As the world’s financial crisis lessens, and economies take a tentative step in the right direction, many people find themselves imprisoned by debt that is spiraling out of control.

While many say that debt is a part of life, they’re only partly correct. Incurring debt can be seen as “good” if it’s done to finance a new business or partnership – but often times it can lead to trouble.

Debt is bad, but when one person has accrued debt and owes several different entities, the stress is compounded. What’s more, it’s hard to develop a strategy for paying people back when it seems like the entire world is knocking on your door.

Club Asteria’s strategy to help the people of the world improve their lives includes creating new revenue streams, but it also includes helping our members deal with past debt. After all, it’s hard to get ahead when you seem to be falling further behind.

If you’re a Club Asteria member and you want help getting out of debt, the first place you can visit is our Coaching Page on the website. You’ll see a panel that’s marked Debt Consolidation.

Follow that page and you’ll see that we’ve partnered with several reliable debt counseling organizations in the United States.

These companies were formed to help people manage debt and provide different ways to pay outstanding bills. When you’re dealing with these companies, you’ll receive help in a variety of ways, including:

• * debt consolidation
• * debt settlement
• * debt management
• * bankruptcy

Getting a hold on your debt allows you to continue working towards your goals, without having to carry the stress. By creating strategies and payoff plans with these companies, you’ll be able to earmark profits for your growing business, while paying off your debt!

Not a Club Asteria member?

No problem! Joining is free and takes a few seconds – our Silver and Gold Level members enjoy access to a variety of services, products and resources that create instant opportunities and additional income streams.

I once heard a mountain climber speak at a motivational seminar. She explained the manner in which she conquered one of the highest elevations in the world was very similar to eating an elephant – one bite at a time. I didn’t fully understand the depth of her statement until I began my work at Club Asteria. Sometimes the projects we undertake seem probably as large as Mt. Everest to a mountain climber – the challenges to overcome, the poverty, the children, the endless issues -causing me to think it is all too enormous for us to handle. It is then that I remember to ask myself, “Andrea, how do you eat an elephant?”

When Club Asteria first enters an area, there are numerous steps to follow to insure success. People often ask, “Why don’t you just give the people money? Why go to the trouble of education, investment, building businesses, and etc.?” If we did just give people money as suggested, it would resemble a physician putting a band aid on a bleeding artery. In order to help overcome poverty, the root of the problem must be addressed. There just aren’t enough band aides otherwise.

The bites we take start with an assessment of the environment, the resources available, the number of people in the community, and the conditions in which the community lives. Sometimes we do have to make the infrastructure livable before we can even begin educational programs. We test drinking water and the access to it. We look at the food supply and ways to improve distribution. What is the local economy and how can we strengthen it? Do people live interdependently? What are the medical conditions and access to care? All of these areas of interest will affect the success of small businesses for without the basic necessities, it is difficult to build a business.

Our next bite deals with the ideas of the people – our potential entrepreneurs. This part is my favorite for it is the people that make micro finance the ideal job for me. We interview and exam their ideas. Sometimes we have to intervene and create potential business options for those who want to better themselves but do not know how. Other times we help them set up internet businesses, especially when the local economy cannot support their idea.

Our third bite involves education about business and how to be successful. This is required of anyone who wants a small loan. It not only helps us to get to know our entrepreneurs but builds a relationship of trust. The repayment of our loans is high and we feel it is because of the work we do beforehand.

As we continue to bite away at the elephant, Club Asteria becomes a witness to families owning homes; children learning a trade or receiving an education; women making an income; and communities thriving for the first time in centuries. I’ve learned eating an elephant isn’t all that difficult but it does take perseverance – one bite at a time.

Club Asteria provides our members with a great deal of services and tools, but one of the most valuable resources is the people who have dedicated their time and talents to our organization.

One of those people is Director of Club Asteria’s Entrepreneurial Educational Program, Dr. Rich Schuttle, who provides training and educational awareness on small business success, entrepreneurialism, budgeting, savings, insurance, marketing, and network/direct marketing for Club Asteria.

He has mentored executives, faculty and students in America and around the world and served as Dean at the University of Phoenix and earned his Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences from Walden University.

Taking advantage of the free media and services provided by the internet, Club Asteria has recently posted Dr. Rich’s “Plan Your Work, Then Work Your Plan.” Whether you’re interested in planning out a new part of your business, or working towards another goal, the insight and information presented by Dr. Rich is invaluable!

