Microenterprises

photo by Apolonio Mai, www.wildbze.com

A successful microenterprise in Belize

While any employment can help lift people out of extreme poverty, owning one’s own business can be much more profitable than just having a job.[1]  Supporting microenterprise startups within a community has the potential to put power back into the hands of the community it serves by empowering people to empower themselves. 

Throughout the world, communities need more people engaged in socially, environmentally, and economically beneficial work.   People have become increasingly aware of innovative solutions for the local problems they face and wish to gain the know-how, experience, and funding necessary to start small businesses that could implement these solutions in their own communities. For example, there is great interest in natural farming, natural building, and renewable energy solutions, for projects such as the use of farm waste for biogas, generating power from wind or rivers and streams, building using locally available natural materials that do not destroy the environment, and so on.   Small-enterprises such as these have the potential to engage people in more meaningful work and to diversify communities so they are more capable of dealing with the unique problems they face.

Belize, like many other developing countries, has a talented labor force. Many people we have spoken with wish for more variety in the types of local businesses and products available to them, but feel limited by the lack of training and access to small amounts of seed capital for enterprise startups or to support small-business growth.  As is the case for most economically disadvantaged people throughout the world, it is nearly impossible for rural Belizian families to qualify for financial assistance from conventional private or governmental financial institutions.  Microfinance institutions serve individuals who are traditionally excluded from borrowing money, and are designed specifically to benefit the borrowers, who are usually also the shareholders, whereas most banks are designed only to benefit the shareholders who are not the borrowers.[3]

Another problem microcredit can address is the large migration of the most educated and skilled workers—typically the youngest community members—leaving rural villages and towns in search of better economic opportunities in urban areas.  Like many developing countries, Latin American countries have a much higher percentage of youth population than developed countries, and a correspondingly high rate of youth unemployment.  Many young people in rural communities express a desire to remain in their local community and create a small business, but do not have the startup funds, education, and/or skills to do so.  They think the only tangible opportunities are to either move to urban areas or find menial work locally.

Although there have been a limited number of impact assessment studies for micro-credit because they are too costly to conduct for most MFIs, the research available informs us on best practices and reveals potential pitfalls. A few of these helpful findings include:

• Most studies have shown that borrowers increased and stabilized their income after participating in a micro-credit program.[4] 
• Scholars have concluded that both per capita income and household income were positively associated with the amount of credit received.[5] 
• Due to the small scale of microenterprises, common pitfalls include the lack of access to the necessary informational, financial, and human support systems, as well as their potential for lack of access to the larger, more mainstream markets.
• Due to the high cost of administering loans, micro-credit borrowers often have high interest rates.  While it may only cost $25 to administer any given loan, this can be very high, proportionally, for a $100 loan, especially when this is added to the cost to lend the money and the cost to cover loans that are defaulted. A $100 loan can have a 36% interest rate, according to Kiva.[6]

WILD EARTH MICROENTERPRISES

Through our microenterprise program, we hope to connect interested community members to the necessary information, training, resources, and support to establish small enterprises.  We also support existing businesses in their transition to enterprises that are more socially, environmentally, and economically beneficial.  

To help local entrepreneurs gain the skills they need, we will provide training onsite at Wild Earth Stewardship Center as well as through workshops run by experts from a wide-range of specialties including natural building, permaculture, renewable energy and waste systems, and more.  We will also help members troubleshoot problems, answer daily questions that arise, and openly and freely share our knowledge and experience.

We meet with interested community members to determine appropriate objectives that meet the specific needs of our communities, and to discuss other important topics including:

• Helping determine goods and services that are most environmentally, socially, and economically viable for the entrepreneur and the community
• Specifically targeting involvement of low-income individuals and families 
• Striving to ensure that enterprises will actually provide measurable social, economic, and environmental benefits to the local community
• Ensuring that enterprises work together to create a tight-knit entrepreneurial community, prevent overlap or lack of services within the community, and ensure that each enterprise bolsters the others, or at the very least, ensure that any single effort does not interference with the overall approach
• Promoting continued skill development and vocational training
• Minimizing local destruction to the environment by providing better alternatives that can simultaneously improve the lives and livelihoods of those involved
• Pursuing connections to work with other like-minded individuals and organizations
• Developing market linkages and economic relationships that support the community
• Providing a constructive, cooperative, trusting environment for interaction between the Center and local community
• Providing training and assistance in small enterprise management, marketing, budgeting, and quality control
• Maintaining an open door policy at the center to support members with any questions or concerns they have along the way

EXAMPLES OF COMMUNITY MICROENTERPRISES

Food Processing:

• Natural oil pressing and processing: There is a huge desire for special essential oils from the rainforest, and Belize is famous for medicinal plants. Each bottle sells for anywhere from $20-$50 but requires very little time to produce and low startup costs.  While there are many choices available worldwide, experience has shown us that essential oils from different regions can have distinctive scents that are extremely popular around the world.
• Mead and sparkling spirits: We are constantly getting requests for special mead made from the honey of the Belizian rainforest.  A mead-making enterprise works well when paired with beekeeping microenterprises.
• Baked Goods
• Tofu Production
• Medicinals: We would particularly like to target medicinal plants that have disappeared from the rainforest or are threatened and in decline as guided by the wonderful work of Doctor Rosita Arivigo.
• Dried Fruits and Preserves
• Organic coffee: Despite global slumping prices, we get a lot of requests for special “organic coffee from the rainforest” as many people want to give that as a gift, especially around the holidays.
• Solar ovens

Arisan Crafts:

• Hand-carved items:
  • Hand carved spectacles are incredibly popular right now, and selling for $500-600 per pair. Because of the time they take to make and the limited number of people making them, the market is incredible. 
  • Elaborate hand carved jewelry of all kinds is also a popular request, especially those that incorporate the use of precious stones at a later time before sale.

• Furniture
• Handmade journals and cards: These are very popular and can be made from recycled pulps with pictures from the rainforest, or local artists drawings incorporated into the designs.   
• Hand-bound books: We hope to highlight the talented writers of Belize by showcasing a select number of works each year that will be hand bound via our bookbinding workshop held by Crumpled Press
• Textiles:
  • Hammocks are very popular with visitors in Central America and sell for $30-80 each.
  • Hand-made bags and totes are also very popular with tourists and can be made very easily.

• Hand thrown pottery.  Classes will be held at the center and the facilities will be open to locals as well as people visiting the Center.
• Natural body care products.  These will include essential oils, body butters, soap, etc.  The center will produce several signature oils—i.e. pure eucalyptus oil, etc. which can be used as perfume or added to body butter

Permaculture:

• Natural landscaping services: Specialists who provide services in landscaping for wildlife, forest management, tree planting and tree pruning, natural farming and gardening, apiculture, etc.
• Nurseries: Bamboo, plant repopulation specialists
• Small-scale dairy producers: Milk, cheese, yogurt
• Beekeeping and honey production: Revitalizing native bee species and improving pollination of local flora.
• Aquaculture: Sustainable small fish farms and polyculture cultivation of plants that mimic natural aquaculture situations

Renewable Energy and Waste:

• Renewable energy systems specialists: wind, solar, microhydro
• Natural waste management systems specialists

Natural Building:

• Natural Builders

Teaching and Research:

• Wild Earth Stewardship outreach environmental teachers
• Yoga teachers
• Animal repopulation specialists