Ventures

Mission Statement\r\nVentures empowers individuals with limited resources and unlimited potential to improve their lives through small business ownership.\r\n\r\nCore Values\r\nCommunity – We work with a spirit of teamwork and collaboration, while always supporting clients with compassion.\r\nClient-Success – We let clients' needs govern our decisions and interactions, with the ultimate goal of clients' business development.\r\nEmpowerment – We trust each other's expertise and leadership abilities, while providing clients with the tools they need to achieve their own success.\r\nIntegrity – We operate sustainably and responsibly, while promoting ethically strong small business development.\r\nDiversity – We respect each other's different backgrounds, strengths, and work styles, while adapting programs to serve a diversity of business types and cultural backgrounds.\r\nInnovation -We appreciate and welcome new ideas, while encouraging clients to think outside the box.\r\n\r\nTen Year Vision\r\nVentures is a national leader in microenterprise development, offering effective programming, sustainable operations, and innovative growth strategies to create an always-increasing impact on our community. Because of Ventures, all individuals who seek to succeed as small business owners have access to the tools and resources they need to enable them to increase their incomes and achieve financial stability.

We serve individuals at the most vulnerable end of the economic spectrum; people who face barriers to living wage employment such as inadequate English language skills, lack of literacy or education, physical and mental disabilities, or a poor social support network. We focus explicitly on underserved populations such as women, people of color, immigrants and refugees, and single parents. The average Ventures client supports a family on $23,000 per year when they first come to us. \r\n\r\nOur ultimate goal is to give people the tools they need to launch microbusinesses, increase their incomes, and move out of poverty. On average 50% of our clients increase their incomes and move off of public assistance within the first year and a half of receiving services from Ventures.

BASIC BUSINESS TRAINING: The cornerstone of our program is an eight-week business basics course that serves as the entry point for every new participant. The curriculum of this course is designed to help people with low incomes and little formal education to define, organize, and launch their own micro-businesses. Participants bring their business ideas to class and work with peers to figure out how to turn them into profitable and sustainable enterprises. Lessons include marketing, financial statements, operations, licensing and taxes, and more.\r\n\r\nADVANCED TRAINING: We offer in-depth courses on marketing, sales, operations, and financial management, each course consisting of 6 to 12 sessions of two hours each, and covering advanced topics needed to grow small businesses. \r\n\r\nCUSTOMIZED COACHING: Our team of staff and contracted topic experts provide customized individual coaching to help clients identify and overcome barriers to business success. Coaches typically help clients with financials, bookkeeping, organization, time management, marketing plans, and goal-setting.\r\n\r\nMICROLOANS: We provide two loan products designed to provide clients with the capital they need to grow their businesses; one is a peer-based product up to $5,000 that relies on “social collateral" rather than tangible collateral to secure loans, and the other is a larger collateralized product up to $35,000. \r\n\r\nSAVINGS AND CREDIT BUILDING TOOLS: We have three tools in our arsenal to help people build long-term assets through strong savings and credit. Matched savings accounts provide a 2:1 match for savings up to $2,000, resulting in $6,000 which must be spent on business-related expenses. Savers' Clubs create a formal setting for clients to meet with peers, encourage healthy money habits, and gain access to basic banking services such as savings accounts. Asset Plus credit building loans are a bundle of three financial products, designed to quickly build or restore poor credit.\r\n\r\nINCUBATION: Our Ventures retail store located in Pike Place Market allows clients to display and sell their products, while receiving coaching from retail experts on product display, design, pricing, and packaging. Clients receive a portion of revenue earned from product sales to invest in their businesses.

Our ultimate goal is to give people the tools they need to launch microbusinesses, increase their incomes, and move out of poverty. On average 50% of our clients increase their incomes and move off of public assistance within the first year and a half of receiving services from Ventures.