Category Archives: SBA loans

From: Office of Advocacy, Small Business Administration
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 9:09 AM
Subject: Entrepreneurial Mentoring and Education RFI

The Small Business Administration’s Office of Investment published a Request for Information (RFI) on Thursday, June 10, 2010 to collect input from the public on ideas for creating and leveraging existing entrepreneurial mentoring and education programs for early stage, high-growth companies.  To see the description in the Federal Register, copy and paste the following url into your browser. Be sure to include the black type as well as the blue.

http://frwebgate2.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/PDFgate.cgi?WAISdocID=nonCNu/0/2/0&WAISaction=retrieve

High-growth, early stage entrepreneurs face long odds; however, certain programmatic initiatives could significantly increase their chances to succeed. Mentoring relationships between seasoned entrepreneurs and early-stage entrepreneurs, as well as entrepreneurial education programs geared towards the high-growth community can help these companies reach higher probabilities of success and encourage a sustainable, innovation-based ecosystem.

The objectives of the RFI are the following: 1) to understand if the needs of high-growth companies and entrepreneurs differ from “main street” businesses; 2) how successful models for entrepreneur mentoring and education can be applied to this group of early-stage companies; and 3)how to scale successful entrepreneur mentoring and education programs more widely.

Responses to the RFI will be due on Monday, July 12, 2010 and will be used to inform policy discussions on entrepreneurial mentoring and education.  For any questions on the RFI, please email RFI_Entrepreneurship@sba.gov

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Loans to Small Businesses Dropped at Double the Overall Rate

By EMILY MALTBY – WSJ

Government funding to U.S. banks has done little to ease the credit crunch for small businesses—and the situation doesn’t seem to be improving, according to a new report.

The value of large banks’ loans to small businesses shrank 9% between 2008 and 2009, more than double the 4.1% drop for overall lending, said a report released Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel, a group set up to oversee funds allocated by the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

“Big banks pulled back on everyone, but they pulled back harder on small businesses,” said Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the oversight panel, in a discussion with reporters.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s TARP programs, launched during the depths of the financial meltdown, didn’t improve access to credit, the report claims.

“Treasury never required banks to lend their new money,” said Ms. Warren.

The squeeze on small-business credit “has been and remains a serious economic challenge,” said Gene Sperling, counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in an interview. “There’s also little question that the crisis, the economy and small business lending would have been far worse without the swift and significant financial rescue efforts.”

Based on the Treasury’s own research, smaller banks that took capital from the rescue efforts showed stronger small-business lending than comparable small banks that did not, Mr. Sperling said.

The oversight panel didn’t include this data in its report, but said that small-business lending values at the smallest banks fell by about 2.7%, compared with a 0.2% decline in their overall lending.

Read the rest here

How to get an SBA loan

SBA loans are available to any small business, but yours will need to meet certain criteria in order to qualify. Here’s what you need to know.