The goal of Club Asteria is to help our members find financial freedom by taking advantage of the many resources, products and services that we make available at affordable prices.

We realize that running a small business in these trying economic times can be challenging – the competition is fierce and many people are keeping a tighter hold on their money than ever before!

Hard work has always been one of our mottos at Club Asteria, but there are other aspects to the entire picture that we have to recognize, in order for that hard work to pay off in the end.

Here are some ideas to keep in mind when you’re working towards a goal.

Look Back, Look Forward

This might sound like common sense, but many people don’t realize that to see how far they’ve gone, they need to look back. Every day, you’ve made an accomplishment that’s propelled you forward – no matter how small or insignificant it seems, what you’ve done has set you up for where you’re going!

Don’t Be Scared to Dare

Business leaders will tell you that they had plenty of false starts before they found the right project that led to their success. So don’t be afraid to take a chance, that’s the only way you’re going to succeed! Trying new things or strategies can pay off, it’s just a matter of believing in yourself.

Make Amazing Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes, right? When you do something wrong, take the opportunity to learn from it, and you’ll benefit in many ways. Keep a journal and write down what went wrong and how you learned. Remember this, if you’re not making mistakes you’re not trying hard enough.

Look Outside Yourself

Everyone faces the hazard of getting tunnel vision – becoming so engrossed in our own lives that we never look around and observe others. There’s a whole world out there, and it’s full of lessons and information just waiting for you to notice. When we learn from others, we grow and thrive.

Never Stop Learning

As we age, it’s common to think that we’re done learning about life and how the world works. But that’s just not true! There is always something new to learn, and that information could make a big difference in your life. And when you share new information with someone else, you’re helping make the world a better place.

The road of life isn’t always easy, and there’s no guarantee that everyone gets what they want, but as long as you remain open to the people and world around you, the experiences and knowledge you gain will outweigh the negative experiences.

A few years ago, the editor of Wired Magazine wrote an article about the Long Tail and used Amazon.com and Netflix as examples.

Basically, the long tail theory says that you can do more business by selling small amounts of hard to find items than trying to sell large amounts of easy to find items.

Amazon stocks hundreds of thousands of items, and sells only a few of each, but because the stock isn’t residing in an actual inventory, the overhead is negligible and Amazon is able to sell millions of dollars worth of product.

Any online retailer or business can mimic the same model of the long tail – especially if you’re a Club Asteria member!

First, you need to figure out the niche that you serve – are your customers looking for business solutions or residential solutions? Do they want to purchase software or are they looking for specific business books?

The next step to finding a niche is to research the market that you are currently targeting. Start by listing the “easy guesses”, that is, the popular products that everyone carries and sells. The strong sellers are what help pay your overhead, keep your site running and the bills paid.

Now look closer at your sales over the past several months, what are your steady sellers that might only be purchased 5-10 times a month? Do they all fit into one category or do they represent an entirely different kind of market?

The best way to test this theory is marketing these steady, smaller sellers and observing how they perform. Another great way to discover niches is to survey your customers, based on their past purchases, and ask what other products or titles they would like.

Another way to discover a niche is test marketing, and with the Internet that’s easier than doing it the traditional way. If you’ve noticed a trend in business and found a product that compliments that trend, offer it as a special deal on the front page of your site.

Using your analytics and tracking programs, you can determine if this new product is getting a lot of attention. You may have to tinker with this process, but you won’t be taking a big risk, since the inventory doesn’t have to be purchase by you until orders are generated.

Niche markets are always waiting to be discovered – and if you can’t find one, building a niche is the next best answer.

This process takes more time, but if you realize there’s a market that hasn’t been serviced, matching up existing products or developing new ones, can result in significant profit.

Again, the initial investment of time and money is sizable, but when you grow a niche market yourself, you benefit from being the first one there!

Cambodia is a place of great beauty and historic significance, and also home to thousands of unexploded land mines that cause untold damage, decades after the war in Southeast Asia.

When you cross over by land from Thailand into Cambodia, you see a row of people with missing limbs, sitting in the dirt. Those that still have hands reach out to you spare change. Those that don’t, simply sit with a bowl in front of them.

Every one has been a victim of land mines. Perhaps they went out into the jungle to pick fruit, or hunt to feed their families. One small step and a 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 them.

A strange thing about the culture of those limbless beggars is that those who have lost the most limbs have more status. A more visible shock engenders a greater amount of spare change.

