A New Borrowing Option for Small Businesses: Micro Loans with Kiva!

Unless you’ve been working 90 hour weeks to get a sole-proprietorship or small business off the ground, you’ve probably heard of the organization Kiva.

Offering “loans that change lives,” Kiva is perhaps the best known micro lending website. Micro loans are just what they sound like, small loans, and in Kiva’s case, they are made to entrepreneurs around the world by concerned people like you who want to see them succeed.

Through Kiva, lenders in the United States have traditionally been limited to loaning money to entrepreneurs in other parts of the world. But on June 10th 2009, Kiva launched a new initiative – micro loans to entrepreneurs right in the U.S.

To implement the change, Kiva partnered with Accion USA and Opportunity Fund and began listing entrepreneurs from all around the country. Now, right alongside entrepreneurs from Peru looking to open a furniture store and entrepreneurs from Senegal looking for funds to repair an aging taxicab, you can choose to lend to U.S. small business owners who may be starting an event planning business or in need of some complicated software for an architectural firm. (Those are two of the actual U.S. loans recently featured on Kiva. I would link to them, but most of the time Kiva’s users are so fast that loans are funded within minutes of posting. Check here for current U.S. lending opportunities).

And while lending is all well and good, if you are a small business owner in the U.S. it is quite possible that you can also get in on the action and obtain a loan that will advance your business.

Of course, there are a few strings attached. When Premal Shah, Kiva’s President, appeared on Good Morning America he made it clear that Kiva only features borrowers who have been turned down by a traditional bank or, due to lack of credit or other extenuating circumstances, know that they will be turned down. Also, business owners will work directly with Kiva’s field partners – Accion USA and Opportunity Fund – and not with Kiva itself, so they have to meet each field partner’s requirements before qualifying to have their loan broadcast out to Kiva’s 500,000+ users.

So, do you have a good idea for your business, but could use a cash infusion? Or have you already been applying with banks but find yourself constantly turned down for a loan? Visit the Accion USA or Opportunity Fund websites to learn more about a potential loan for your sole-proprietorship or small business with Kiva.

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• Basics of Bank Loans
• 5 Ways to Get into the Charitable Spirit When You Work From Home
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