The video is broken into two separate pieces, and will lead you through a proven strategy that presents a proven method that maps out the steps you need to take to attain a goal. Along the way, you’ll also learn how to create goals, measure your success, and list the many tasks you need to complete.

Any goal or project that brings you success is worth the effort, but sometimes you can get lost in trying to determine the right plan. Dr. Rich and Club Asteria want you to succeed in whatever business you’ve chosen – and this video will get you on the right path to success.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Club Asteria, and you’re not a member, joining is absolutely free. Club Asteria membership has already exceeded 250,000 and is growing every day. When you join, you’ll gain additional access to an entire host of services, products, and resources designed to help you succeed.

The Indian subcontinent is an exotic success story, home to some of the largest business process outsourcing companies in the world, some of the best technical colleges in Asia, and at least 69 billionaires. But while business journals hail the success of India Inc., there’s still another story to be told.

Microfinance in India is catching on—there are plenty of people in local villages who want to take advantage of it, and perhaps even more importantly, there are plenty of people in the monied class who are willing to fund it. Microfinance works especially well in India because of the way retail works. Although we always hear of big multinational chains wanting to move into the Indian market, the majority of retail is still informal—that is, most shops are very small, specialized, and run by family members. Unlike in the U.S., where you need an expensive storefront and tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of inventory, somebody in India can launch a small, informal retail shop with a relatively small amount of money. That start-up capital can easily be provided with microfinance.

Take the case of a young jewelry maker named Gulab, who has a talent for putting together beautiful necklaces. Never having finished high school, she was sent to work by her parents early on in a bidi factory, rolling the small, hand-rolled cigarettes in a tiny factory for less than a hundred rupees a day, to help support her family. The factory was actually one small room in the upstairs portion of an apartment building in Kolkata, where some twenty young people labored for ten hours a day in the stifling heat, with just one ancient electric fan to cool the entire room.

When the boss wasn’t looking one day, she started folding the cigarette papers into elaborate shapes and chaining them together into necklaces. She was caught, and was beaten for her trouble—but the necklace was a thing of beauty. She had a talent and an eye for design. She never made jewelry out of the cigarette papers again, but whenever she could get her hands on a few beads, she would save them in a tin box, and when it was full, she would beg her mother for a spool of thread, and string them together in wonderful patterns. One day she got up enough courage to offer one of her necklaces to a tourist that was wandering through the village, and she was presented with two American dollars—almost a full day’s wages at the bidi factory! She was uneducated, but smart enough to know where her future would be, if only she could get enough money to invest in some beads and a small push cart. When she heard of a microfinance opportunity from some of the village elders, she got some help in applying, and was fortunate enough to be able to make her plea in person and show her talent with some attractive hand-made jewelry. With an initial microfinance investment of 4,500 rupees – about US$100 – she was able to get everything she needed. She was able to pay back the loan in just a few months, and today is enjoying her new life as a jewelry vendor. And she’s set a new goal for herself—she wants to save up for a motorbike!

I have always liked visiting Pakistan, a country with an interesting history and colorful ethnic culture. Despite the tumultuous events in its political history, Pakistan’s economic growth has been steady, but has been unstable and vulnerable to internal and external developments. Though poverty alleviation programs have had considerable impact, rural poverty remains a crucial factor as development there has been far less than in the major urban centers. The recent floods have affected a large swath of the populace, mostly the poor.

Sahida Begum is a young woman living near Charsadda in Chitral District in Pakistan. A single mother of 3 with old parents to care for, Sahida’s life was one endless struggle of keeping body and soul together. Her husband Mohammed Amer had divorced her to marry another younger woman and had now left the town. In this scenario of dire need and day-to-day survival, he did not leave behind anything that could sustain the family. Sahida was reduced to literally begging the neighbors for some food at least for the young children and the old couple.

Hearing of small loans being disbursed by a private bank, Sahida went with a friend to find out if she could get some money to start a tailoring business. She applied for a loan of $250 and bought a sewing machine with the money. Her sister-in-law taught her the rudiments of working on the machine and soon Sahida was on her way. Getting orders from the neighbors and others, soon she was doing well. There was enough money for food and clothing and soon she could send the children to the local school. Paying off the initial loan, she approached the bank for a higher amount, with the proposal of a small school for teaching sewing and embroidery for the young women in her local community. These women subsequently became part of Sahida’s tailoring business and it became a synergistic enterprise.

