The word ‘challenge’ doesn’t exist in Marie’s world. “It’s all about how you deal with it. It’s not really a challenge if you are doing the work. You learn,” she explains. It’s her positive outlook and determination that has taken her through years of community organizing work. Originally from Haiti but raised in Brooklyn, Marie has lent her outlook to help communities in this country deal with some pretty extreme challenges. After getting her MBA, she worked helping communities through the housing crisis, Hurricane Katrina and the recession.

“I helped Obama get elected. I campaigned for him and worked the polls. I even went to both inaugurations,” stated Marie proudly.

Five years ago, Marie decided to replace her organizer hat with a different community building role – entrepreneur.

“Being your own boss is one of the greatest aspects to running your own business. You really get to choose how you want to help people.”

And helping people has certainly been her business. Marie’s business, Power Plus Multi Services offers many necessary services to the largely Haitian population in Pompano Beach, FL: tax services, traffic ticket services, translation services and legal/financial consultation. Marie considers her clientele as family and has even lent her time to provide free help in enrolling in health care brought on by the Affordable Care Act. Her generosity hasn’t gone unnoticed; in fact, it’s brought more business to Power Plus Multi Services as they enlist Marie to help them with other things.

Yet, as a new business, Marie needed help accessing capital. She sought assistance from her banker at Chase, who advised her to begin working with Ascendus. It was there where she received a small loan to purchase a computer and printer, and worked with Ascendus on building her credit. Now, she’s ready to expand her business into a whole different direction – she’s opening up a cleaning company as another prong to her business.

“People have families who they need to support. You can’t make it alone with one income. I want to provide jobs here in this community. Small businesses help create local jobs and investment within the community.”