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Applying for a loan from a bank has always been the way small business owners get started and then expand their organization. But since the recent financial woes of the last few years, that situation is changing. Banks are more restrictive on who is receiving their loans and some small business owners just aren’t making the cut.

But, consider this: if just one in three small businesses in Texas were able to hire one more person, Texas would be at full employment.

There’s no way around it. If nine out of 10 small business owners are turned down for a loan, we won’t get close to that. But it is so important that we support small businesses. They’re good for our communities, good for our economy and good for people.

Luckily, banks aren’t the only ones helping small businesses with capital. We’re doing it and there are plenty of other organizations in that boat with us. You can do your part and help us do ours by spreading the word about our organization and all of the services we offer, as well as shopping locally and encouraging your friends and neighbors to do the same. And of course, keep checking our Facebook and Twitter for more updates!

• Who: The Alliance for Economic Inclusion, Sen. Kirk Watson and more than 60 financial-minded groups in the Austin area, including FrameWorks CDC, Foundation Communities, Cornerstone Financial Education, BiGAustin and our team. We’re in pretty good company, eh?
• What: To promote financial literacy and education in our community. Workshops will cover everything from “Basic Banking and Budgeting” (Wed. April 25, 11:30 a.m. at the Round Rock Serving Center) to “Setting Goals and Creating a Plan” (Sat. April 21 11 a.m. at our place).
• When: April 21-29
• Where: Tons of places  are hosting workshops throughout the week all around Austin.
• Why: A penny saved is a penny earned. But too many of our community members work too hard to not be able to find out about the best ways to keep those pennies safe and make their pennies work for them.

We’ll be posting more updates soon, so keep us bookmarked, and as always, don’t forget to check our Facebook and Twitter for more information!

We’re always trying to bring up the most salient issues facing our community and we definitely feel like we’ve hit the nail on the head with this one. Not only is Hamilton-Lynne an entrepreneur herself, but her magazine also serves as an important resource for Austin’s female entrepreneur community by promoting women business leaders in its pages and publishing the “Pink Pages,” a directory of women-owned businesses here in Austin.

Since Hamilton-Lynne has been publishing her plays, writing novels and working for Austin Woman magazine since it began, she’ll be able to speak to the value of approaching arts and cultural pursuits with an entrepreneurial mind. She will also be talking about the value a vibrant arts identity brings to our community.

If you’d like to attend, head over to our events page. There is a $15 fee to cover the lunch provided, but scholarships are available. Contact Allen Rogers at Allen@PeopleFund.org for more information.

The Boards of both non-profit organizations unanimously agreed that PLAN Fund would merge into PeopleFund, becoming People Fund’s Dallas branch.  Existing PLAN Fund staff members will remain at the organization’s 2801 Swiss Avenue location, which is now PeopleFund’s Dallas office.

PLAN Fund’s Board Chair, Barrett Howell, and Vice Chair, Irv Ashford Jr. will become Board members of PeopleFund.  Mr. Howell lauded the transaction, “With this merger, PLAN Fund will create greater capacity for social and economic impact on traditionally underserved communities in Dallas.  This is a great day for Dallas.”

PLAN Fund Founder, Gwen Moore, said, “We could not be more excited about the opportunity to expand our reach and help improve our communities while giving people a chance to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.”

Jack McDonald, PeopleFund’s Board Chair, is equally as enthusiastic about the combination.  “This transaction comes at the right time and to the right place,” McDonald said.  “It aligns perfectly with our statewide expansion plans.  Together, we can better serve the Dallas area small businesses owners in need of capital and business assistance.”

PeopleFund has strong Dallas ties, making it a natural fit for expansion.  Its Board Vice Chair, Adrian Neely, is a Dallas native who grew up in Oak Cliff, and the organization’s CFO, Will Kelly, is a graduate of SMU.  Additionally, Gary Lindner, President & CEO of PeopleFund, has collaborated with PLAN Fund for several years.  He played a key role in the merger discussions. “Our organizations are culturally aligned. We both have a strong commitment to social and economic justice.” Lindner added, “To consolidate with an organization that has so many existing partners and dynamic board members is an enormous benefit.”

About PLAN Fund

PLAN Fund originated in 1997 in partnership with the Grameen Foundation and subsequently became an independent, tax-exempt, non-profit corporation and a CDFI in 2009.  Since inception, PLAN Fund has made over 600 loans to Dallas’ low to moderate income entrepreneurs, totaling over $945,000.

LifeWorks is a nonprofit that provides critical services to disadvantaged youth and families. From operating an emergency shelter to holding GED and literacy classes, LifeWorks does it all.

LifeWorks saw the need for affordable housing in Austin. They decided to invest $5.7 million to open a 45-unit apartment campus on their 6-acre campus in East Austin, but they needed to come up with $2 million funding gap.

When Gary, our CEO, heard their story, he knew that he wanted to help them with this. He matched them up with the New Markets Tax Credit program, a federal incentive that gives an income tax credit to corporate taxpayers who invest in job creation for low-income communities. Gary put them in touch with Capital One Bank, and the rest is history.