Sahida now found organizations who bought their products and they were even exhibited in urban centers. She had plans for building another room to house her school, which now had several students. Her income was now substantial and she was also a catalyst for social change and empowerment. Though it had been a difficult journey, her sheer courage, determination and hard work had lifted her entire family to a life of dignity and self-respect. Her school helped other women to find work and also boosted their income. Sahida was now well on her way to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Individual micro-entrepreneurs make a difference not just to their own lives and the economic sustainability of their families but also have an impact on their communities. Sahida’s story gives us hope and inspiration that Club Asteria can help others like her to emerge from poverty and deprivation to a life lived well. We ask you to join us on this amazing journey to usher in a fairer and more equitable world, where everyone can live with dignity and self-respect.

Tags: private bank, poverty alleviation programs, endless struggle, future generations, history pakistan, business loans, Pakistan’s economic growth

Club Asteria’s tools and resources have allowed thousands of our members to generate additional income for their businesses, their families and their community. We’ve worked with a variety of trusted vendors to provide their services and products.

Marketing and communications are two key methods you can use to promote your online business – and generate interest in what you’re selling. As a Club Asteria Member you have access to Cumada, our proprietary sales and lead capture program.

Cumada allows you to send email broadcasts and also create lead capture web pages. The program basically allows you to promote your businesses – whether it’s a retail store, online service, restaurant – the possibilities are endless!

With Cumada you can:

• - Quickly import your email databases
• - Post endless newsletters and emails
• - Effortlessly manage your entire database
• - Create lead capture pages “Become a master recruiter TODAY!”

Cumada works like this – you create a single page advertisement for use on the internet. The goal of this advertisement is to provide an overview about the services or products you have to offer.

Once the visitor reads the ad, they’re asked to leave details so you can follow up with their inquiry automatically. A free incentive for filling out the form is a great way to ensure you capture the information.

Your follow up can be in the form of a phone call or email – Cumada has already “warmed up” your lead. This increases the chances of making a sale or encouraging a potential client to try your services.

This simple, but effective, program is available only to our members. So if you haven’t joined Club Asteria, maybe it’s time! Over 250,000 people have already joined our organization, what are you waiting for?

Maria Ramos worked in a small clothing factory, but she also needed to care for her young children aged 2 years to 6, and it was a difficult life for the young mother. Her husband Juan had recently lost his temporary job at the local department store and now it was literally a daily struggle to make ends meet. Maria and Juan, her mother and the 3 children made it quite a large family and to even just feed everyone adequately was becoming a problem.

They lived just outside San Miguel one of the important cities in El Salvador. Maria was tired of her hectic, tiring schedule and wished they had a farm, where both she and Juan could work and grow what they could eat and sell the rest. But where was the money? Her meager salary just disappeared with all the expenses of the family, with no frills or luxuries for anyone.

In my visits to El Salvador I did not fail to notice that like most developing countries around the world, there was a stark contrast between the glittering malls and vibrant night life and the shanty towns where the poorer and marginalized sections eked out their existence. It was a micro-loan that turned the tide for Maria and Juan. It was a chance encounter with a friend of Juan that made the young couple aware that they could get money without a guarantor or any collateral.

The loan of $650 seemed a fortune to them and after a discussion, they decided to open a small store in their backyard. Juan was good with his hands and he built the small wooden structure with the shelves and a counter with some of the money. The rest was spent on buying the stock; some food items, soft drinks, household necessities like detergent and basic clothes like underwear, vests and socks. The store grew slowly but surely, with business increasing within a few months. Any spare money went into buying more stock and Juan had to build a separate shed to store more items.

The loan was repaid as per the schedule and both Juan and Maria applied for the second one. By now her mother started managing the store and Maria could spend time with her young children. Her 6-year-old son started going to school and Juan was also busy. With the second loan, the couple plan to buy some land in a place that was a distance from San Miguel, as it would be cheaper there. Farming was something that Juan had always wanted to do and he planned to build a small shack there, so that he could stay over if needed. Juan planned to grow maize and beans and sell the produce to the local cooperative.

