Meet Doña Lala and Patty, two entrepreneurs who are using business education opportunities and microfinance loans provided by WAVES for Development to launch and improve their businesses. The women participated in a Basic Business Course presented by the Entrepreneurship Empowerment Program which covered topics such as, writing business plans, accounting, marketing, and English vocabulary. At the completion of the two month course, participants presented their business plans and Doña Lala and Patty were each awarded a microloan to jump-start their small businesses.
Doña Lala is a seamstress who, over the years, has built a small business repairing and hemming clothing, and sewing curtains and pillow cases. While she has a sewing machine that she uses to do her work, she has been hand-sewing certain types of seams because she had no cover stitch machine to do the work. The time and effort exhausted hand-sewing have limited the growth of her business. Doña Lala used her loan to purchase a cover stitch machine which will allow her to be more efficient and produce a better product.
Patty is an entrepreneur who is opening her own bodega out of her house to sell snacks and drinks. She is hard-working and wants to fill the market need for a small store near where she lives. With her loan, she is purchasing food and drink products to sell year-round. In addition, she sold Canastas, which are customary Christmas baskets, with food goods during the
holidays to neighbors and friends.
The women will pay back their loans over the course of the next 10 months with interest. The repayment plus the interest will be re-invested into the program for future microloans and business education opportunities. The dedication of both women to make a better life for their families is inspirational. The Entrepreneurship Program aims to grow this program and reach more local entrepreneurs in the community over the next few months.
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