A New Reality for Microenterprise Development
Jan 28th, 2008 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: Politics & PolicyThe microenterprise development industry in the U.S. is quietly changing. In some ways, that was inevitable. It is modeled on third world experiments and needed to evolve to fit its environment. To get more specific, microenterprise development industry leaders are recognizing that it needs to stop isolating itself and take its place in the nation’s economic and community development circles as a part of a larger whole. Such a strategy will expand the industry’s industry, reach and funding resources. At the same time, largely unrecognized is the fact that the industry also needs to expand its target market to include middle income microbusiness owners, who have many of the same capital access issues as low-income microentrepreneurs. Traditionalists may worry about those low-income clients but, without the additional resources that will come with a larger target market, they may find themselves unable to help anybody.
