I was provided the opportunity to take a day of vacation to speak this past Thursday with the Richmond Association for Business Economics (RABE) yesterday afternoon. The experience was one that I greatly enjoyed, the experience being made increasingly enjoyable from the 23rd story of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond which provided a great view of downtown Richmond, a delicious buffet, and an initially intimidating crowd of professionals, many of whom have a vast amount of experience in the economic/business/professional world.
It was exciting to get some face-to-face conversations started about the current circumstances that are being experienced within microfinance industry regulation, loan terms and sizes, and the problems that may develop as the growth that has been fostered via these tools begins to take effect and requires more capital investment and guidance.
The other speaker, Timothy Hayes, executive director of Capital Source, shared the experiences he has personally had that have led him to start his company which is committed to the development and financing of small and minority owned businesses. Capital Source has provided training for over 500 entrepreneurs and provided the opportunities for over twelve million dollars in loans and leverage via mainstream financing. My impression from several of the stories that he shared was that he often allows financially pressured businesses to take advantage of their business opportunities that would have otherwise faced dire financial circumstances in the traditional financial world. His focus has been in the Richmond area but I believe that many of the concepts he discussed can be applied in the future developments of economies that have not yet reached the level of most businesses in the United States in regards to their financial needs/requirements or in the size of their businesses.
I was also able to speak with a gentleman from the VCU economic department whose friend has been involved with credit piggybacking, an interesting concept that involves ‘borrowing’ another individuals credit score to obtain financial opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable. I’m not very well educated about the subject but will cover this subject in a future posting.
Unfortunately, it has been a busy couple of weeks and the lack of internet access at my home as made it a little difficult to post. I apologize to those writing in questions that I haven’t been able to respond to but will spend some time this weekend doing what offline research I can so that I can get back to you next week. If anyone has any questions for me, I’d be happy to do whatever I can in my power to assist. Please direct e-mails to david113@gmail.com