They had a sparkle in their eyes and a spring in their steps and all because a small loan had given them hope. These are the real-life experiences that make us at Club Asteria determined to continue our efforts to do out bit to help the needy and deserving around the world. We hope you will join us in this great journey of discovery.

Tags: clothing factory, temporary job, single mother, young mother, household necessities

Club Asteria has added another resource for our members: Empower Now, a free digital magazine. The magazine is packed with content designed to help YOU achieve success and increase your income. Each page is loaded with information, tools and resources that are designed to help improve your business.

Here’s a sample of the stories you’ll find in Empower Now:

• -  Welcome From Our Founder, Andrea Lucas
• -  12 Steps to Success
• -  How to Achieve Financial Freedom
• -  Club Asteria’s Philanthropic Mission
• -  The Principal Programs of Club Asteria
• -  The Positive Difference One of Our Members Is Making

Tips to help you maximize the benefit of empower now!

When you access the online magazine, you’ll notice a toolbar at the top of the page. The icons on this toolbar allow you to browse through the publication, make the pages larger, or print it and share it with your family and friends.

Sharing this totally interactive magazine electronically is easy – click the icon of two heads on the toolbar and email the magazine link to all of your social and business contacts. What’s more, you can post the link on your social media page or website!

When you share this magazine with people unfamiliar with Club Asteria, they will learn about Club Asteria in a colorful and easy way. Your job of teaching them about the benefits accurately and correctly has been simplified.

The icons at the top of the page make your reading experience easier! Starting from the left side of the page, here is an explanation of the icons:

• Thumbs – allows you to view smaller images of each page; click each page and you’ll go directly to it!
• Contents – displays a full list of stories in each issue.
• Single Page – so you can read the issue a page at a time.
• Full Screen – each page occupies your entire screen.
• Arrow Buttons – clicking either one side or the other moves you forward or backward from the page you are currently viewing.
• Zoom – increases the size of the page for easier reading.
• Search – type in a keyword and see where it’s been mentioned in Empower Now!
• Share – click this icon to share the magazine’s link through social media!
• Question Mark – contains a full description of each icon button in the toolbar!
• Pens – print a page, make notes, or save the document in Portable Document Format (PDF), which is smaller and easier to email or save on your computer.
• Gears – control settings such as turning sound on or off.

With your help, newcomers will learn what we’re all about.

Don’t forget to share, share, share!

The Indian subcontinent is an exotic success story, home to some of the largest business process outsourcing companies in the world, some of the best technical colleges in Asia, and at least 69 billionaires. But while business journals hail the success of India Inc., there’s still another story to be told.

Microfinance in India is catching on—there are plenty of people in local villages who want to take advantage of it, and perhaps even more importantly, there are plenty of people in the monied class who are willing to fund it. Microfinance works especially well in India because of the way retail works. Although we always hear of big multinational chains wanting to move into the Indian market, the majority of retail is still informal—that is, most shops are very small, specialized, and run by family members. Unlike in the U.S., where you need an expensive storefront and tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of inventory, somebody in India can launch a small, informal retail shop with a relatively small amount of money. That start-up capital can easily be provided with microfinance.

Take the case of a young jewelry maker named Gulab, who has a talent for putting together beautiful necklaces. Never having finished high school, she was sent to work by her parents early on in a bidi factory, rolling the small, hand-rolled cigarettes in a tiny factory for less than a hundred rupees a day, to help support her family. The factory was actually one small room in the upstairs portion of an apartment building in Kolkata, where some twenty young people labored for ten hours a day in the stifling heat, with just one ancient electric fan to cool the entire room.

