Special to the Pinoy Reporter
July, 2009
By Alexander Borromeo, President
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was good news for small business. The Reinvestment Act contains an entire section dedicated to helping small business which is the backbone of the American economy.
The small business employs local citizens, injects money into the local economy, creates a thriving and successful local community, and pays a significant amount of taxes supporting the overall government structure.
The ARRA provides an enormous funding amount of $730 million to small business using the SBA as the funding distributor. Fil-Am businesses have an opportunity to leverage their economic influence and success on, not one, but two levels: as a small business and as a minority business.
The SBA is the recipient of the ARRA small business funds which are to be directed to local businesses in communities coast-to-coast. The goal of the money is to jumpstart the economy, ease the tight credit markets and enable small businesses to do much more than survive this difficult economy. This money is intended to be used to create a thriving economic foundation of small healthy businesses.
What a great opportunity for Fil-Am businesses! There is money to borrow and markets to enter or expand. The ARRA provides loan fee reductions, creates additional loan amounts, creates new programs, assists small businesses with debt payments, and provides essential technical assistance through micro-loans. There is money to refinance, expand, and develop new business.
Leveraging your business and minority status offers a tremendous opportunity to succeed even in this difficult economic climate. As a Fil-Am business, you can borrow money to invest in your business, refinance debt, bid on projects funded with stimulus money, build a new business, borrow inexpensive government-backed money, or partner with other businesses in a collaborative venture.
The small business section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes the following sections geared towards promoting business success.
- Increases SBA loan guarantees which will promote additional lending to small businesses
- Provides for stabilization loans which enable small businesses to initiate deferred payment loans to make payments on existing SBA loans
- Expands Microloan program, making more money available to low-income, women, and minority entrepreneurs
- Increases money for refinancing existing SBA loans
- Expands the Small Business Investment Companies fund loan capabilities
- Increases the amount of SBA guaranteed surety bonds
You can begin to learn more about turning promise into action by first working with the Chamber of Commerce and then the Small Business Administration.
There has never been a better time to leverage what the government has to offer the small entrepreneur. It’s all about…leveraging opportunities.
“Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are proceeded by times of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm. – I Ching”
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