In addition to the wounded beggars at the border, homeless children roam the streets in Poipet, begging for food and money or picking up the occasional odd job. Often they fall victim to unscrupulous people who take advantage of them. There was one young boy who used 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 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 met young men who had purchased motorbikes and offered short-distance rides and delivery services for people in town.

I was able to strike up a conversation with a young lady running a small booth at the bazaar. She was selling handcrafted items carved out of coconut shells, and I looked over and saw her husband doing the carving. Both of his legs were missing and he sat on a small wooden platform. “He used to sit at the border,” she told me, “after the land mine accident.”

These are the people that Club Asteria can help.  A microloan of a few hundred dollars gave her enough capital to rent the booth and acquire initial stock, and soon after, her husband discovered his own talent for carving these delightful items.

Their new micro-loan-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 micro-credit 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 have the lives they deserve.

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.

Both in the United States and abroad, in economically mature countries and poor or “emerging” nations, there’s one constant you can count on: Computer literacy helps to lift people out of poverty. The Internet economy has broken down barriers and borders, for the first time making it realistic for somebody in rural Thailand, in Kolkata India, or even in sub-Saharan Africa to begin the path towards self-sufficiency. Because of the available technology, it’s possible for the first time to realistically work at home in your own cottage industry, and more people are doing that every day. It’s no longer a pipe dream—it’s realistic, and the technology is here to make it happen.

The challenge of course, is to get computers in the hands of the world’s poorest people, to provide Internet access and electricity to rural villages, and to educate them on how to use the technology to their benefit. It’s already happening, on all fronts. Thailand’s well-regarded rural distance learning program pipes in first-class education to the most remote villages in the country, from the “King’s School” in HuaHin—the best school in the country. Satellite Internet access provides coverage to nearly all of Southeast Asia, no matter how remote. In India, even the poorest citizens have been able to get computer literate, and go into business providing services on a telecommuting basis to Western countries.

The innovative “One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC) program even has a solution to help get computers into the hands of young people in poor villages. This program isn’t just about providing computers to people—it’s about alleviating poverty. It’s about giving children a skill that they can use the rest of their lives. The goal of OLPC is to create very inexpensive, minimally configured laptops, which can even be used in a village with no electricity (remarkably, it’s powered by a hand crank). Thailand was actually the first country to sign up with the program, and Nigeria has also made great strides with it. Rwanda has made a commitment to provide laptops to all school children.

There’s no disputing that technology is the key. When Nehru established the Indian Institute of Technology, India was deep in poverty. There’s no doubt that poverty is still rampant there, but India has made great strides—and it’s largely due to the country’s focus on developing a framework for technological education. What has become known as the “Asian miracle” can be replicated around the world.

Microfinance has a role to play in establishing this technological base. While it’s up to NGOs like OLPC, and local governments, to provide the framework and the educational infrastructure, microfinance can actually give poor people the tools they need to become self-sufficient.

Take the case of a teenager from a poor family in Delhi. Through hands-on learning and some low-cost direct training, he has become very proficient at web site design, and he’s quickly discovered he has a talent for graphic arts. He’s already created the web site for his school, which has become widely recognized as one of the best school web sites in the country. But until recently, he has always relied on using computers at the school, or even paying to use the local Internet café. A small microfinance loan enabled him to buy a low-cost laptop and Internet service at home—and how he’s building web sites for schools and small businesses all over India. This small, home-based business has turned around his own life and the lives of his parents and siblings, and he’s just received some very good news. He’s been accepted to attend the Indian Institute of Technology, and because of his work, he will be able to afford to put himself through school.

Cambodia has a turbulent history and is still struggling to establish stability and peace, though it has a democratically elected government and a constitutional monarchy. During my visits to the country, I have never ceased to marvel at the amazing cultural heritage of the country and its imposing architecture. Juxtaposed against this is the daily life of the common people, who literally fight a battle for survival.

Kolab lives 40 kilometers outside Phnom Penh the capital city with her husband and 6 children, 4 daughters and 2 sons. She is 35 and her husband just 4 years older and like most of the local people, their livelihood is from rice farming in the small plot of land adjacent to their humble home. It is a struggle to feed and clothe her family and obviously there is no money left to send the children to school. The eldest son helps in the farm while the younger ones fend for themselves.

