New & Next: Fostering Opportunities with Microfinance

Janet Hauer is the proud owner of Move It!, a moving business that serves the Denver Metro Area. When you get Janet talking about her business, she is just that: all business. In her relatively short entrepreneurial journey, she has flipped the switch from being a technician -- a literal mover of boxes -- and transformed into a strong and capable business owner with a keen understanding of the nuts and bolts of her operations and a clear vision for the future growth of Move It!

But her journey has not been as simple as merely 'flipping the switch.' Janet's business idea was born amidst the cycle of temp agencies and other lower wage jobs that offer little to no upward mobility, limited flexibility and barely enough income to make ends meet, if that. It was born from the realization that she was willing to work hard, possessed a valuable skill set and that maybe, just maybe the only way to move her life forward was to create her own opportunity. 

Janet's story highlights the journey of so many hard-working, low-income individuals living not just in the Denver metro area, but statewide. Nearly 28 percent of Colorado's working families are considered to be low-income -- about 164,000 families statewide. And among these families, there are the 'potential entrepreneurs' like Janet, who dream of having a real opportunity to build a better life for themselves and their families, yet persistent challenges and a lack of resources prevent them from finding meaningful employment that pays a living wage and allows them to live the life they want to live. 

For many of these potential entrepreneurs the only difference between where they are and where they want to be is the lack of a meaningful opportunity; and microfinance is proving to be a successful model in providing a meaningful opportunity for people like Janet to turn a good idea into a viable business and a much-needed source of income that has real potential to change lives.

Domestic microfinance is predicated upon the idea that it takes more than just loan dollars to adequately support a burgeoning business owner who is operating with very limited business knowledge and facing any number of personal barriers that leave her on the outside looking in on most traditional support structures. It takes a community of experts, a culture of accountability and a support network that addresses both the needs of the business and those of the person running the business. For Janet, that support structure came in the form of Denver-based non-profit Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute (RMMFI), where she completed the Business Launch Boot Camp and officially launched Move It! in August of 2014.

The Boot Camp Program, a rigorous, 12-week intensive with a competitive application process, provided Janet with the opportunity to create a solid actionable business plan, gave her access to loan dollars to get started and surrounded her with a dedicated team of mentors who helped her 'make the learning real' by fully adopting the core business concepts to make sense for her and her business model. RMMFI's unique model of microfinance marries access to loan dollars with progress made in the Boot Camp -- which means that as learning and readiness is demonstrated, lending becomes available to put the plan into action.

For Janet, launching Move It! was just the beginning. She still works night shifts at a bakery and runs the business during the day to make ends meet. But the opportunity to be a business owner, and to do so within the supportive RMMFI Community, has allowed her to step away from the environment of 'limitations' that so often dictates the reality for people who start from where Janet started. Instead, she is hopeful about the future of Move It!, and perhaps in control of that future for the first time. She is full only of possibility. 

To learn more about the Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute, visit www.rmmfi.org. To get a quote or refer a friend to Move It!, call Janet at 720/434-0361.

Brendan Landry is co-founder and director of programs of the Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute in Denver. He began his career in the microfinance field as an Americorps VISTA volunteer  and has been helping Denver-area Community Entrepreneurs launch and grow small businesses for over 10 years. Brendan is currently a fellow in the Aspen Institute's ELM2 Program for emerging leaders in Microbusiness.