Mission Statement
dMackComputerTutor is first and foremost a social-enterprise about empowerment through micro-enterprise development and good stewardship through environmental responsibility.
Our mission is the empowerment of at-risk individuals, so that they can prosper and become positive influences to both their families and their communities.
Our purpose is to foster human potential, break the cycle of poverty, and reduce the effect of crime on our inner-city neighborhoods.
Our vision is to offer an alternative to drug dealing and other criminal activities as a means to earning a livable wage.
Our belief is that an individual's prosperity should not necessarily be tied to their involvement with corporate America.
A micro-enterprise is a type of small business usually having 5 or fewer employees and a seed capital of not more than $35,000. Typically, micro-enterprises have no access to the commercial banking sector and microfinance institutions have become the common source of funding for micro-enterprises. Persons who found or engage in a micro-enterprise / micro-business are usually referred to as entrepreneurs.
Broadly stated, a micro-business is a business started with as little capital as possible, or less capital than would be normal for a business. The term is often used to refer to a business with a single owner-operator, and no employees.
Micro-enterprise has been an integral part of this country's growth and prosperity from the beginning up to and including current times. Healthy communities have businesses of all sizes and types employing community residents, contributing needed products and services and making the community an attractive place to live. Corporate America can no longer be relied upon to provide secure jobs to individuals entering or returning to the work force. Microenterprises increasingly are being recognized as an important part of the picture when it comes to providing jobs that enable people to stay in their communities.
Studies also document less tangible benefits, such as personal empowerment and overall family well-being. Specifically, clients report that self-employment provides flexibility to support family roles, and results in a greater sense of workplace control, autonomy, personal development and self-esteem.
How important are these small businesses to the U.S. economy?
Small firms:
• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ about half of all private sector employees.
• Pay more than 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
• Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually
over the last decade.
• Create more than half of non-farm private gross domestic
product (GDP).
• Supplied 22.8 percent of the total value of federal prime
contracts in FY 2006.
• Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists,
engineers, and computer workers).
• Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.
• Made up 97 percent of all identified exporters and produced
28.6 percent of the known export value in FY 2004.
• Small innovative firms produce 13 times more patents
per employee than large patenting firms, and their patents
are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one
percent most cited.
(Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census; Advocacy-funded research by Kathryn Kobe, 2007 (www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs299tot.pdf); Federal Procurement Data System; Advocacy-funded research by CHI Research, 2003 (www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs225tot.pdf); U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey; U.S. Dept. of Commerce, International Trade Administration).