raise their kids with dignity, send their kids to school, and in troubled places like Afghanistan we can marginally increase the chance that peace can prevail, because people will see there is a positive alternative to conflict.
Our Mission of Empowering Women
One of the reasons I want to empower women around the world is for the simple reason that studies and anecdotal evidence shows that most significant changes and impact will come from girls and women.
Greg Mortenson, Founder of the Central Asia Institute and author of the best- selling book “Three Cups of Tea” said the following…
Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the villages and go search for work in the cities,” Moternson explains. “But the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they’ve learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate the girls.
I want to empower women to become role models to their children like my own mother has been a role model to me. My parents got divorced when I was 16 years old. I was raised by my mother. She’s always been supportive of me and believed in me despite all of my crazy business ventures including my crazy teenage antics like wanting to quit school. Through all my ups and downs, she has always believed in me.
The Salon Business Expert Community Lending Team
As an entrepreneur and business owner, I love Kiva’s model. Instead of costly offices, Kiva uses the internet to display micro entrepreneurs seeking a loan. As a lender, you can scroll through hundreds of businesses seeking a loan and select one that connects and resonates with you. You actually connect with the person seeking the loan as you can see their face, learn a little about their situation and discover the purpose of their loan. Thanks to a lean administration team and lender donations, Kiva passes on 100% of whatever you lend and you get the satisfaction of knowing who your money is helping.
We all need a helping hand to reach our dreams. I know I had a lot of help along the way. I have a soft spot for people less fortunate that are struggling in tough physical and economic environment. All they need is a chance and a helping hand.
Just like me these people don’t want a hand out; they want an opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their family. They want to have a chance to live a life of dignity.
I can relate as I came to Canada to make a better life for myself and my mother. I was born in Hong Kong and when I came to Canada many years ago I had no money, no connections, and not a word of the English language on my lips. English was NOT my first language. All I wanted was an opportunity.
A Personal Story
Salon Marketing Expert, DJ Richoux and myself both belief in and support Kiva. DJ has been supporting Kiva since 2008 and it hit home for me when DJ told me the story about his loan to Rukayat Mohammed a beauty salon owner from Nigeria.
Rukayat Mohammed of Nigeria owns a Beauty Salon
Rukayat is very optimistic about the speedy growth of her business, and she has the zeal to pull her family out of poverty. She sells hair extensions and is also a hair stylist. She is 26 years old and married with a child. She purchased more hair extensions to sell.
She borrowed $675 in September 2009 from 27 individual lenders and DJ was one of those lenders.
She paid her loan back in 10 months and the loan of $675 was fully paid in June 2010.
She is indeed grateful to all 27 Kiva Lenders.
DJ then re-loaned the payment he received from Rukayat to another micro-entrepreneur in July 2010.
I’ve set up a “Lending Team” on Kiva.org for supporters and members of the Salon Business Expert Community to give women entrepreneurs a chance to dream a little and to create better lives for themselves and their families.
Over the next 10 years, our goal is to loan $1 million to women entrepreneurs around the world.
Here is the truth: KIVA works and is empowering women entrepreneurs every day! Will you be part of our community of building a better place?
