http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/

http://www.uschambersummit.com/award

http://www.stevieawards.com/

http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/05/fresh-list-small-business-awards-contests.html

http://www.mdsbaawards.org/

http://www.sba.gov/content/2012-mississippi-small-business-week-awards-nominations-requested

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2011/tc20110524_317819.htm (Thiel Awards). 24 yourn innovators will receive grants of $100,000 provided that they leave school and pursue their innovation dream.

Google suite of tools like google docs, google email, google forms are tremendous tools for a small business owner. Google docs is a great collaborative tools where many individuals can share and work on the same document.

Social Media is another great technology that helps small businesses talk directly to their potential customers. Many of the features available in Yelp, linkedIn, facebook and twitter are available for free but there are also paid versions of advertising.

http://smallbiztechnology.com/

There will be 4 free forums during the week:

1. Growing Your Business While on the Go:  this forum  will have a presentation by  Bill Rancic, an entrepreneur himself.  He is the first-year winner of “The Apprentice”.  He will speak  on how a busy entrepreneur can continue to move ahead and grow their  business..  There will also be a panel discussion after this.  Top executives from AT&T and SCORE will participate in this panel discussion.

2. Social Media and Small Business: Speakers from GrowBiz Media, Intuit, Yelp, and Youtube can use social media to connect to their customers and grow their business.

3. High Growth, High Impact Strategies: regardless of how small the firm, it could still have great potential .  Executives from CareerBuilder, Honest Tea, and Google Apps will explain how existing powerful technologies, some of which are free will help scale your business.

Exporting Tools for Success:  this forum will talk about small businesses can look into internal markets where they may have a unique value proposition.   Growing the export market  is a priority of the President’s National Export Initiative.

This year the event will be held in Washington, DC at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel & Conference Center.  There are discounted rates available for the attendees.  The phone number for reservation is 888-888-1778.  The hotel is less than four miles from the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and 34 miles from Dulles International Airport.

National Small business week is hosted by the Small Business Administration.  SBA has over 2,200 employees with a mission of helping entrepreneurs and small business owners.  They provide access to capital, through loan guarantees.  They also provide counseling and help with federal contracting opportunities. SBA has 14,000 affiliated counselors.   SBA is lead by Karen Mills as Administrator  and Marie Johns as Deputy Administrator. Both women have stellar background in helping small businesses.  Mills has an MBA from Harvard university.  Johns was recognized as the “25 most influential black women in business” by the Network Journal.

http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011_state_winners.pdf

http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/Guidelines%20Packet_1.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/27/president-obama-signs-small-business-jobs-act-learn-whats-it

http://www.natlsba.com/  National Small Business Alliance

http://coffman.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=507&Itemid=11

http://bankbryancave.com/2011/10/small-business-lending-fund-map-and-review/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Small_Business_Week

http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/

Here is a complete listing of the Banks that received the fund.

The reason these banks could be the best banks for small business is because when the Treasury department approved this fund, they were very careful about it.  The process was  very stringent and the Treasury department was extremely careful to make sure that the banks receiving the funds were in good standing and they had a healthy track record of helping local small businesses.   It took nine months for the first application to be approved.

If a bank can go through such rigorous scrutiny from the Treasury department and still get the funds, that means they are worth a look.  The total amount allocated for the SBLF was $30 billion.  Of this only $4 billion was provided to the banks.

One of the criteria as a small business is the loan amount should be less that $10 million and they should have a revenue of $50 million or less.  Normally the Banks and Community Development Loan Funds that received this award should have assets of less than $10 billion.

One of the incentives of this fund to small banks was that if they could increase lending to small businesses by more than 10 percent, the interest rate on the loan to the bank would be 1 percent.  Many of the banks have met this criteria so far.  If the bank’s  lending doesn’t increase with in the first 2 years, their interest rate increases to 7%.  So these banks have a huge incentive and pressure to provide loans to their local small businesses.  If the lending doesn’t increase by 4.5 years, the rate goes up to as high as 9%>

For  Community Development Loan Funds (CDLFs), the funding is again structured to encourage small business lending  by enabling  access to low-cost capital.  CDLFs are non-profit loan funds.  They  play a critical role in distressed communities through-out the United States.  CDLFs provide  microloans to entrepreneurs. They also provide financing community facilities such as  charter schools and local health clinics.

