The trickle-up trend.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS - Microenterprises offer lower-income families means of living

What do a Nobel Prize winning economist from Bangladesh, a nuclear waste clean-up crew in Colorado, and a couple of ponies have in common? They all make a living thanks to Microenterprise development.

A microenterprise is a business with five or fewer employees that requires $35,000 or less in start-up capital. Microenterprise industries range from jewelry making and nail care to furniture repair, webpage design, and in at least one case, a traveling carnival for birthday parties--pony rides included. All told, the Aspen Institute estimates there are at least 20 million microenterprises in the United States, equal to about 17 percent of all private employment.

Initial loans for these businesses average just over $7,000. Yet, most would-be microentrepreneurs either lack the income or the credit score to raise that kind of capital.

Enter a microenterprise development organization. These organizations are private, non-profit entities that provide small, usually short-term, market-rate loans to their clients. Most also offer the kind of training and assistance that rookie entrepreneurs need, like business plan assistance, mentoring and networking. Such support is crucial to microenterprise development, and perhaps the main reason that more microbusinesses survive than fail. An estimated 650 MDO's, now operate nationwide.

In a major Aspen Institute survey, 57 percent of businesses were still around at the end of...