Here is an article from a daily paper in New Orleans covering the Annual Shaklee convention.
To learn more about Shaklee Corp. check out the "Getting Started" links at the top left of the page.
by Stephanie Bruno, The Times-Picayune
Friday August 08, 2008, 7:11 PM
Small-scale entrepreneurialism can lead to self-sufficiency and boost local economies, according to Vidar Jorgensen, adviser to the Bangladesh bank that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
Jorgensen sat on a panel Thursday night in New Orleans about green and small-scale business opportunities, where he explained how his Bangladesh bank's mirofinancing practices led to its receipt of the Nobel prize.
Jorgensen is chairman of the World Health Care Congress and serves on the advisory committee of the Grameen Bank. According to Jorgensen, Grameen makes small loans of less than $200 to low-income borrowers but doesn't demand collateral. Loans are aimed at financing self-employment projects that will lead to financial self-reliance. One of the bank's initiatives enabled tens of thousands of women, "the poorest of the poor," to become economically self-sustaining.
"Most beggars are women who are divorced or widowed or abandoned. There are no jobs for them if they lose a provider, so they go door to door begging for money," Jorgensen explained. "Then someone thought, well, since they're already going door to door, what if they took something with them they could sell? Fruit or a toy or something? The bank loaned the money for them to acquire the goods to sell, and now 100,000 former beggars are self-sufficient."
If the approach can work in Bangladesh, Jorgensen suggested, it can work anywhere that populations are struggling and financially dependent. The key is to provide small but targeted assistance and to help them discover the entrepreneurial potential within themselves.
David Bach, a personal finance expert and best-selling author, also sat on the panel and spoke of the new business opportunities opening up in green industries, or industries that focus on sustainability and preserving the environment.
Bach said he was inspired to write his latest book, "Go Green, Live Rich," after he and his family moved into a green building in Manhattan and began to notice improvements in their personal health.
"I honestly believe it's going to be the economic opportunity of a lifetime," Bach said of the emerging green industry. "The green industry is going to make the tech industry of the '90s look small."
The panel was held in conjunction with the annual conference of Shaklee Corp., a company that sells a range of environmentally friendly products.
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