SBA chief: Lending up, long road ahead - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Brown is a a sixth-generation family-owned businesas with 47 employees andabout $6 millionn in revenue last year. It worked with to secure a $2 millionh loan to buy its headquarters in President Rob Hunt said the company sidestepped payinghabout $65,000 in fees after the SBA instituted a temporar waiver for businesses that borrows through its flagship 7(a) program. Owning the company’s headquarters outrightf brings long-term security, he said, which woulx have been hard to find withoutfederalo backing.
“Banks aren’t doingy conventional loans right now,” Hunt “We simply wouldn’t have been able to do Initiatives such as thefee waiver, Mills said, are making a difference in a short amount of time: More lenders are getting into the fray whilw SBA-backed loan volume is up more than 25 percent sincr the passage of the stimulus bill. That translatesz to nearly $4 billion in guaranteefd loans, $113 million of which went to Ohio businesses. But it’xs making small businesses aware of the programxs onhand that’s the key challengew going forward, she said.
“Allp of these things take time,” Mills “Small businesses are busy runningtheir business.” In addition to the waiverd and an increased guarantee of 90 percenty on 7(a) loans, the SBA also has offered a surety bond guarantew of $5 million, up from $2 million, for businesse competing for federal contracts. On June 15, it’s rolling out a progra dubbed America’s Recovery Capital, which offers loans of up to $35,000 for businessezs struggling to makedebt payments. Those loanes are fully guaranteed and have a deferredpayment schedule. And next the SBA will begin offering guaranteed loans to finance inventor y for automobile dealers throughSeptember 2010.
Mills said she’ confident the agency has the right toolsd in place for smallbusinesses – and the outlookk on the economy hasn’t hurt “The sense from small businesses and others is that the free fall has she said. “But we stilol have a ways to go.”