I still remember the first blog post I ever wrote: It was back in 2009 and the new Obama administration just named a new Small Business Administration administrator. I was so excited because at the time because I was working with a couple of clients who were running the SBA Section 8(a) gauntlet so I knew firsthand just how frustrating that experience would be. Her name was Karen Mills and because of her prior private equity and other business related experience, I truly hoped she would take some of the bureaucracy out the small business owner’s experience with the SBA.
Anyway, my career shifted focus so I cannot comment on the quality of Ms. Mills work. But according to Nish Acharya, she was “one of President Obama’s best Cabinet Secretaries”. We recently got news, however, that the SBA has a brand new administrator whose primary focus is “Business” not “Administration”. Per Acharya, her name is Maria Contreras-Sweet, and she wants to “make the SBA faster, more efficient and more accessible to new business owners and entrepreneurs”. Like Mills, she has a stellar background for the job and I have to say, her focus on making it easier for business owners to get access to cash is exactly what I want to see. So how exactly is she planning on doing this?
- The SBA will reduce the complexity of the capital access programs in order to make it easier for entrepreneurs to “secure and comply with an SBA loan. This new, borrower and partner friendly platform will be called ‘SBA One’.” We previously wrote about this here.
- Have SBA loans use a new predictive credit and scoring model for loans under $350,000. This new model that capitalizes on Big Data (i.e. this algorithm will use more information than the typical credit scoring system) to decide the credit-worthiness of borrowers.
- The SBA’s loan portfolio will also better reflect the demographics of the United States. This will be done via “better analytics and technology, and through greater outreach by the SBA field offices” to minority communities.
- The SBA will work to improve the federal procurement opportunities for SBA borrowers. In so doing, the SBA will become a better matchmaker by improving training and access.
So, what do you think? Is this enough? Do you want the SBA to do more or have you given up on the ability of government programs to make a difference? I’d really like to hear from you small business owners out there about this!
