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Posts Tagged ‘SBA’

Loans Up to $50,000 Available for Female Entrepreneurs in Kansas City, Kansas

If you’re a small business owner in the Kansas City, Kansas area of the country, the SBA wants you to know about a new microloan program offering as much as $50,000 to help your business.

Starting Friday, October 28, the SBA has awarded a micro-lending grant that will provide micro-lending in Kansas City through the Kansas Women’s Business Center at OneKCforWomen.

The purpose of the grant is to provide existing female entrepreneurs with an injection of capital and some much needed counseling – in an effort to make these businesses “bankable” enough to secure commercial loans.

Continue reading “Loans Up to $50,000 Available for Female Entrepreneurs in Kansas City, Kansas” »

SBA Approves First Six Lenders to Start Making Community Advantage Loans

Author: The Money Coach

Community-based, mission-focused lenders will start accepting loan applications from small business borrowers immediately

The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved an initial group of six community-based, mission-focused lenders to start accepting and processing Community Advantage loan applications from small business borrowers immediately, the agency announced today.

The new Community Advantage pilot program was announced by SBA in December and is designed to expand access to lower dollar loans and lending in traditionally underserved communities. SBA and U.S. Department of Commerce studies have shown the importance of lower dollar loans to small business formation and growth in underserved communities. Even though SBA loans are three-to-five times more likely to go to women and minority-owned small businesses, underserved communities were hit disproportionately hard by the recession.

The pilot is specifically aimed at expanding points of access to capital for small business owners by opening SBA’s 7(a) loan program to community-based, mission-focused financial institutions, including Community Development Financial Institutions, SBA’s Certified Development Companies and SBA’s nonprofit microlending intermediaries. Community Advantage leverages the experience these institutions already have in lending in economically challenged markets, along with their management and technical assistance expertise to help make their borrowers successful.

“Working with these community-based, mission-focused lenders will greatly enhance our ability to bring much needed financial backing to small businesses in underserved communities, which include minority-, women- and veteran-owned, as well as rural businesses,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said. “These businesses are among the hardest hit by the recent economic downturn and helping them to recover, expand and create jobs will strengthen both their local and our nation’s economy.”

SBA began accepting applications from lenders on Feb. 15. The first Community Advantage lenders approved by SBA are:

Cen-Tex CDC dba BCL of Texas, Austin, Texas
The Progress Fund, Greensburg, Pa.
Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Bangor, Maine
Idaho-Nevada Community Development Financial Institution, Pocatello, Idaho
Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, London, Ky.
CDC Small Business Finance, San Diego, Calif.

These lenders may begin making Community Advantage loans immediately. SBA will continue approving lenders on a rolling basis.

Expanding opportunities for entrepreneurs and small business owners in underserved communities is core to SBA’s mission. As a result, all of SBA’s programs are having an impact in underserved communities. In addition to the Community Advantage pilot program, in December SBA announced the new Small Loan Advantage, which is open to the agency’s 630 existing Preferred Lenders.

Both Community Advantage and Small Loan Advantage offer a streamlined application process for SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans up to $250,000. Advantage loans will come with the regular 7(a) government guarantee, 85 percent for loans up to $150,000 and 75 percent for those greater than
$150,000.

I’m trying to open a restaurant using cash we’ve saved in our 401(K). Is this a wise decision?

Author: The Money Coach

Q: I’m Trying to Start My Business, a Small Barbecue Restaurant. I Have Taken Business Classes at the SBA. We Are Taking a $10,000 Loan From My Husband’s 401(k), and We are Using $8,000 Cash That We Saved to Start the Business. I Want to Know: Are We Taking the Proper Steps?

A: It sounds like you’ve made some smart financial and business moves in preparation for entrepreneurship and your efforts thus far are to be commended. You stated that you didn’t want bank loans, but you were savvy enough to educate yourself and take business classes at the Small Business Administration. I’m sure the information you learned in those classes will prove helpful in your future endeavors. While I generally don’t like to see people take 401(k) withdrawals for things like paying off credit card debt, I do think it’s OK to use 401(k) money for investments, like launching a business or perhaps buying your first home. Additionally, it’s great that you’ve been able to save up $8,000 specifically for the new business. That tells me that you’ve been dedicated to this process and have been willing to sacrifice to give your business the best possible chance at success. You probably already know that the restaurant industry can be challenging. But if you start small, as you’ve planned, keep our overhead and debts low, and do your market research (as I’m sure you’ve done), I think you’ll beat the odds and have a very successful enterprise.

Additional Help for Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses

Author: The Money Coach

By Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

If you’re a woman or an ethnic minority looking for more resources for your small business, additional help is available for minority-owned or women-owned businesses from any of the SBA’s small business counseling and training partners, including:

SCORE
SCORE stands for the Service Corps of Retired Executives. There are more than 10,500 SCORE volunteers in 800+ locations around the country. SCORE also provides Internet-based counseling and help at http://www.score.org.

Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs)
Through a network of branches all across America, SBDCs offer management assistance to current and would-be small business owners. This program is a joint effort of the private sector, academia, as well as federal, state and local governments. Learn more online at this SBDC section of the SBA website.

Women’s Business Centers
According to the SBA website: “The Office of Women’s Business Ownership (OWBO) exists to establish and oversee a network of Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) throughout the United States and its territories. Through the management and technical assistance provided by the WBCs, entrepreneurs, especially women who are economically or socially disadvantaged, are offered comprehensive training and counseling on a vast array of topics in many languages to help them start and grow their own businesses.”
Get more information online at: http://www.sba.gov/services/counseling/wbc/index.html. There you can also find your local Women’s Business Center. Here’s a link to a PDF of those Women’s Business Centers located throughout the U.S.

SBA District Offices
You can get free and low-cost services right in your area from a team of experts who work out of full-service SBA district offices. Find one near you by visiting the local resources section.

Good luck with your business!