I feel as though we have been partnered with nonprofits that actually make a significant impact in the rebuilding process of Detroit. I have seen this form of impact first hand at ProsperUS. Whether it is sitting in a weekly meeting and hearing a loan officer joyously say that a loan recipient has just opened their doors for business, or it’s going into a ProsperUS graduate’s newly purchased restaurant space that will soon become his realized dream, I always know there is real change. As inspiring and gracious it is to see that from an outside perspective, I wanted to be a significant catalyst in that impact. I think Ava and I have been gifted with the ability to do just that with our project assignments. The one that I would like to touch on specifically within this blog post is the financial templates utilized within ProsperUS’ entrepreneur training course. I am in charge of recreating these templates to make it easier for an entrepreneur to transition from the training course to the receiving a loan or receiving business services. If an entrepreneur has well organized financials for their business, then this is a much easier and successful process. I want my templates to simplify this process by upending any language barrier or educational inequities that exist. I feel like a real issue for up and coming entrepreneurs is the fact that they do not take rejection all that well because their families are so dependent on the success of their business. If someone trying to open a restaurant does not have properly organized financials and is rejected by a loan committee because of this, then they are likely to revert back to a wage job relinquishing their dream. I want to minimize these occurrences by putting these entrepreneurs in the best position possible to receive that loan that they need to increase inventory for the next month or buy that machine that the success of their business hinges so heavily upon. This process is going to require that I work with all three pillars of ProsperUS. This includes the trainers of the entrepreneur training class, the loan officers, and those who work in business services. My job is not only to increase the success rate of the entrepreneurs, but also to ease the workload of my coworkers and create a more efficient and cohesive process. I hope to dive into this project during the upcoming week.
Photo Courtesy of New Economy Initiative
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