The reading level for this article is All Levels
If you are a female, veteran or minority, small business loans can be easily provided through the Small Business Association (SBA). The SBA is a division of the federal chamber of commerce that allows offers a number of financial aid programs and packages to various demographics that are in need of assistance with their business financing needs.
While the SBA is often thought of as merely being a program that provides to the disadvantaged and minorities, this is something of a misnomer. The system does not only make loans available to you only if you are a veteran or minority; small business loans are offered through a number of programs that almost any entrepreneur can apply for them. The only catch is that many of these are micro-loan programs that are often too small to fit the needs of a small business, however if multiple loans are applied for, you can often get precisely the amount you are looking for.
The SBA’s history begins in the Eisenhower years of 1953. The stated purpose of the then-new program was to “aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns.” Also as part of the program, the government supervised the selling of surplus government capital assets to small businesses. The SBA has been under a number of attacks in the post-Reagan years. In 1996, when the large Republican congress took control, there was an attempt to ban the agency outright. The bill met with resistance from Democrats under the leadership of Bill Clinton, and in the year 2000 the program went on to receive record amounts of funding. It has continued with a rocky existence in the last decade as a result of the largely Republican congress and white house, and in 2004 was forced to report a spending freeze, making it very difficult for minority small business loans to be issued. However, the recent government stimulus package has distributed money into the SBA funds, offering aid to the Microloan programs, making this once again a very useful tool for prospective small businesses.
