The Washington Post is reporting the Obama administration might throw some $$$ to small businesses. These are the job engines as well as small business owners, when they go belly up, there is no social safety net at all.
The Obama administration is developing an initiative to take money from the $700 billion rescue program for the banking system and make it available to millions of small businesses, which officials say are essential to any economic recovery because they employ so many people, according to sources familiar with the plan.
So, what are any details?
A proposal being floated by senior Treasury Department officials calls for using the bailout funds to expand a government program that helps small companies borrow from banks at low rates to keep their businesses going, the sources said. These "working-capital" loans would come with few restrictions and could be used to buy inventory, hold on to employees and pay off short-term debt.
The initiative would bulk up the Small Business Administration's most popular lending program, called 7(a). Lines of credit for small companies could greatly increase in size. If a firm failed despite receiving this help, the government would cover most of the losses on the federal loan, perhaps as much as 90 percent. Lines of credit act like the credit cards for companies -- short-term, revolving debt used to pay a variety of immediate expenses.
The problem with small business (in my opinion) is even navigating how to apply for loans, what are the requirements, how to get funds, etc. is some sort of obscure adventure is massive lettering to represent real English, weird forms, references to other forms and confusion to the point of saying f*#k it in trying to figure the system out.
I suspect management, accountability might be one reason small business gets ignored. It's much easier to let a few Zombie banks rip off the American people than thousands and thousands of small businesses potentially doing the same thing.
It should be very easy to apply for such programs, management online, similar to dealing with a banking account.
At least some awareness that the real job creation engine is small business is starting to take hold.
Check out the Small Business Administration website and you tell me. Imagine you are a small firm, or a sole proprietorship. Can you figure out easily if a sole proprietorship even qualifies and if so, what forms to fill out?
Recent comments