Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs
By: Martha Shirk & Anna S. Wadia
This is a book about the experiences of eleven low-income women entrepreneurs who strove to make better lives for themselves and their families by starting small businesses of their own. The book was written nearly a decade ago, but is still an inspiring and interesting read. Meant to stand as a testament to the wisdom of microlending, the book makes a strong case for the practice of giving people in poverty loans instead of hand-outs as the means for creating hope for their future. As such, the case studies in the book predate the efforts being made currently by such groups as Kiva.org.
The book takes you through the lives of eleven different women and the struggles they faced before starting their businesses, as well as the struggles they faced while running their businesses. It is hopeful and inspiring, yet provides a clear-eyed look at the day-to-day realities and challenges of learning the ropes of running a business and dealing with all of the circumstances that tend to crop up while doing so. The epilogue in particular brings one back to reality, as it chronicles the continuing challenges of some of the businesses trying to stay afloat in an uncertain economy (that of 2003) and details how a few of the women have even turned to outside employment in order to make ends meet. Be that as it may, the moral of the story seems to be that while self-employment can be a challenging undertaking that may not always meet with success, it nevertheless IS possible to take matters into one’s own hands and start a business that will allow one to live on one’s own terms. And no matter what happens, the entrepreneur ends up smarter and with a wider skill set than she had before.
This book is still relevant in today’s world, especially since, given dismal job growth, self-employment might just be the surest way out of unemployment for many people. The means to that end have certainly evolved since this book was written – online business was still basically in its infancy a decade ago – but the impetus, ingenuity, and courage needed to strike out on one’s own remains unchanged.
Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs: How Eleven Women Escaped Poverty and Became Their Own Bosses
By: Martha Shirk & Anna S. Wadia
Copyright: 2004
Publisher: Westview Press
Pages: 324
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