I have never told you the story of the origins of Make Mine A Million $ Business. It started with a woman named
Beatriz Ramos
Beatriz Ramos with an animation business called Dancing Diablo in Brooklyn. She received a micro loan from Count Me In back in 2002 when we were making loans, and at the time she had a bigger business than most applicants: $250,000 in revenue and she employed about ten people. She was new to America from Venezuela. She couldn’t get financing to expand as fast as she was getting business; she had won the contract to color in the animation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and needed more computer equipment fast. CMI made the largest loan we had ever made to Beatriz at the time for $25,000. We introduced her to American Express OPEN as well. They extended a line credit to help her keep up with her business growth.
We figured out there were many more women out there like Beatriz…beyond start ups, with a good business who needed help solving problems and keeping up with growth. Make Mine a Million $ Business was our response to women like her. Beatriz was on hand at the National Press Club in DC when then-Senator Clinton kicked off the Make Mine A Million $ Business program in 2006.
Secretary Clinton
We have awarded Make Mine a Million $ Business Awards to over 200 women and will honor even more at our next event in February.
I was with Beatriz again last night - she was filming a conversation between me, Gina Stern, founder of d_parture Spas and Marie Cordon Rodriguez, founder of ByOEarth. The three of them were leaving on a trip for Cleveland to introduce Maria to Jamie Melvin, founder of Sansi Technologies. We had all been together the week before in Washington DC with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Pathways to Prosperity Conference to promote women’s business growth in Latin, Central and North America.
Gina Stern
Maria company is an organic red worm fertilizer business. She is traveling to Cleveland to meet with Jamie, who is a friend of Gina’s who owns one of the largest worm farms in the US. Maria is meeting with Jamie to learn how she can expand her business and help make her family farm more green, efficient and productive and do the same for farms all over Guatemala. Maria is one of four sisters and by developing her worm she hopes to show her father that she will be a great choice to take over and expand the family farm.
Beatriz is filming the journey to Cleveland to show other young women entrepreneurs just how much they can do together to grow there businesses and have a lot of fun doing it. Stay tuned for video of the Maria, Gina, Beatriz road trip and the expansion of Maria’s worm business in the coming weeks. Secretary Clinton, thank you for getting us all together to grow bigger, greener businesses.
Believe in you
Nell
