A microenterprise training and microlending organization, Women’s Initiative has helped low-income women start or expand more than 1,600 businesses in Northern California. Through a 20-session business management course at Women’s Initiative, they’ve figured out how to come up with business plans, target their markets, analyze the competition, price their product or service, handle cash-flow projections, and do all the other things that entrepreneurs must. Twenty-nine percent are single mothers, 15 percent have a disability, and 46 percent speak Spanish as their first or only language - which is why Women’s Initiative offers programs in Spanish. Meyer, chairwoman of Equal Rights Advocates in San Francisco, said Women’s Initiative is one of the forces that pioneered the microcredit movement, which focuses on tiny loans to very poor people to create small businesses. Abrams is not aware, however, of any Bay Area organizations that offer what Women’s Initiative does, combining training, microfinance and access to networks of women. She noted that 70 percent of the graduates are in business five years out, and added that Women’s Initiative would help them long after the class was over, with such things as follow-up consultations, mentoring and conferences. Read More