So it might be wise to search for the best banks for small business in your community by looking at the list provided in this web site for each of the states.  The list also provides a listing of the branches in each of the cities where the funds are available.

Part of the provision was that the fund could be leveraged 10 time.  So a 5 million award would end up being up to $50 million in loans to small businesses.

Over the last 15 years , small businesses have created 60% of new jobs.  The Obama small business loans was targeted to help these small businesses. So it is important to help the small businesses if the economic recovery is to take hold.  Unfortunately the Small Business Lending Fund was not  spent in full.  There are over 7,000 community banks in the United States.  Only 933 banks applied.  The total disbursement was only $4 billion to over 300 banking institutions.  Majority of the banks (87%) did not even apply for the funds. The total requested amount was $11.8 billion by over 900 US Banks. The remaining $26 billion went back to the Government’s general fund.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/27/president-obama-signs-small-business-jobs-act-learn-whats-it

Obama Plan

Reasons for the dismal performance of this Obama small business plan:

1. many small businesses were afraid that since the economy was so bad, if they borrowed money they would  have a difficult time paying.

2. Many of the banks (even those that applied) could not meet the stringent Government requirements.  At a house hearing, Tim Geithner (Treasury Secretary) explained that this was  due to the fact that the Government wanted to be careful how it spent tax dollars.  So the approval process was made stringent.

3. The loan process was very slow. It took nine months to get the first loan approved.

4. Credit Unions not included in this plan.

One of the main reasons cited was that the banks felt that there was a lack of demand for small business loans.  As the economy improves, the small businesses could be more confindent that they will be able to pay additional loans.  So the time might be better now for this type of SBLF.

But according to the Treasury Departmernt,  more that 60% of the institutions the received the SBLF increased their lending by more than 10%.  The increase in lending was about $3.5 billion.  So the Obama small business loans was some what of a success?   Give your views below ..

Banks That Received This Funds through this SBLF Obama plan:

Pompano Beach – Florida Shores Bancorp $12.75 million.

First Federal Bank of Lake City – $20 million

Home banc of Tampa – $7.4 million.

http://bankbryancave.com/2011/10/small-business-lending-fund-map-and-review/

Small business mentions in the US Budget

This graph is not meant to come to any conclusion but more to start a deeper conversation of whether the Government is doing more now for small businesses.  The other part of the conversation is to discuss whether the Government should provide more direct grants and other incentives to small businesses to encourage economic growth.

From the Clinton years to the Bush presidency, the number of mentions of the term ranged from as low as 30 to as high as 77.  The first year of Obama Presidency saw a lower 54.  But normally this Budget is submitted by the out-going president.   The next Budget submitted by the Obama administration saw a slight increase in mentions.  It was at 62.  It peaked in the Budget of 2012 to be at 149.  Mentions have dropped to 127 for the 2013 Budget presented recently by the president.  Is this an indication that the administration is now giving less emphasis to small businesses. Does it mean that Obama Small Business priority is not as high now?

If this were the case, it is time to voice our thoughts as small business owners.  Please provide your comments on the site : www.smallbusinessgrants.net.  Let’s pool our responses together so that we can have a unified voice in pressuring the Federal Government to provide a level playing field for the small businesses who are struggling in this economy.  It is a known fact that small businesses are the major engines for economic growth.  It is in the interest of the whole nation to provide them with any incentives including direct grants and loans to help them succeed.

“Drops of water combine to form the ocean” – Anonymous.  Let’s pool our thoughts together.  Let us make sure that President Obama small business priority does not take a back seat.

Voice your thoughts @ www.smallbusinessgrants.net

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