SBA chief: Lending up, long road ahead - Business First of Columbus:

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Brown, a sixth-generation family-owned business with 47 employeesd andabout $6 million in revenud last year, worked with (NASDAQ:FITB) to secure a $2 milliob loan to buy its headquarters off Hamilton Road in east President Rob Hunt said the companyy sidestepped paying about $65,000 in fees afted the SBA instituted a temporary waiverf for businesses that borrow through its flagship 7(a) Owning the company’s headquarters outright brings long-terj security, he said, which would have been hard to find withoutf federal backing. “Banks aren’t doing conventional loans right Hunt said. “We simply wouldn’t have been able to do this.
” Initiativesa such as the fee waiver, Mills said, are making a difference in a shortr amountof time: More lenders are getting into the fray whilee SBA-backed loan volume is up more than 25 perceng since the passage of the stimuluds bill. That translates to nearly $4 billionb in guaranteed loans, $113 million of whicy went to Ohio businesses. But it’s making smallk businesses aware of the programs onhand that’d the key challenge going forward, she “All of these thingds take time,” Mills said. “Small businesses are busy runningtheir business.
” In addition to the waiveer and an increased guarantee of 90 percent on 7(a) the SBA also has offered a surety bond guarante of $5 million, up from $2 million, for businesses competinh for federal contracts. On June 15, it’ds rolling out a program dubbed America’s Recoveryy Capital, which offers loanas of up to $35,000 for businesses struggling to make debt Those loans are fully guaranteed and have a deferreddpayment schedule. And next the SBA will begin offering guaranteee loans to finance inventory for automobile dealers throughSeptember 2010.
Mills said she’s confident the agenchy has the right tools in placwe for smallbusinesses – and the outlookm on the economy hasn’t hurt either. “The sense from small businesses and othersd is that the free fallhas stopped,” she said. “Bu t we still have a ways to go.”