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- America’s Recovery Capital, the new emergency loan program of up to $35,000 for small businesses, was introduced this week by the Small Business Administration. The so-called ARC loans are specifically for companies that in the past were profitable but are struggling or have been making loan payments but are just beginning to miss them because of financial hardship, says Eric Zarnikow, SBA director of financial assistance. [The Washington Post]

- Karen Gordon Mills, the new SBA administrator who’s an expert on venture capital, says she’s thinking about working with other federal agencies to provide high-growth companies with capital so they can become the ‘next Intels’ and the next ‘Federal Expresses. [Denver Business Journal]

- The House of Representatives passed the “Job Creation through Entrepreneurship Act” Wednesday that reauthorized for the first time in 10 years the entrepreneurial development programs of the SBA. It also provided for the establishment of new Women’s Business Centers and the expansion of the Office of Native American Affairs. The bill now goes to the Senate. [San Diego Examiner]

- About two out of three small-business owners say their credit card interest rate has gone up in the past year, and four out of 10 report that their credit limit has been reduced, says the National Small Business Association. This comes on the heels of news that Advanta, whose credit cards targeted toward small businesses, is cutting off customer accounts on June 10. [Orange County Register]

- The Small Business Administration has improved its ranking as an employer, with a 30% jump in its score in the “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” 2009 report, released by the Partnership for Public Service. The report cited positive changes initiated by Steven C. Preston, former SBA administrator. [The Washington Post]

- North Carolina small businesses are unprepared for disasters such as hurricanes, terrorist attacks or even pandemics, like swine flu, according to a Fayetteville State University report. It found that more than half of the small businesses could maintain payroll for only about a week and had not developed emergency plans for suppliers or contractors. [The Fayetteville Observer]

Any interesting or relevant small-business items we missed this week?

It’s finally happening. Efforts to get money to capital-strapped small businesses are beginning to work, as banks have returned to making loans backed by the federal government, says Karen Gordon Mills, the new Small Business Administration head.

More than 10,000 Recovery Act loans have been approved, which represents about $3 billion in credit supporting small businesses, she said in her testimony at a Senate hearing Wednesday. The hearing was about the small business provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was enacted in February.

Since then, more than half of the $730 million in Recovery Act funding has been put to use to make it easier for small business owners to borrow. It’s doing this mainly by reducing fees as well as increasing the guarantee that the SBA provides lenders in case of loan defaults. Weekly loan volume in the SBA’s two most popular lending programs is up 25% to $217 million since March 16, when the funds were made available, compared to the $171 million approved in the weeks before mid-March.

The main reason? Ms. Mills says some 1,200 lenders are returning to these SBA loan programs; some are also participating for the first time. It’s a good sign, since more than 360 lenders had not made an SBA-backed loan since October (almost half of these lenders had not made a loan since two years ago.)

While these provisions of the Recovery Act have been implemented, others are still in progress. Ms. Mills says more specific information about a potentially critical loan program called America’s Recovery Capital will be released next week during National Small Business Week. That program is designed to help struggling small businesses with a loan of up to $35,000. Also, she says, the SBA is working on nailing down details of the recently expanded 7(a) program, which confirms SBA-financing eligibility for about 70,000 automotive dealers.

“Many provisions of the Recovery Act are still awaiting implementation, and it is essential that the Administration acts fast to get capital flowing again to small businesses looking to survive and grow,” says Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., the Small Business Committee Chair, in a statement. “While only 5% of small businesses recently reported that they use SBA financing, the agency makes up the largest single source of long-term capital in this country. We must find ways to get more SBA financing in the hands of small businesses and focus on making sure alternative sources of financing are available to America’s entrepreneurs on fair terms.”

Do you think the SBA is doing enough to get credit flowing to small businesses? How would you grade its efforts?

Congress is gearing up for the big battle for health-care coverage, expected to come to the fore this summer. In the meantime, ideas for small businesses are beginning to surface.

The newest proposal comes from Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.). More than half of the nation’s uninsured, they point out, are self-employed, work for a small business, or are a dependent of someone who works for a small business. Fix small-business coverage, and you fix a big part of the health-care problem.

They’ve tagged their proposal the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, and it has three major components. First, allow small businesses to band together across state lines to spread risk and lower premiums. Second, provide tax credits to help offset contributions to employees’ coverage. Third, don’t let insurance companies tag people with a rating based on health status, which penalizes those with health issues and can hike rates across companies where one employee fell ill.

“This legislation will finally level the playing field for American small businesses and the self-employed and allow them to pool together nationally to receive a host of new, affordable, and quality coverage options,” Senator Snowe said in a statement. Here’s the full release.

Is it enough to make a difference? Some probably won’t think so. The proposal suggests a $1,000 credit per employee, per year, or $2,000 for family coverage – if business owners cover 60% of their employees’ premiums. There’s a bonus – unspecified – for those who cover more than 60%. Under the plan, self-employed workers would get an $1,800 annual tax credit, or $3,600 for families, to go toward health insurance.

The proposal, of course, doesn’t do anything to address the dramatically rising cost of coverage – the vast, underlying issue. So in that sense, it’s just a band-aid where we really need some major surgery.

Readers, does this plan sound like a good start to making health coverage more affordable for small businesses?

Several business owners I’ve spoken with in recent months say they’re turning more to regional or community banks and credit unions for their banking needs, and it’s no wonder. The major banks don’t appear able to help them anymore.

Government stress-test results on 19 major financial firms being released tomorrow are expected to show that the major banks will need an additional $75 billion, according to one Citi analyst. The stress tests are being done to determine how the banks would fare if the economy worsens. (Bank of America, according to a WSJ article today, was already notified that it faces a roughly $34 billion capital shortfall.)

