Yes, I know you're still enjoying - and recovering from - Christmas 2005. But it isn't too early to start thinking about Christmas 2006.

And while I realize I may be rushing things just a bit, I can't help it. I'm so excited about the possibilities for next year, when those who enjoy the feeling of giving great and wonderful gifts that truly make a difference in people's lives can give a poor person in a Third World country a microfranchise for Christmas.

I am urging all my friends, associates and people I don't even know to give this "gift of choice" to others next year. By then we should be able to offer a Christmas catalog of microfranchises from more than 25 of the poorest countries in the world.

Please understand that this isn't just another charitable contribution that I'm suggesting. While there is much to be said for giving old clothes, canned goods, refurbished toys or used computers to the poor and needy, I believe the greatest kindness we can do is to provide people with a ready-made business that can provide an income stream for life - assuming, of course, they are willing to put the required work and effort into it.

A microfranchise is really not much more than a business in a box or a backpack. Although it uses all the same marketing and operational tools and systems of a regular franchise, it's cheaper and a whole lot simpler. Those of us who have been working in the social entrepreneur world are getting closer to being able to create a pre-packaged business that will be pretty much self-contained. All that will be required of recipients is a lot of hard work, a bit of luck and maybe a little selling skill.

For example, for a $100 gift a single mother in Guatemala can own a microfranchise selling low-cost reading glasses to the poor. Scojo Foundation now helps poor women and men own their own microfranchises in India, Guatemala and El Salvador doing that very thing, selling cheap reading glasses.

For $25 a boy in India can become a microfranchise owner in the rat trapping business. Global Giving Foundation has developed a device that is better, cheaper and safer than traditional earthen pot fumigation, plus the rat catchers won't die from respiratory illness from inhaling the smoke.

For $160 a young African farmer can buy a microfranchise from Honey Care Africa that has enabled more than 2,500 men and women in Kenya to become beekeepers. The parent or franchisor even agrees to buy the honey that is produced.

In Bangladesh, women buy for $220 a microfranchise telephone business with operation manual and a cell phone included. They buy cell phone minutes in bulk and resell them via their new phone to their neighbors and friends. Cell phones are the communications vehicle of choice in this part of the world since there aren't any land lines to most of the rural villages. This phone company was started by the Grameen Bank, best known for its microcredit lending to millions of poor people throughout the world.

In the Philippines, our Academy for Creating Enterprise is developing microfranchises for our 800 returned LDS missionary graduates. So far we have launched three small generic drugstores, an ink cartridge refilling business, three small bakeries and 30 franchises of a Cellular City retail operation. Next on the drawing board is an academy to train cellular phone repairmen to operate their own microfranchises.

Microfranchising is, I believe, a poverty elimination tool, one that will not only help lift the owners of the small businesses out of poverty but also help them to employ their friends and neighbors, moving the entire community closer to economic self-reliance.

How is that for a Christmas gift that keeps on giving?

So enjoy Christmas 2005. But start thinking about Christmas 2006 and the opportunity to make a difference in the world by giving the gift of economic choice.