This lender serves all types of businesses across the country, especially home-based ones.
These include caterers, street vendors, and ''even small and successful restaurants, [which] have a lot of trouble accessing credit due to the risk of those industries,'' said director Erika Eurkus.
In 2008, the organization disbursed 1, 330 loans. Between January and May of this year, it closed 255, with $2.2 million in funding, according to CEO Paul Quintero. ''That means we close 2.6 loans every business day,'' he said.
ACCION USA, like many microlenders, also boasts of its clients' success rates: While the Small Business Administration (SBA) says that 30% of companies will fail before reaching the two-year mark, all of ACCION USA's businesses older than two years are thriving.
Los Angeles is just one of 10 most affordable cities for doing business, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Partnership for New York City. More
