Kenny Smith is a smart and ambitious young man who was headed in the wrong direction when he landed in prison for a drug conviction.

Then Accion Texas and Goodwill Industries of San Antonio helped him turn things around.

“I don’t know where I’d be without them,” Kenny says as he shares his story.  “I am blessed.”

With guidance and financial assistance from Goodwill and Accion after he was paroled, he was able to pursue his dream of becoming a barber and opening his own business:  Tapers, Blends and Fades Barbershop on the city’s Southside.  Now Kenny has a career he loves, the ability to provide for his family –and the pride of accomplishment.

The Accion Texas-Goodwill partnership began in 2008 when Goodwill created an Accion revolving loan program for parolees who graduated from Goodwill’s Job Readiness Training (JRT) program.   The program teaches financial literacy, how to prepare for job interviews, how to dress for success and other skills for transitioning back into the workforce.

Loans range from $500 to $5,000 at a fixed 10 percent interest rate and can be used for start-ups or existing businesses.

“Our partnership enables us to bridge the workforce divide for those with barriers to employment,” says Bob Dugas, CEO of Goodwill Industries of San Antonio.  “Working with Accion Texas, we have been able to help many men and women rebuild their lives and create financial stability for themselves and their families.”

Accion Texas Loan Officer Alma Valdez works with Goodwill management to identify potential borrowers who are serious about starting their own businesses.

“When I met Kenny, I knew we had found someone special with a true desire to change his life for the better,” Valdez says.

Goodwill paid for Kenny to attend barber school and after earning his certification, Accion Texas was able to qualify him for a $5,000 loan, which he used to purchase equipment, lease a 400-square-foot location and hire an employee.  In 2011, he was working to pay off his loan and readying to secure a second Accion loan to expand his business to a 1,000-square-foot facility with six barber stations and a second employee.

“I really appreciate what Goodwill did to help me.  And I enjoy working with Alma at Accion.  She and Janie Barrera gave me confidence and made me believe I could succeed.”

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In 2010, a $16,000 loan from Accion Texas Inc. helped Ricardo Rivera move out of his home-based collision repair shop and into a workshop. With his loan, Rivera bought specialized equipment and tools that would qualify him to be certified by all insurance companies. R&R Collision Repair’s Rio Grande Valley location was so successful in its first year, the business did not have the capacity to keep up with customer demand. Without the necessary capital to expand to another location, he turned again to Accion.

Rivera got more than he bargained for. A review of his financials, which showed his business operating at a deficit, revealed they had been miscalculated. The Accion Business Center helped him revise and correct his Profit & Loss statement and balance sheet, allowing approval of a second Accion loan.

Since moving out of his home-based business, Rivera, who owns the business with his brother, Lee Rivera, has hired 18 people. “With Accion’s help,” Rivera said, “I could pursue my dream at a faster pace. It got me there more quickly than if I had to do it on my own.”

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When Victoria Rayas was a teen-ager, her mother became paralyzed. Rayas, an only child, had to become her mother’s arms and legs as her sole caregiver. As she shuttled her mother to doctors’ appointments, she met other patients who lacked the resources or knowledge of arranging transportation or home-care assistance.

After working 15-plus years in the social-services industry, including rehabilitation centers and nursing homes, Rayas decided to use her experience to provide the in-home personal care she saw lacking as a teen-ager. As a result of an Accion Texas Inc. loan, she works full-time and has hired two part-time employees for her thriving business, Victoria’s In-House Care, which allows family’s loved ones to live at home comfortably while maintaining their independence.

Rayas recently visited her loan officer to share the good news of her success, saying: “Thank you for the opportunity to open a business that allows me to provide quality care, respect and dignity to clients in their own homes.”

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Adriana Pezzatti worked for 20 years as a hairstylist, but she always had a bigger dream in mind: owning her own hair salon and spa that also doubles as a much-needed community bookstore (and coffee shop), which carries subjects such as art, health, history, religion and self-help.

At her unique storefront, Elevate, residents can purchase books or simply peruse them at their leisure to further educate themselves.  Pezzatti even accepts donated books so patrons and residents can share their wisdom with others in the North Oak Cliff area. She used her Accion Texas Inc. loan to purchase additional equipment for the upscale salon and accompanying coffee shop and grow from two full-time employees to eight.

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Lisa McGrath has always been conscious of her carbon footprint on the environment. But now her new business, Tails: Natural Pet Market, focuses on the “pawprint” as well.

Her pet store sells unique products that are environmentally friendly, all-natural or made from recycled materials such as men’s vintage neckties that now serve as doggie collars. Now, San Antonio pet owners can make more eco-friendly decisions when it comes to pampering their pets.

McGrath left a job as a KLRN public television executive in July to pursue her dream of owning her own business. She’d heard of Accion through her work, so she knew where to seek financing for her startup. McGrath received a loan from ACCION Texas Inc.’s green loan fund to start her business.

Tails Natural Pet Market also works with other socially and environmentally responsible companies such as its website-hosting service, Sustainable Hosting, and Dharma Merchant Services, a certified green business that donates a percentage of credit card fees to McGrath’s preferred charity – Alamo Area Partners for Animal Welfare (AAPAW.) Even McGrath’s business cards are made from recycled product packaging.

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At the tender age of 22, Brent Latin is already a CEO. He is the majority partner in Young Professionals Entertainment, a media production company that markets and promotes music artists and offers services in all areas of music and video such as producing, recording, mastering, live sound, DJ services, and consulting.

When he was 3 years old, Latin was already displaying a talent for music by playing the drums. By 11, he was recording music on the family computer before graduating to a home studio (for which he had to repay his father) when he was 18.