Congratulations to our friends at LifeWorks for providing yet another critical service to our community and Capital One Bank for helping to make it possible. You can read more here.

You may not have heard of him, but unless you live under a rock, you have heard of his movies: the “Spy Kids” franchise, “From Dusk Till Dawn,” “El Mariachi,” “Desperado.”

In the middle of his speech, Rodriguez told the crowd that he hopes all of us fail, which got a few chuckles. But Rodriguez was completely serious.

He then went on to tell us about how some his greatest successes have come from the “ashes of failure.” Rodriguez was part of a four-part film anthology called “Four Rooms” with Quentin Tarantino, Allison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell. The idea was four interlocking stories shot by four different directors.

Most would say it failed. It did not make much money at the Box Office and was called “one of 1995’s major disappointments” by this critic at Reel Views. But, while Rodriguez was working on the film, his eye fell on one scene where two parents are attending a black-tie party with their two tuxedo-clad kids.

Mini-James Bonds, he said he thought to himself. He started thinking about what if there was a family where the spies were parents and the kids did not know? And then the parents got kidnapped and the kids had to rescue them? Sound familiar? Yep, that’s Spy Kids.

If Rodriguez had not “failed” at making “Four Rooms,” then he would not have the blockbuster hits of Spy Kids in his filmography and become a household name.

A member of the audience asked him if there was ever a time when he looked back and said, “Wow, I just wasted a year and a half working on that.” No, he said, it may take five or ten years before you learn the value of a failure, but it’s there.

Rodriguez is an entrepreneur completely unafraid of failure. His first film, “El Mariachi,” changed the game in independent filmmaking. Before, the Hollywood thinking was that a film needed a huge crew and piles of money to make a decent film. Rodriguez did everything himself, from shooting each take to making every edit.

And he had no idea how to do any of it when he started. He learned how to operate the video camera by calling a video store in Dallas. Sometimes, he said, you just have to do it now and figure out how later.

This resonated with us because here at PeopleFund, we’re all about helping the aspiring entrepreneurs get over the hurdle to become entrepreneurs. Kudos to everyone at RISE Austin for bringing in someone so inspiring and reinforcing our commitment to entrepreneurship. We are looking forward to a great week of networking and workshops this week—hopefully we will see you there!

We are hosting a few events at our place, so we’d love to see all of our supporters there. Lesa, our director of lending, will host a session tomorrow at 12 p.m. about finding funding for your small business  or nonprofit. We don’t want to toot our own horn, but Lesa knows her stuff. Lesa has 30 years of small business lending experience under her belt.

Allen, our communications and outreach director, will be hosting his own workshop on Thursday at 12 p.m. about, well, communications and outreach. In his discussion, titled “Volunteering and Supporting Local Organizations,” Allen will go over the basics of networking with similar organizations and making the connections that keep your organization in the public eye.

Allen will also be live-tweeting the RISE Austin #FastPitch competition on Wednesday night. Ten entrepreneur teams will have 60 seconds to pitch their start-up or small business idea to a panel of judges who decide the winner. Good luck everyone!

We’ll be posting more updates later this week about the panels we’re attending. Be sure to check our Facebook, Twitter and blog for more!

According to “The Health and Wealth in US Counties: How the Small Business Environment Impacts Alternative Measures of Development,” they’re doing a lot more than that. After analyzing health and well-being indicators with the number of small businesses per 100,000 people in more than 3,000 counties and parishes in the U.S., the researchers found that the communities with the highest rates of small businesses are healthier, with lower rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes.

Some would see this as a paradox. Small businesses have historically not been able to pay the higher salaries that their larger counterparts can and don’t have the clout to negotiate lucrative health insurance plans for their employees. So why is this happening?

Since small businesses are started by community members for community members, they’re much more likely to view themselves as well, a part of the community. Because of this feeling of community investment, small business owners and employees are much more likely to embrace “collective efficacy,” or taking responsibility for solving local problems. The researchers found that since small business owners know that the community’s well-being is intrinsically tied to their profitability as a business, they’re more likely to take part in community health decisions and decide based on what’s best for the community. Businesses without an owner in the community may have to think about the interests of the larger corporation and company.

What do you think? Have you lived somewhere with or without a lot of small businesses and noticed a difference in the population?

Eugene’s work and values have always lined up with what we stand for here at PeopleFund. Until 2007, Eugene taught courses in social entrepreneurship and global business at UT’s McCombs School of Business. He has served on the board of Leadership Austin, the Austin-Travis County HIV Commission, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Austin Community Foundation, the Austin Museum of Art, the KDK-Harman Foundation, the Entrepreneurs Foundation and Marfa Public Radio. He’s held advisory roles with CIBER Texas, Greenlights for Nonprofit Success and Austin Habitat for Humanity. Impressive, huh?

It’s easy to see why our organization and Eugene make a great fit. We’re excited to see what’s in store from Eugene’s leadership and direction. Be sure to check out his blog, Community Matters, to find out more about him and keep checking our blog for more updates!