Business Management Training is the First Step in Capital Access Process
One of our members told me the other day that he had to turn back $750,000 in capital that he was going to lend out to small business because he didn’t have a pipeline of loan-ready businesses waiting for cash. I was shocked! Imagine what the $750,000 could do for Butte County and the local community.
The story illustrates the absolute necessity of business and technical assistance. Many of our clients’ businesses don’t qualify for regular loans from the bank and don’t have any home equity to put up for collateral. They need a hand to get up to speed and become loan ready.
Business Management Training Means Micro-business Success
When businesses get training and support, they run more smoothly and pay back their loans. They become better customers for the banks. They stay around for a while (80% success rate!) and they create jobs. A one-person business creates two additional jobs within three to five years on average.
Business assistance goes beyond financial statements. Miss Saigon, a Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco, had help from Urban Solutions with a comprehensive energy, water and waste evaluation that saved $17,000 – real, tangible boost to the bottom line!
Technical assistance funds are in danger. Congress has already cut $49 million in earmarks from DOL’s Training and Employment Services and $173 million from HUD’s Economic Development Initiative for FY2011 – money we could use for training. And 2012 doesn’t look any better.
We need to change that.
That’s why I’m going to Washington, D.C. on Monday (March 14). I will raise these issues and advocate for the preservation and enhancement of cost efficient and effective programs that support entrepreneurship and job creation. I have meetings scheduled with key Congresspersons. I will attend a Treasury conference – “Access to Capital Conference: Fostering Growth and Innovation for Small Businesses” on March 22, 2011. The conference, hosted by Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, will explore how the public and private sectors can promote access to capital at each phase in the lifecycle of small companies looking to grow. You can be assured I will be raising my voice loudly about technical assistance for the very small business sector.
Please email me your thoughts or stories about how technical assistance has helped your clients. Be assured that all of us at CAMEO will continue our fight to create jobs in California.