May 16, 2008

1. Microloans: Fighting Poverty, Forwarding Small Businesses
2. Seton Hill's E-Magnify Offers Business Counseling in Pittsburgh
3. Self-Employed Women Differ From Their Wage and Salary Earning Counterparts
4. Companies Owned by Women, Minorities Win Lucrative Deals with Other Companies by Helping Meet Diversity Requirements
5. Calendar -- Selected Events

1) Microloans: Fighting Poverty, Forwarding Small Businesses
Every day people around the world attain loans from banks for cars, homes, businesses, and other large expenditures for which they do not readily have funds. Applying for loans has become a common practice. Generally one seeks a loan for at least $15,000 or more and those individuals need collateral, steady employment, and verifiable satisfactory credit to qualify for the loan.

The qualifications typically leave impoverished people as well as destitute entrepreneurs asking for an answer to their lending needs. The answer comes in the form of microcredit, which is the extension of small loans known as microloans. Microcredit falls under the category of Microfinance —financial services for the poverty-stricken.

Microloans are the answer not only for poor entrepreneurs, but anybody living in poverty needing a small amount of money because microcredit actually aims to make borrowers into entrepreneurs. Microcredit programs lend money to impoverished individuals with hope that they will use the money for self-income projects in order to pull themselves out of poverty.

More on history of Microloans

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2) Seton Hill's E-Magnify Offers Business Counseling in Pittsburgh
Seton Hill University’s E-Magnify women’s business center provides direct client counseling for women interested in starting, growing, or sustaining a business.

E-Magnify has partnered with the Diversity Business Resource Center (DBRC) and the Urban League - both of which are located in Pittsburgh, PA - in an effort to provide counseling to those in the Pittsburgh market.

Services and programs are designed to assist women who are located in rural and remote areas, desire economic opportunity and social equality, and veterans and active in the military.

Appointments made for counseling in Pittsburgh on Wednesdays are available by appointment only. Individuals also have the option of having phone, face-to-face, or online appointments. Evening appointments are also available.

To learn more on how we can make your vision a reality, call 724.830.4625 or log on to www.e-magnify.com today.

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3) Self-Employed Women Differ From Their Wage and Salary Earning Counterparts
WASHINGTON — Self-employed women differ from their wage and salary earning counterparts in several human capital areas. Most notably, self-employed women tend to be older, are better educated, and have more managerial experience than wage and salary earners. These findings are contained in a report, Human Capital and Women's Business Ownership, released by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

"Human capital factors such as education and experience have long been known to have a positive correlation with entrepreneurship," said Dr. Chad Moutray, chief economist for the Office of Advocacy. "This report delves deeper into women's business ownership and shows that factors such as occupational skills and entrepreneurial preparedness are essential to women's entrepreneurship."

The report, written by Business Development Advisors with funding from the Office of Advocacy, also compares human capital factors of self-employed women and men, as well as between self-employed whites and minorities. The authors presented the report during the annual meeting of the Urban Affairs Association in Baltimore on April 26.

More on Self-employed women vs. working women

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4) Companies Owned by Women, Minorities Win Lucrative Deals with Other Companies by Helping Meet Diversity Requirements
Jana Elliott's little embroidery shop, which stitches names and logos on company shirts, is now a big-time industrial contractor.

From her Advanced Embroidery Concepts shop at 220 Willow St. in downtown Beaumont, Elliott is helping a larger company fill a big order for one of the area's petrochemical titans.

And because Elliott's shop qualified as a woman-owned or minority-owned business, she helps contractors meet their diversity requirements.

More on Elliott's journey to success

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5) Calendar -- Selected Events
The calendar lists regional, national, and international seminars, conferences and forums on all aspects of business. Below are some selected events. Please visit the E-Magnify website for additional events and guidelines on submitting events for the website calendar.

The First Step To Small Business Success
May 20, 6:00p-8:00
St. Vincent College, Latrobe

This informal workshop covers personal issues of being an entrepreneur, financing a business, the business planning process, marketing, mechanics of starting a business, regulations governing a business, and other resources that may be of assistance.

SBDC consultants present this program and are available to answer any questions.

Co-Sponsored by: Latrobe Chamber of Commerce and State Senator Bob Regola.

FEE - $25 or $20/person for two or more

32nd Annual Small Business Awards Luncheon and Trade Show
May 23, Noon-1:30p
Sheraton Station Square, Pittsburgh

Time - Noon - 1:30pm

Location - Sheraton, Station Square - Pittsburgh, PA

Keynote Speaker - Dennis Yablonsky, Secretary of Community and Economic Development, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

FEE - Individual - $45, Table of 10 $- 450

AWARDS - Family-owned Business of the Year, Financial Services Champion of the Year, Minority Small Business Champion of the Year, SCORE Volunteer of the Year, Small Business Journalist Champion of the Year, Small Business Person of the Year, Veterans Small Business Champion of the Year, Women in Business Champion of the Year, Women-Owned Business of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year

The luncheon and awards program will follow the Trade Show and Networking Reception which begins at 10 a.m.

Is there a topic or event that you'd like to see featured on the E-Magnify website? We welcome your input and feedback. You can reach us at info@e-magnify.com.

You can UNSUBSCRIBE by logging-in to the membership area of the website and editing your profile. Uncheck the newsletter box at the bottom of the screen.

E-Magnify, Seton Hill University, Seton Hill Drive, Greensburg, PA 15601

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