In making the announcement, Holland said, "This announcement" marks the beginning of an important new phase for My Own Business.

"I am honored and excited to be asked to serve My Own Business as its new President," Topaz said. "Phil Holland and the Board have built the organization into one that is truly recognized and respected worldwide. I'm fortunate to have that legacy to build upon. We are entering a time of global challenges and My Own Business is positioned to help millions of people as part of its non-profit mission"

On May 23rd Glynis Long of the Small Business Administration and the Department of Commerce invited Peggy and Phil Holland, MOBI Chairman to a ceremony celebrating World Trade Week on the south lawn of the White House. On this beautiful spring day, with music supplied by U.S. Marine Corps band, President Bush spoke to 300 guests on the importance of world trade and discussed the importance of eliminating trade barriers. Prominent American exporters displaying their products included John Deere, Harley Davidson and Caterpillar. Phil especially enjoyed the opportunity to shake hands with the President. A tour of the White House followed the event.

In June, MOBI participated in the 99th annual convention of Rotary International in Los Angeles. With a presence in the House of Friendship, Chairman Phil Holland and new President/CEO Bill Topaz were able to meet Rotarians from all over the world. There was an especially large attendance by members from African countries - some of who departed with a carton of My Own Business textbooks crammed into their luggage.

It was also during the convention that MOBI learned that our 14-session course had been approved by the Rotary board as a vocational service project appropriate for individual clubs.

For more information Rotary clubs can contact us at rotarty@myownbusiness.org

MOBI has recently partnered with global technology leader Cisco Systems. Cisco's new major initiative - Cisco Entrepreneur Institute - is "focused on fostering entrepreneurship around the globe". The mission of this program is to "transform the economies and social landscape of Emerging Market Countries by cultivating and growing entrepreneurs by providing …."entrepreneur education…" And what better way to do that than to partner with My Own Business, which has made a significant contribution to their course materials.

• My Own Business reaches a milestone of serving more than 10 million visitors to the My Own Business Website.



• The World Bank provided three additional translations of the MOBI course to the MOBI website: Hindi, Arabic and Indonesian.

We welcome your questions to be answered in this Newsletter feature! Here is our Q and A for this edition:

Question:
 
I want to open my own store but my husband doesn't want to use our home equity and we don't have the cash. Someone told me to get investors. How do I do that? Call my fiends, send out letters? Clueless here on how to do that.
 
Answer:

I think you and your husband are wise in not risking your house which you would do with a home equity loan. Here are some thoughts: Starting a business with no money is like starting on a trip with no gas. So you will need to put together some start up-cash. Possible sources could include:

1. Live very frugally and save.
2. Ask for loans from relatives. Show them your business plan. (Session 2)
3. Sometimes the unsecured debt of a credit card can generate start-up cash.
4. Start up on a very small and humble basis. If you have a desired product or service, strive to secure your first single customer then go from one to two to four, etc.
5. To save the obligations of rent, fixtures, inventory, etc, is your product or service one that could be marketed on the internet from your house? (Session 10)
6. Start a moonlight business.