Funding Development Projects 22-03-2011

The business is stuck at the development stage because like so often the person with the technical skill lacks the capital to make it happen. So for the want of less than $10,000 an export business is delayed indefinitely.

Anybody who has done business development knows that there are many ideas that have lapped up thousands of dollars and appear no closer to making money than they did at the start of the process. On the other hand such legendary businesses as KFC, Xerox and 42° Below all struggled to get a start. So balancing an appropriate amount of cynicism and process with a good healthy enthusiasm is a real challenge for anybody funding development projects.

In the not-for profit sector there is an increasing trend to use micro-finance loans to allow entrepreneurs to get started. The results are outstanding at a societal and individual level with a real impact at relieving poverty and hopelessness. World Vision seem to do a great job of this if you are interested in a bit more detail.

Obviously NZ is a different context to where World Vision (and others) are working but it's still worth thinking about how ideas work in different contexts and so I'm exploring using some of the good ideas of micro financing to create a fund for would be entrepreneurs who have to feed their family whilst they get their business up and running.

Anyway the first two contributors are on board!