Destined to continue his ascent in the music business, Latin turned to ACCION Texas Inc. for funding to help launch Young Professionals, while creating two part-time jobs in the process. And to think, his journey all started with a simple drum set.

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Jose Hernandez doesn’t believe in just keeping young children occupied. The military veteran believes that an early education foundation is the key to a successful future.

That’s the premise for his start-up, Learning Buddies Preschool Day Care. The day care center will prepare toddlers and preschoolers for pre-kindergarten and instill in them — with support from their parents — a foundation of traditional cultural family values to guide them through the rest of their lives.

The basic philosophy of Learning Buddies is that parents are the primary educators and motivators for their children. As such, the day care will provide counseling services to parents in order to provide a working relationship between parents and teachers that will result in the best education possible for each child (18 months to 4 years) enrolled in the program. The day care, which received a loan from ACCION Texas Inc., anticipates creating two full-time positions and two part-time jobs, as well as a newfound emphasis on early education in the Rio Grande Valley.

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Even now, 25 years after she started Lexis Florist in Houston, Sue Habib chuckles at her audacity. She was new to the country, didn’t know the language, had $200 to her name and she was mother to two teenage boys and a 1 ½-year-old daughter.  “I didn’t even think about it,” when she set out to blaze her entrepreneurial trial, Habib said.

The floral business was a natural fit. It was her family’s line of work in Lebanon and she knew it well. What was to have been a 40-day visit from Lebanon turned into a long-term stay when she seized the opportunity to take over a floral business that was for sale. With the help of her mother, who now is deceased, and her children, Habib has grown the humble business into a mega-enterprise that provides floral arrangements to Houston’s high society and whose creative prowess is widely recognized. Habib counts President George Bush among her clients.

Already a successful businesswoman in 2009, Habib says she nonetheless found it difficult to secure a commercial loan amid the bank crisis of the day. A $55,000 loan from Accion Texas allowed her to expand her business and hire three additional employees. Her Galleria-area stores draw more than $1.5 million in receipts and she employs 20 people.

She could fill a book with lessons she’s learned, but relays two in particular to new business owners: “Love what you do and learn from your customers.”

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A $10,400 Accion Teaxs loan to pay for product inventory kept Aaron Dauner from delaying production of an innovative tire-masking solution he developed to maintain the wheels on large trucks. His solution includes a “mask” for the tires and hubcaps on large trucks that can be used when painting, cleaning and detailing the wheels and hubcaps. In turn, Dauner’s company, TM Products, was able to fill its first orders.

Dauner’s company already has established a business relationship with one of the nation’s largest transportation-services companies. His startup employs him and his wife; Dauner outsources the product manufacturing work to a Wisconsin-based plastics company and the packaging to a corrugated box company.

Dauner’s inspiration for his product came from years of back-breaking work maintaining large commercial vehicles as a college student. “I knew there had to be a better way,” Dauner said, describing the alternative to his “mask:” covering a large truck’s tires with two-inch masking tape to protect them from overspray.  A professional musician and entrepreneurial dabbler, Dauner has patented his products and looks forward to greater demand.

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For nearly 20 years, Accion Texas has been helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams.  And we do this for very compelling reasons, including the most important one:  it’s the right thing to do!

For starters, small business is the engine of the U.S. economy.  We’ve heard variations of this statement for years.  And it is TRUE!  The economic impact of small businesses is profound:  $11 trillion a year, according to the most recent figures available from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The SBA reports that 99.7 percent of ALL employer firms are small businesses!  So the chances are good that you, your family and your friends work for small enterprises.  There are almost 30 million small businesses in America and they employ nearly 57 million people.  The vast majority of these firms employ five or fewer workers.  In fact, the most recent SBA study reports that 78.5 percent of small businesses don’t have any employees at all – they are sole proprietors.

Secondly, self-employment is often the only way for men and women to provide for their families.  But starting and sustaining a small business is hard work – and there are often enormous obstacles that keep people from succeeding.  Helping them get over the hurdles helps everybody along the way:  from your own family to your neighbor’s to your town, your state your country.  In other words, helping small businesses to thrive is like a “chain reaction” that makes America’s economic engine run smoothly and effectively.

I’m proud to say that Accion’s mission is to help the most vulnerable people in our society who are striving for a better life.  They need access to capital, education and a support system to realize their potential and increase their chances for success.  We provide those things.  And we take great pride — and joy — in the results.

Since we opened our first office in San Antonio with three employees in 1994, we have helped thousands of people achieve the financial stability and growth they so richly deserve as a result of their vision and hard work.  We’ve made 13,000 loans totaling more than $130 million.  And we’ve grown to include lending in eight states – enabling us to reach more and more people with each passing year.

We have worked with every kind of business imaginable, from Mom-and-Pop restaurants and corner stores to clothing boutiques and flower shops – and everything in between!  These are the businesses that are part of our daily lives.  We often take it for granted that they are there, waiting to serve us and provide us with the products and services we need.  But most would not be there without a helping hand and many would have given up without resources.  Every small business owner started with a vision and had to find ways to achieve it.

Organizations like ours have made a real difference at the most local level AND in terms of a meaningful and measurable national impact.

It’s a mission the Accion team embraces each day. What we do is rewarding beyond words.  And knowing we are helping at the grassroots level in the communities we serve is a blessing and an honor.

So, as 2012 winds down and we begin a fresh start in 2013, it’s appropriate to reflect on the awesome power of small business owners everywhere.  And to celebrate!

- Janie Barrera, Accion Texas President and CEO

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