Smart, bold and accessible, the SBA is a powerful ally for small businesses in KC.
Officially, SBA is an acronym for the U.S. Small Business Administration. Under Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet, though, those three letters have taken on new meaning.
SBA also stands for smart, bold and accessible services for entrepreneurs of all kinds.
Of course, we still concentrate on SBA’s three C’s: capital, contracting and counseling, provided through the Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, SCORE counselors, Veterans Business Center, lending institutions and our federal partners.
But we’ve also undertaken several new projects to aid our region’s small business owners.
New lending help // SBA employees here are working to expand access to capital by adding 240 new and returning lenders to SBA’s flagship 7(a) loan program.
On the agency’s website, the new Leveraging Information and Networks to Access Capital (LINC) tool makes it easy for borrowers to find nonprofit microlenders and 504 program lenders, and our 7(a) lenders will be joining soon. You can find LINC at www.sba.gov/tools/linc.
We’ve increased the number of lenders providing export financing to small businesses, and our local microlender, Justine Petersen LLC, not only offers small-dollar loans between $500 and $50,000, but now technical and financial literacy assistance as well.
Contacts and contracts // The federal agencies in our region met their contracting goals for both FY12 and, according to the projected numbers, FY13, thanks to SBA employees making more small businesses aware of the opportunities.
If you are in Kansas City on the first Tuesday morning of each month, join us at Union Station for the Kansas City Small Business Networking Event, where you can meet contracting officers from several federal agencies.
Additional training // We continue Boots to Business training for military service members transitioning to civilian life, and we brought ScaleUP! Kansas City to small businesses that are ready to grow. This fall, we are pleased to bring V-Wise, a free two-day training for veteran women business owners.
The SBA’s service translates to real business growth. Just ask the owners of the Missouri Star Quilt Co., the winners of this year’s Missouri Small Business Person of the Year Award.
Siblings Alan Doan and Sarah Galbraith bootstrapped a quilt business after their father had been laid off and his pension reduced. An SBA 504 loan through Mo-Kan Development and counseling through the Missouri Small Business Technology and Development Center provided them know-how and space to add more than 100 employees and the biggest inventory of quilt pieces in North America. Their work has transformed their entire rural community of Hamilton, Mo.
If you have yet to take advantage of one of our smart, bold and accessible services, we invite you to find the assistance you need to move your company forward.