We’ve written that many community banks and credit unions are helping to fill the lending void in recent months, though clearly they can’t fill the gap nearly enough. Many business owners have likely done their own analysis and figured out they’re better off sticking with local banks right now because at least they can have more personal relationships with the lender. (Though small banks have surely faced their own troubles in recent months.)

All the same, today’s banking crisis is sure to change how business owners view the security of banking institutions and how much they rely on banks as a sole source for financing. Many entrepreneurs feel burned and let down by their bank’s actions in recent months – and have had to scramble for alternatives. What’s more, I suspect some entrepreneurs are rethinking their banking relationships altogether: Do they really want to be so reliant on a funding source that’s proven itself unreliable?

Readers, do you think the financial crisis will change how business owners view their relationships with banks and which ones they decide to do business with?

Photo: Associated Press

They say they grow ‘em big in Texas. It couldn’t be truer now.

The National Restaurant Association says it expects Texas to lead the nation with a 4% increase in restaurant sales to about $35 billion this year, despite the severe economic downturn. While that’s off from its pace of 5.6% last year, the projection still bests the next state on the list, Nevada, by half a point and the national industry average of an increase of 2.5%, the second-straight year of sales-growth decline, according to the NRA’s 2009 Restaurant Industry Forecast.

“Even in these tough economic times, it is clear that the Texas restaurant industry is the best place to do business in the nation,” Richie Jackson, executive vice president and chief executive of the Texas Restaurant Association, told the Dallas Business Journal. “While our country is coping with the weakest economy in decades, Texas restaurateurs continue to buck the trends and post positive sales and job growth.”

Is there a better economic climate for small businesses than in Texas? Just this past Monday, Texas House members unanimously approved a measure to give tens of thousands of small businesses in the state a two-year exemption from the state’s new business tax. That means businesses that earn less than $1 million annually would be given a break; currently, only businesses earning $300,000 or less per year were given that exemption. Legislators say that the temporary measure would help ease the burden of the state’s small businesses from having to decide whether to stay open or keep employees.

Some, however, are cautious about future growth in the state. “We know that in a recession, going out to eat is one of the variable things that people cut back on,” says Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, to QSR magazine, a trade publication. “With that in mind, I’d be surprised to see any growth at all.”

Readers, what do you think? Is it time to do business in the Lone Star state?

Photo: Associated Press

- Answering calls from struggling auto dealers, the Small Business Administration announced today it will temporarily offer alternate size standards to qualify for its popular 7(a) loan program. Businesses with under $8.5 million in net worth and less than $3 million in net income the preceding two years will now have access until Sept. 30, 2010. The agency estimates that up to 70,000 additional businesses will now qualify for 7(a) loans. [SBA]

- The House of Representatives passed credit-card-reform legislation with new protections on consumer credit cards, including preventing arbitrary rate changes and double-cycle billing. It left out a proposal, however, that would have extended the protections to small-business credit cards. [BusinessWeek]

- A small Texas surgical-mask company scrambles to fill government orders amid swine-flu scare. [CNN]

- A glimmer of hope that businesses have passed the worst of the recession: Delinquent loans taken by small and medium-sized U.S. businesses seems to have peaked in March, according to PayNet Inc., which tracks the commercial lending market. [Reuters]

- Several new optimism surveys show small-business owners felt more confident about their business in April. But they still appear nervous about their financials: A Discover Financial Services survey found only 21% say they plan to increase spending over the next six months. [WSJ Real Time Economics]

- Should you choose a descriptive or made-up word as a business name? Here’s how to decide which is best for you. [SmallBizTrends]

- How small businesses can take precautions against swine flu. Ideas: Make sure employees wash dishes after use, keep lots of antibacterial soap on hand. [USA Today]

Any interesting or relevant small-business items we missed this week?

There’s an assumption that the strength (or weakness) of the U.S. dollar has direct impact on the vitality of small U.S. retailers, especially now that the global economy has become so interconnected. But a new study finds that the dollar’s strength compared with foreign currencies has little effect on the closure rate of small retailers, but a much larger effect on small wholesalers.

The study, released this morning by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, looks at business closures across 50 various industries between 1990 and 2005. The closure data was evaluated in relation to several economic factors including the dollar’s real exchange rate, U.S. gross domestic product, and growth of firms with more than 500 employees.

Investigators found that small retailer closures were not statistically linked to the real exchange rate but rather more affected by the rise of large “big-box” stores – something they want to explore further in future studies. The one exception was small auto dealers, which were affected by exchange rate fluctuations likely because their success is so closely tied to domestic automakers. Small retailers that sell a mix of domestic and imported goods tend to benefit when the dollar appreciates, the author notes.

Small wholesalers, on the other hand, saw a much bigger effect from exchange rate fluctuations: Among wholesale firms with more than 10 employees analyzed, a 10% real appreciation in the dollar led to a 20% increase in firm closure. The reason, the authors note, is likely that wholesalers are very closely tied to U.S. manufacturers whose success and failure is closely linked to the exchange rate. Wholesalers find it hard to switch suppliers to take advantage of falling import prices when the dollar rises. The hardships experienced by domestic manufacturers when the dollar goes up are then “passed downstream” to wholesalers, they add.

So what does this all mean?

“For many people, the idea of currency exchange rates has no relevance other than how far their dollars will go while on vacation,” says Shawne McGibbon, Acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy, in a news release. “But it is of vital importance to the owners and employees of small wholesalers. Policy makers should take these concerns into account when making decisions affecting the relative strength and weakness of the dollar,” she added.

Does your business depend on the dollar’s strength or weakness?