BYU NewsNet - Entreprenuers Receive Opportunity from MBM

In 2002 a group of BYU Marriott School students founded MicroBusiness Mentors (MBM) in an effort to help the Hispanic community in Utah Valley.

With the help of Dr. Warner Woodworth, social entrepreneur and professor of organizational behavior, the students began a small-business training and micro credit program for underprivileged Hispanic entrepreneurs.

The business is now growing and provides 10 to 11-week business classes for Spanish-speaking immigrant entrepreneurs. Once the students complete the course they are eligible for a micro loan to begin their business.

On Friday the most recent business class of 14 students graduated.

"Our goal is to help our clients complete the program with a viable business plan that will allow them to improve the quality of their lives," Keven Stratton, acting president of MBM, said in a pres release.

MBM collaborates with United Way and Centro Hispano to provide aid to Spanish members of the community.

"We have had record numbers of clients being trained, preparing feasible business plans and qualifying for micro credit loans in solidarity groups," Woodworth said. "Our collaboration with United Way and Centro Hispano has become a key dimension of our growing success the past year or so."

According to Amanda Stradling, financial wellness coordinator at United Way, MBM graduates between 45 and 60 students each year.

Nicole Johansen, outreach director at MBM, said MBM was created to help promote self-sufficiency in the Spanish community. Johansen also said MBM is unique and acts as a stepping stone because it offers smaller loans than other lenders who may turn away many of MBM's clients. Once the loan with MBM is paid off, many clients qualify for a larger loan from another lender.

MBM is also different because it offers business classes to its clients. Once they graduate, the clients have the option to receive a $500 micro loan, of which more than 95 percent are paid back, and to work with a mentor in the community who is an expert in the field they will be starting a business in.

"Our idea really is to teach them and provide them the opportunity, not just one or the other," Johansen said.

The business classes teach skills in accounting, budgeting, starting costs, market analysis, advertising, licensing and other legal issues.

MBM also serves as a connector between people in the community who may not normally cross paths, Stradling said.

"It's really neat getting to know part of the community that I feel like I haven't gotten to know in the past," Johansen said.

Because BYU students teach the business classes they get to see a side of their community they may not otherwise have the chance to see, and MBM clients interact with the public, Stradling said.

The business classes are also beneficial to the students who teach them because the students share the principles they have just learned in their classes at BYU and they learn more about micro financing which is more prevalent in other countries, said Johansen.

"Our MBM team managers and trainers, along with every other volunteer this past year are remarkable examples of the highest ideals of a BYU education," Woodworth said. "They are students who not only excel in the classroom, but can apply their education in creative and impactful ways."

Those interested in participating in MBM, as volunteers or students, can contact MBM at (801) 373-8200 or email Stradling at sigh.no.more@gmail.com.