05/19/2008

News / BOOSTING SMALL BUSINESS

A discussion of how the Small Business Administration helps entrepreneurs
Welcome to Boosting Small Business, where the Small Business Administration's Sean Rushton will discuss ways his independent agency helps the owners of small businesses. Some of the help comes in the way of offering financing for a new business, and some involves offering expertise to those planning an expansion or reacting to a setback. It is all about protecting the entrepreneur -- the horse that pulls the cart of the American economy.

May 19, 2008
Helping owners who face discrimination

Robert Delhome started Charter Environmental Inc., in 1997 with two employees and $300 in seed capital. His company provides specialized solutions to challenging environmental problems.

Born in Panama, Delhome is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He worked for environmental firms that worked on government projects for several years before deciding to branch out on his own. Delhome utilized the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program, intended to help socially and economically disadvantaged businesses compete in the federal procurement marketplace.

Program participants must be from a group that has been subjected to racial prejudice or cultural bias. Because of this discrimination, these entrepreneurs have less access to capital and credit, which diminishes their ability to compete. The 8(a) program helps owners develop their businesses and provides them with access to government business

The 8(a) program includes specialized business training, counseling, marketing assistance and high-level executive development provided by the SBA and its partners. Also, the SBA assigns business opportunity specialists to 8(a) participants to help them receive training and gain access to opportunities in the areas of procurement, marketing, finance, management and surety bonding.

The 8(a) program gave Delhome’s company a boost as it grew successful in the competitive environmental field. From Charter’s modest beginning as a two-employee shop in the spare bedroom of Delhome’s home, the company has grown into a $30 million a year operation with more than 100 employees.

May 14, 2008
Loans made less risky for lenders

After 11 years working at a spa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Marilyn Ihloff decided it was time to step out on her own. She leveraged the equity in her home to secure an SBA 7(a) loan and opened the doors to The Marilyn Ihloff Salon and Day Spa in 1980.

The 7(a) program is the most basic type of loan the SBA offers to small businesses. In fact, to be precise, it is not a loan per se, but a guaranty that the SBA provides participant lenders to make it easier for them to make loans they otherwise wouldn’t touch.

Under the concept, businesses apply for a loan from a commercial lender. The lender, using its own criteria, decides whether to make the loan on its own or whether the application has some weaknesses, which would call for an SBA guaranty. If the lender would rather not take the risk alone, it turns to an SBA 7(a) loan guaranty.

The SBA’s guaranty assures the lender that, if the borrower does not repay the loan, the government will reimburse the lender, up to the percentage guaranteed by the SBA.

Ihloff’s first salon offered hair, nail and facial services. In 1987, she relocated to an area twice the size of her previous space. In 2004, the salon uprooted again and landed in an even larger facility, with 30 hairstyling stations, four manicure stations, four pedicure stations and six spa rooms. The spa’s growth rate has hit 11 percent each year. Ihloff’s dream has grown from one salon and one employee, to three salons with more than 140 employees, and sales in excess of $3.5 million.

See "Federal Agency Encourages, Supports Small Businesses" to find out more about the U.S. Small Business Administration.

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