After being defeated, Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach said that his Green Bay Packers didn't lose the game, “we just ran out of time.” Similarly, business owners are worried they will run out of time to refinance their balloon mortgages coming due. So if you own your office building, warehouse, restaurant, small hotel or franchise, you need to know about the September 27, 2012 deadline for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s temporary “rescue” program called “504.”  … [Read more...]

Entrepreneurs in the clean tech and renewable energy sectors may want to look to the U.S. Small Business Administration for help financing their operations. The agency announced this week it has launched a nationwide effort to commit $1 billion in loan guarantees to clean energy startups. The arrangement calls upon SBA to partner with venture investors, particularly those with stakes in small businesses that are either located in economically disadvantaged areas or operate in the clean energy or education markets. Administration officials will collaborate with private institutions to identify potential investments and help expedite the licensing process for fund managers qualified to organize as a Small Business Investment Company (SBIC). The SBIC label implies a degree of stability … [Read more...]

In addition to pressing the flesh, my mother told me not to slouch, look ‘em straight in the eye and dress “clean cut.” Although I never quite understood what clean cut meant, I don’t think she envisioned the dark, pinstriped, vested suits that I wore two decades ago during my commercial real estate and business financing career. Sure, the digital age has created a new paradigm. But pressing-the-flesh principles still exist for seeking financing, even if your banker is on the Pacific Coast and you are in New England, for example. What’s more, it doesn’t mean that you have to hop on the red eye so that your plane lands in Los Angeles, Calif., in time to beat the loan officer to her desk the next morning. Just like in the bygone days, however, lenders still want you to be … [Read more...]

If your business is like most U.S. small businesses, you will be, subject to certain exceptions, eligible for an SBA loan. The specific rules regarding SBA Loan Requirements are found in a series of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that the SBA has promulgated to guide SBA Lenders as well as in Title 13 Parts 120 and 121 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Although these rules govern what banks need to do when issuing and servicing SBA loans, they also contain the answer to the question, “Am I eligible for an SBA loan?” The following are some of the key SBA loan requirements for a business to be eligible for an SBA loan: … [Read more...]

Last week Karen Mills, SBA Official, announced that the SBA hit an all-time record in small business lending this fiscal year, with over $30 billion in lending, supported to over 60,000 small businesses. This signals a record year in the nearly 60-year history of the SBA itself. While this news should signal the rise of small businesses looking for capital, the media might have you believe otherwise. There is a long standing debate going on as to whether or not there is real business demand for loans. Some claim that businesses DON’T actually want money to grow in this slow economy. On the other side, business owners cite a lack of supply – that banks do not want to lend money to small businesses. … [Read more...]

Small businesses, from mom-and-pop shops to independent franchise owners, have faced enormous challenges in seeking financing since the beginning of the credit crisis. When Standard & Poor’s downgraded U.S. sovereign debt on Friday August 5th, countless small business owners wondered whether access to financing would become even more difficult. Beyond the small businesses themselves, the larger economy seeks to understand if small business credit conditions will further degrade since small business creates 60 to 80 percent of new jobs and employ over half of the country’s private sector workforce. … [Read more...]