I met Kolab on one of my visits and saw how the family was struggling to survive with a little dignity. Kolab, as is usual in Asia, was the pivot around whom the others revolved and I noticed her desperation to give her children a better life. A chance encounter with a friend in the capital was the proverbial coincidence that did just that. Kolab and her husband had gone there to the government center to buy some seeds and fertilizer with the meager money they had and their farmer friend was also there. He started talking about the NGO that had advanced him a loan without any collateral and how he had expanded his farming land and bought a tractor with the money. Kolab felt a little hope blossoming in her heart, perhaps they could try?

A few days later the representative from the micro-lending NGO came to their home and the formalities were completed. Pheakdel, her husband, signed the papers and the loan amount of $700 was sanctioned with a monthly repayment plan starting from the 3^rd month. Kolab and Pheakdel bought seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and a water pumping machine with the major portion of the money. They also managed to buy a small additional plot of land for planting more rice and potatoes.

My recent visit saw a changed scenario; Kolab’s entire personality had changed as she wore a colorful dress and the children looked well-fed and happy. They were all going to school, including Sovann, her eldest son. They had repaid the earlier loan and applied for a new one. Now, Pheakdel wanted to branch out into the fishing business and decided that he would buy the necessary equipment with the new loan. More land acquisition was also planned as Kolab brimmed over with her enthusiastic chatter about how good the yield was with all their hard work.

Microfinance is an effective way to help the poor and marginalized in many countries to generate income and find a way out of grinding poverty. Club Asteria finds a ray of hope in such stories of revival and will continue working for such communities around the world. We trust you will join us on this voyage of discovery to support the many that need a helping hand.

Whenever I entertain my friends with tales of my travels throughout the world, they always love to hear about exotic, tropical locales like Thailand. Nobody ever questions why I would want to spend time on a tropical island, but when I turn the discussion to my last trip to Beirut, there’s a different reaction. “Beirut?!” they say. “Why on earth would anybody want to go there?”

Of course, they’re thinking of the war and destruction that has gone on in recent years, but since then, Beirut has been rebuilt and restored to its former glory. It has for centuries been a major center for culture and commerce, and one of the great jewels of the middle east. And yes, people really do go on vacations there.

Traveling to exotic destinations though isn’t all about luxurious hotels and five-star restaurants. It’s great to enjoy those things, but one of the most enlightening things about traveling is being exposed to how the rest of the world lives. Sometimes people who have traveled to places like Beirut are shocked at the levels of poverty and desperation they see. That’s not what they signed up for—they just want a few palm trees and a tropical rum drink served in a coconut shell. But that’s the reality, and it’s important to see it.

In Beirut, despite the rebuilding and the wonderful tourist destinations, there is still poverty—poverty that you will not see in much of the West. Poverty that will shock you. An article in today’s Daily Star, a Lebanese newspaper, gives us some insight and some hope into the situation there. Microcredit is starting to reach Beirut and the rural areas of Lebanon, offering hope in the form of small loans to poor families. According to the World Bank, Lebanon’s microloan portfolio now stands at about $50 million, with somewhere between 38,000 and 55,700 active clients. Sounds impressive, until you read the World Bank report a little further, which says that the number of eligible borrowers in that area is about 190,000. There’s still a long way to go and a lot of people to reach.

If you’re on the tourist path, you won’t see much of that desperate poverty, and in fact, Lebanon is one of the wealthier nations of the Middle East. But there is a disparity, and about 28 percent of the population falls under the UNDP’s poverty line of about four dollars a day. The article in the Star relates the story of two microcredit clients who have done well for themselves. Hajjeh, a Syrian woman in her mid-sixties, uses microcredit funds to buy make-up which she re-sells on the street; and Amal, a young Palestinian mother of three, makes delicious Arabic sweets to sell. How I love Middle Eastern sweets. I wish I were there to sample them! Remarkably, both of these ladies are now earning about $100 a week in their new small businesses.

Club Asteria supports microcredit programs like this, helping to lift people out of poverty the world over. Please join us today, and help support our efforts to bring prosperity to the world.

One of the most misunderstood places in the world is Haiti. The devastating earthquake earlier this year has brought Haiti into the world stage, but the attention hasn’t gone very far in helping the situation. Tens of thousands of people who had very little to begin with, have lost everything. The economic fallout alone has been devastating, and thousands of individuals who relied on their small microbusinesses for a living have been hard pressed to keep going.

These informal vendors and operators of very small portable businesses, who the locals call the ti machann,  often sell goods directly from their homes or from street stalls. But the earthquake caused so many to lose their homes—and the ti machann have had to rebuild.

