The following was written by special guest Alex Counts, Social Entrepreneur, Founder of the Grameen Foundation, and Consultant to mission-driven organizations.
“I am a grateful person,” Veronica Rios, the owner of City Auto Insurance, responded when I asked her why, as a small business owner, she made a monthly donation to LiftFund. “I believe in giving back to help other people.”
Veronica is one of the dozens of current and former clients who voluntarily decided to contribute some of the income they derive from their small businesses to LiftFund. In total, those donations amount to more than $20,000 per year.
I was curious about what motivated hard-working entrepreneurs like Veronica to give back, so I paid her a visit recently. I learned a great deal about her journey and about the gratitude she feels towards LiftFund.
Veronica is a born entrepreneur and problem-solver. Born in the Mexican city of Monterrey, she once stepped in to help the agents for a bus company resolve a glitch in their reservation system when she was waiting to start a trip. The owner appreciated her efforts so much he gave Veronica a job, which she initially refused (as she was not looking for work at the time) but ultimately accepted. She was promoted several times and left only when the travel demands were too much to square with her family responsibilities.
Later she sold clothing, got trained in tax preparation and opened a business, and most recently became a successful insurance broker who employs 7 cheerful and dedicated young women in her community. She is the third most prolific salesperson for Progressive in the state of Texas (despite the fact that she also sells policies for more than 30 other insurance companies).
One of the benefits of the income from her various businesses was being able to take decisive action when her daughter was struggling during her pre-teen years. In response, she put her in a school better suited to her needs, despite the many sacrifices doing so involved. Today, her daughter is fluent in three languages (including Italian, where she spent a high school semester abroad) and will soon be studying architecture and design at a respected U.S. university.
As a businessperson, she advocates for playing the long game. In other words, she always tries to guide her clients to the best and most affordable products for them, rather than those that pay her the highest commissions. As a result, she now has 3,900 active policies, compared to 834 in 2021. As a result of the community’s appreciation of her ethical practices, she has grown without ever advertising. Word of mouth has been enough.
She took her first loan from LiftFund to move into a bigger office with adequate parking, and purchase the necessary equipment. A second loan allowed her to recruit more employees, which paid off by enabling sustainable growth. “When COVID hit, I didn’t want anything for free or any kind of handout. What LiftFund offered made sense,” she explained.
Some weeks ago, I mentioned to Roland Berrera, a LiftFund board member from Corpus Christi, that I was fascinated by the phenomenon of clients becoming donors. He volunteered to interview two other examples in his area. Despite a heavy workload, he followed through and recently told me about his conversations with Esmeralda Megee, the founder of Casa Ortiz Event Center, and Devin Moreno, the owner of Paradigm Wellness.
“Esmeralda’s facility is beautiful, and what motivated her and Devin to contribute to LiftFund is that they wanted to give back to their community, even if their businesses still struggle at times,” Roland told me recently. He relayed how the events center was frequently used by nonprofits, and how he counseled Esmeralda to remember that her business was not a nonprofit.
Devin’s wellness center has served more than 30,000 clients, including thousands of veterans, with services that range from physical therapy, massage, and acupuncture to chiropractic medicine and telehealth.
Both were able to borrow from LiftFund at critical moments in their entrepreneurial journey, and both decided that making a donation to help the organization reach more people made sense to them.
Roland is himself a former LiftFund borrower, in addition to being a member of the organization’s board of directors today. (He is also a member of the Corpus Christi City Council.) When he was launching his employee benefits business (Roland Barrera Insurance LLC), financing it through credit card loans of 22% was possible but unattractive. A loan from LiftFund at a much lower interest rate helped everything come together. He started with 1 full time and 1 part time employee, and today has 6 full time people on his team. Naturally, he is also a donor to LiftFund, as all board members and staff members.
When we reflect on the fact that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and that many financing options are drying up for this job-generating engine, the importance of organizations like LiftFund is all the more apparent. If the small business owners who benefit from it can see their way clear to making a donation, however modest some of them are, there are few excuses for the rest of us not to do our part.
To make a donation to LiftFund, click here.
