Nonprofit helps low-income women start their own businesses
Womens Opportunities Resource Center promotes social, economic self-sufficiency for disadvantaged women and their families through training, savings, microloans.
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LYNNE CUTLER, of Penn's Landing, is founder and president of Women's Opportunities Resource Center (WORC). The nonprofit helps low-income women and men get entrepreneurial training and access to business and financial resources to start businesses and become economically self-sufficient. A companion organization, the Economic Opportunities Fund (EOF), is the lending arm of WORC. Since inception, WORC has assisted 5,000 people, 85 percent of whom are low-income. It's made 543 loans totaling more than $2.2 million that created or retained 1,527 jobs.
Q: What was the rationale for WORC?
A: I founded WORC in 1993 and it was Philadelphia's first microenterprise [five or fewer employees] program for low-income people. We are a specialized financial institution that operates in markets underserved by traditional banks. In 1999, we launched a small-business-lending program.
Q: Your clients?
A: African-American and Latina women who are underemployed or dislocated make up about 60 percent of our clients. About a third are legal immigrants or refugees, and the rest are men - all in their 30s to 60s. Most live in the city, but we have some in [the suburbs]. We've had clients start cleaning businesses with high-school diplomas and also people who were HR directors in companies, who now have their own businesses. We serve about 400 people annually. The immigrants and refugees who come to us have some skills and may have had a business in their homeland but they don't necessarily know how business works here.
Q: How do you foster entrepreneurship?
A: We have more than 100 loans that are outstanding, with a total value of $500,000. We also have a six-week entrepreneurial training program, where we help clients develop a business plan, start and grow a business.
Q: What kinds of businesses do you support?
A: We've financed cleaning firms, child-care and learning centers, personal-care companies, bakeries, landscapers.
Q: What's the source of the money you lend?
A: The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, part of the U.S. Treasury Department. That's a competitive process, and we apply for grants. We also get money to lend from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which we borrow and pay back, and private grants.
Q: What are your lending requirements?
A: We look at cash flow and ability to repay. We take into account their credit. We also look at how viable the business is. Our average default rate over the last three years is 8 percent.
Q: How do you quantify your success?
A: Last year we made 54 loans with a total value of $245,000 and average loan of $4,500.
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