Under the Microscope Use microenterprise loans to help make micro a temporary condition.

Things were looking pretty bad for Margaret Quenemoen back in1991. Her run of bad luck started with breaking her ankles, beingout of work and having to live in her car. But hope came in theform of headbands she made for the winter sporting community inTelluride, Colorado. She hit a resort restaurant and ended upselling all of them to the tune of $130.

"I was living in a beautiful mountain town, and I wanted tostay-I didn't want to go home [to live] with myparents," she remembers. "I realized that I could start abusiness."

She became a licensed street vendor and kept receiving requestsfor more items--shirts, vests, pants. "It was apparent I had areal business going," says Quenemoen, 41. When she took herwares to a trade show and scored an $80,000 purchase order, sheknew she'd need some funding to grow her company, Jagged EdgeMountain Gear Inc.