On our June fundraising call I was excited to report that, thanks to the generosity of our SMARTSTART|Giving followers, we have funded the hopes and dreams of 135 entrepreneurs with 32 micro-loans through Kiva.org. That’s more than 10x the number of loans made by the typical Kiva donor who, on average, makes 2.9 loans. And we’ve only needed 3 calls to do it!

What a show of faith. Thank you for making it all possible.

It started me thinking about what I could possibly give back to express my appreciation. Realizing many of you are pursuing your own entrepreneurial dreams while still working hard at a day job, I decided to offer a FREE SEAT in the SMARTSTART|Career Success Mentoring Program for anyone who wants to join the program, provided you register during July, 2008.

You can learn more about this innovative, award-winning mentoring program at www.SmartStartCoach.com or you can check out the link below to see what you missed in the past year. If the content is of interest or might have helped you in your career, please consider registering for a seat before the end of the month to take advantage of this gift.

SMARTSTART|Career Success Mentoring Program (see what you missed)

SMARTSTART|Career Success Mentoring Program members range in age from 15 to 65+ and come from all walks of life. This program, delivered over the internet and via email, is of particular value to new grads and others entering the workforce for the first time (or re-entering after a long absence) and also for folks who have recently come to North America from other countries and are starting over. It takes as little as an hour to do per month (although you could spend more time than that) and has been proven to accelerate career success up to 3x faster than average.

HOW TO REGISTER:

1. Go to www.SmartStartCoach.com and scroll all the way down to the bottom to the purchase options.
2. Click the FIRST purchase button; it says Add to Cart. You’ll go through the same order process but will find the cost has been set to $0.00. This gift is in effect until July 31, 2008.

(You’ll notice charter memberships were priced at $197 per year; however, charter memberships are now closed. Effective August 1, 2008 the annual membership price is much higher so I hope you take advantage of this opportunity if the program can be useful to you or someone in your family!)

This month we’re featuring Debi Silber, the Mojo Coach, in our SMARTSTART|Giving 60-Second Spotlight. We are impressed with Debi’s commitment to helping moms regain a strong sense of self when life knocks them down. She provides free personal training and nutrition coaching to give them a fighting chance at restoring a positive outlook.

Debi sees the gift of “health and wellness” as a way she can contribute by giving back. Have a listen, get inspired and visit her web site at www.LifestyleFitnessInc.com.

Read an interesting piece by Bob Ostertag in The Huffington Post recently. He was commenting on how the Obama campaign had harnessed the power of the internet to provide a vehicle for accepting campaign donations requested in the $25-$50 range. (Not unlike the small requests we ask of our SMARTSTART|Giving supporters.)

Seems things are going so well, sources from Obama’s campaign think he could bring in $100M in June alone! This gives me hope Alex and I are really onto something!

To put this power of the internet into perspective, Read the rest of this entry »

Ever been caught with too much month at the end of your money? Chances are you’re much richer than you think. And I bet you have no idea where you stand in terms of your place on the global rich list.

Don’t put yourself down because you haven’t made that first million yet. Instead, high tail it over to http://www.globalrichlist.com/index.php and enter the amount of money you make each year and the currency. Then press <Enter> to find out Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Herring, also known as The Internet Article Guy, is our featured guest for May’s SMARTSTART|Giving 60-Second Spotlight. We are grateful to Jeff for creatively using his 50th birthday to raise money for SMARTSTART to donate to Kiva.org. What a way to celebrate! Have a listen as Jeff explains what he did and why and you’ll see what we mean.

Thanks Jeff! (Visit Jeff’s web site at www.JeffHerring.com )

John L. Herman Jr. considers himself a failure expert — that is, not someone who fails at business, but someone who understands why a business fails. He consolidated the lessons learned in Hermanisms: Axioms for Business & Life.

Herman is a really interesting guy. He completed a business degree at Towson University, graduate work at Johns Hopkins University, and a stint in the US Air Force before taking on the corporate world.

His many years of experience (which exceed mine but not by much include working with a thousand companies that were losing money.

When you have Read the rest of this entry »

My niece has just returned to Uganda for a second season of working with a team of young people on local community projects. In her first report from the front lines she filled us in on what’s been done since she got there.

In Jinja they helped build a pig house as one of the income generation projects for a woman with AIDS. They also repaired the roof, fixed the door and patched up the mud hut for a woman named Ruth who is very ill.

So ill, last Friday night she planned to commit suicide but Read the rest of this entry »

Dorothy Canfield Fisher said “A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”

Many of the entrepreneurs we are supporting through Kiva.org are mothers. They are prepared to work extremely hard to provide a better life for their children, not unlike our own mothers. Many of our “givers” are mothers too and they are Read the rest of this entry »

Like many of you, I enjoy being a “bedroom entrepreneur”! (That’s a fancy term for those of us who work from home in a spare bedroom converted into an office.

It has a rather nice cachet though, don’t you think?) And I know Alex likes it too; he runs his business from a converted bedroom also — a fact most of you probably already know. Let’s face it, it’s hard not to like the 17-second commute… no pantyhose or shaving required!

Of course this past month Read the rest of this entry »

Penny Power

Listen to the Replay… Please Give Now »