How to Grow a Small Business

11/05/2009

---

Job creation is an area of interest any time, said Eric Ness, Small Business Administration district director, at Washington County Fair Park. Nationwide, 70 percent of jobs are created in the small sector and that figure is 98 percent in Wisconsin, he told business leaders at an Economic Development/Washington County seminar Thursday.

“They’re going to need cash to grow their business and they’re going to need cash for times like these,” he said of the revised SBA loan programs. Peter Share of Share Building Products, a masonry products company in Germantown, said the loans are dependent on banks that encourage manufacturers to do just-in-time production and the customers to be able
to get their products when they need it.

“The business goes away,” he said. “I don’t have it on hand.”

While such situations and the times can be tough, Ness said there is assistance with fees and the guarantee limit has been raised on some SBA lending programs.
The microloan program with loans up to $35,000 each has been expanded with up to $50 million available in all, and a $50,000 per loan limit is being proposed by the president. A vital part of the program is technical assistance and training for every borrower that prove to be a lifeline, Ness said.

Gary Clemens, vice president of National Exchange Bank in West Bend, said, that the education of the lenders can follow changes in rules.
“Until you have an example, you don’t know how a government stimulus program fits,” he said. “Each client is uniquely different.”
Ness said the secondary loan market is functioning now following last year’s financial crises.
The 7(a) program – the SBA’s primary form of guaranteed loans for a variety of businesses – has $48 million in financing for loan fees in Wisconsin, he said. Last year, 74 loans were done in Washington County alone.

More increases are proposed for the SBA’s mainstay 7(a) and 504 programs, but not all programs will last. The America’s Recovery Capital Loan Program, utilized heavily by retail, has $255 million allocated nationwide and will run for several more months, Ness said.
On Sept. 30, 2010 all the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs will run out.
Will it be enough?

Clemens said there are businesses struggling and others are experiencing growth.
Tammy Pinchard of My Creative Clubhouse stamping store, 132 N. Main St., said, it’s good as an owner of a fast growing business to receive an education in the different programs.
Presenter David Kircher of Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp, said, all the programs and acronyms can make your head spin.

A SBA-certified development company, he explained loan requirements for the 504 program that loaned $80 million in the state through about 1,000 loans.
“The programs work despite a downturn in the economy,” he said. They aren’t always easy to follow, said Claire Fowler, a counselor for SCORE.
“What you’re telling me is mind-boggling because there are so many ifs and buts,” she told Kircher. And some are so new that there aren’t answers to some questions.
Presenter Todd Jensen of Wisconsin Department of Commerce said the Economic Development tax credits program replaced a system that had many confusing programs in March.
When asked if the tax credits applied to apprenticeships, he didn’t know.
Applications for training tax credits of $5,000 each, which contains a host of restrictions, have stalled.

“We thought training would be the biggest part of the program,” he said. “There is a need for business to get familiar with it."

Daily News Staff
Dan Muckelbauer