When the boss wasn’t looking one day, she started folding the cigarette papers into elaborate shapes and chaining them together into necklaces. She was caught, and was beaten for her trouble—but the necklace was a thing of beauty. She had a talent and an eye for design. She never made jewelry out of the cigarette papers again, but whenever she could get her hands on a few beads, she would save them in a tin box, and when it was full, she would beg her mother for a spool of thread, and string them together in wonderful patterns. She always felt good about herself when she would make one of her creations, but nobody, not even her parents, believed she would ever be able to make any money at it. She started to believe that maybe her parents were right, and her destiny was to work in the sweatshop. She was discouraged, but one day she got up enough courage to offer one of her necklaces to a tourist that was wandering through the village, and she was presented with two American dollars—almost a full day’s wages at the bidi factory! She was uneducated, but smart enough to know where her future would be, if only she could get enough money to invest in some beads and a small push cart. When she heard of a microfinance opportunity from some of the village elders, she got some help in applying, and was fortunate enough to be able to make her plea in person and show her talent with some attractive hand-made jewelry. With an initial microfinance investment of 4,500 rupees – about US$100 – she was able to get everything she needed. She was able to pay back the loan in just a few months, and today is enjoying her new life as a jewelry vendor. Now she’s able to help out her whole family, not only by putting some more nutritious food on the table every day, but she’s also training her younger sister to make jewelry, so the cigarette factory is a thing of the past for Gulab and her whole family. And she’s set a new goal for herself—she wants to save up for a motorbike!

Club Asteria is proud to support microcredit programs the world over. We’re always encouraged when we hear of success stories like this one becoming a reality all over the developing world. Small money can make a big difference—and we at Club Asteria encourage you to support our efforts to help people like Gulab achieve their dreams.

Cambodia is one of the most devastating places in the world to visit. A place of great beauty and historic significance, Cambodia is also home to thousands of unexploded land mines that still cause untold damage, even decades after the war in Southeast Asia is over.

When you cross over by land from Thailand into Cambodia, the first thing you see is a row of people with missing limbs, sitting in the dirt. Those that still have hands reach out to you for a little spare change. Those that don’t, simply sit with a bowl in front of them. Every one of them has been a victim of one of these land mines. Perhaps they went out into the jungle to pick fruit, or do a little hunting to feed their families. One small step on that deadly ordnance that was dropped so many years ago, sitting undetected until then, and life changes forever. There is no rehabilitation, no social safety net. There is no opportunity for prosthetics, and no check from the government. There is just sitting along the border with a bowl in front of you.

A strange thing about the culture of those limbless beggars, people tell me, is that those that have lost the most limbs have more status among that community, since a more visible shock engenders a greater amount of spare change. This peculiar status led to a sort of black humor among a group of children I met in Poipet, just across the Thai border.

Homeless children roam the streets there, begging food and money or picking up the occasional odd job. Often they fall victim to unscrupulous people who take advantage of them. Many of the tourists advised me not to give them any money, because if you give one a few coins, you’ll have a crowd following you, and that’s true enough. But you have to have a pretty cold heart to simply ignore these unfortunate children. How could I turn my back when a homeless eight year old boy came up to me and told me he was hungry?

There was one young boy who used humor—black humor—to get enough food for him and his friends when I was there. He came up to me, his arm obviously withdrawn under his shirt to make it look like he had a missing limb. Smiling and in broken English, he said to me, “Please Missus, may I have some money for food? Look at me, I don’t have an arm!” Then his friend came over and pulled his arm out of his shirt playfully, and said, “No, no! Look, he has arm! Give me money instead!” We all laughed and continued on with this strange game for a few minutes and I rewarded them both with some coins, and then they ran off to the satay vendor down the path for something to eat.

It doesn’t take much to turn the corner in a place like this. With a small amount of money—at least what is a small amount to us—those who would be homeless could make a living for themselves. I saw rays of hope in the desperation that day. I met women at the bazaar who sold clothing and home-made crafts. I men young men who had purchased motorbikes and offered short-distance rides and delivery services for people in town for the day who needed to get their passports stamped. I was able to strike up a conversation with a young lady running a small booth at the bazaar. One of the things she was selling was these adorable handcrafted items carved out of coconut shells, and I looked over in the corner of her booth, and her husband was sitting there doing the carving. Both of his legs were missing and he sat on the ground on a small wooden platform. “He used to sit at the border,” she told me, “after the land mine accident.” A microloan of a few hundred dollars gave her enough capital to rent the booth and acquire some initial stock, and soon after, her husband discovered his own talent for carving these delightful items. Their new microloan-funded business had made all the difference—and today they have a clean home, and she confided in me that she plans to surprise her husband with a store-bought wheelchair that will allow them to get around more easily.

Club Asteria supports microcredit programs to make success stories like this all over the world. It doesn’t take a lot of money to make a huge difference in somebody’s life, and we encourage you to support our efforts to help people like the folks I met in Cambodia that day have the lives they deserve.

Tags: black humor, social safety, cold heart, odd job, club asteria