Now I know a lot of prominent businesspeople who have suffered setbacks. I remember in the San Francisco earthquake in ’89, businesses that were worth many millions of dollars were forced to shut their doors forever. And if a millionaire businessman can’t rebuild after a disaster, what chance does a poor ti machann selling cooking oil out of her home have?

Rebuilding even a small business takes money and determination. Determination is free, but construction and sales goods cost money—and Haiti’s credit market is all but frozen. The only hope is from the handful of microlenders that have focused on the poor country, and the loans have given these people a chance to rebuild.

Where else will the money come from? Nations around the world have pledged support, but very little of the support has arrived. Microlending provides a lifeline and it’s providing it now. Even the microlenders are facing difficulties though in the aftermath of the disaster, and FInca Haiti, one of the largest microlenders in the country, had to write off about a third of its portfolio after so many of their own clients perished in the earthquake or lost their homes and businesses. But still, Finca Haiti and the other microlenders continue. Another microlender, Fonkoze, started by a Haitian priest in the 1990s, has been able to broaden its own program. According to a recent story in the New York Times, Fonkoze even has a program that lends not money, but goats and chickens—which in rural Haiti is even better than cash. Recipients can sell the milk and eggs to generate a regular income. Fonkoze made a loan to 30-year-old Marie, who lives in a mud house with her extended family. She was able to receive two chickens and a goat from the bank.

Now it may seem strange to go to a bank and make a withdrawal of livestock—but it’s a great idea and one that works. Marie has already started selling eggs from her house, and has been able to save up enough money to expand her inventory, and has even built a shed for her goat.

Microlending is an opportunity to help those who the conventional lenders don’t want to help. Club Asteria actively supports microlending in Haiti and throughout the world. We encourage you to join our program today.

Tags: millionaire businessman, growth and development, places in the world, tens of thousands, san francisco earthquake, devastating earthquake, getting a loan

The goal of Club Asteria is to help the people of the world experience positive economic growth by giving them the tools, services and resources. Every member has access to these excellent resources, and their success has translated into life changing scenarios for themselves, their families and communities.

One story of success recently posted on the Club Asteria Facebook page was from Alexander Shestakov, a pensioner living in the resort city of Yeysk, Russia. His pension wasn’t giving Alex the kind of lifestyle he desired, and after losing money and faith as a result of internet scams, he decided to try Club Asteria in December 2010.

Now more than a month later, Alex is a Gold Member and already ranked as a director! “I feel part of the big team, the big business,” he writes. The confidence Alex has gained from his association with Club Asteria has translated into helping himself and his close friends.

Another story posted on the Facebook page came from Astrid Flamand, who wrote, “Since I’m a Gold Member and Network Director of Club Asteria, my life has changed.” Astrid’s involvement with Club Asteria enables her to afford health bills for her autistic children. In addition, part of the money she earns each month pays the monthly fees for 18 other members!

“Club Asteria gives me an enormous potential to meet people, to take care of them and at the same time, to build a better life for my kids, my family members and so many people in the world,” she writes. “I’ve done a lot of “business” in the past, but never participated in a
business with a real heart.”

When you join Club Asteria, you’ll quickly learn that membership allows you to supplement your income – or generate an entire new income stream. The tools and resources we provide are part of our goal of helping people from around the world.

Take the first step on the path of financial freedom, join Club Asteria today!

Hi, I’m Andrea Lucas, Managing Director of Club-Asteria. Club-Asteria is an online global membership organization that provides education, business opportunities, e-commerce and innovative programs to empower our members.  Please visit our site at www.club-asteria.com to learn about our programs and services and our goals for the future and read about our philanthropic activities in the News.

I have now started the series of blogs so I can share my views and experiences with all of my family and friends and the extended community of people that are interested in global affairs.

Everything in my life that I have lived through – both good and bad, has brought me to this moment in time.  I now have the ability to contribute to some of society’s most critical and pressing issues – the plight of hundreds of millions of people that still live in poverty despite the advances in our social network and technology.  Human beings just like you and I who don’t enjoy the simple advantages of clean drinking water, reliable electricity, adequate shelter, the simplest of health care, food and education.

As I have traveled the world in my position in the financial community I have experienced first- hand this injustice and tragedy of humanity.  My life today is dedicated to not only sharing the plight of these undeserved people of the world but more importantly to serve as a catalyst of change to truly benefit their individual lives.  I hope that you will enjoy reading about my many experiences and the people I meet and can lend support to.

My blogs will touch on a variety of subjects, from e-commerce to financial support to philanthropic assistance to most importantly, education that can benefit each of the individuals and families that we are seeking to help.