Obama: $15B for Small Businesses

http://mast-economy.blogspot.com/2009/03/obama-15b-for-small-businesses.html

by gne1963 • 17 years ago

5 15 17 years ago

mast-economy.blogspot.com

grandalf3• 17 years ago

So Obama is encouraging small businesses to take on debt, and increasing the extent to which taxpayers are accountable if the business fails!

This is a very narrow policy that will not help most small businesses, particularly not most tech startups, etc. Most of us either bootstrap or take VC funding -- neither of which have any hope of taxpayer bailout!

This makes a great headline for Obama but is not doing anything for the valley.

grandalf3• 17 years ago

(not that I think any of us would actually want a handout!)

gabrielleydon• 17 years ago

Speak for yourself! Ill take a handout!!! :D

gnaritas• 17 years ago

The country is bigger than the valley and tech isn't the only industry. Tech startups also don't make up the vast majority of small businesses in America.

grandalf3• 17 years ago

True enough, but I'd strongly prefer a more general policy (such as a payroll tax holiday) that would benefit all businesses.

Anyone under 40 should feel quite foolish paying payroll taxes anyway, considering that social security will self-destruct long before we get any benefits.

So in addition to paying payroll taxes, tech startups are helping to subsidize loans for startups in other industries!

rms• 17 years ago

Where do I sign up?

Seriously, how do you get a SBA loan?

gne19632• 17 years ago

Here is a list of top banks that offer SBA loans... http://www.tlmanage.com/sbabanks.html

patio112• 17 years ago

http://www.sba.gov/services/financialassistance/loanapplicat...

Let me warn you in advance: they're set up to fund laundromats, McDonalds, and dental practices, NOT websites or software developers. The process of applying for the loan will consume an intense amount of resources which could be better spent getting stuff in front of customers.

For most people on HN I'd advise you to invest sweat equity, get ramen profitable, and just grow via reinvestment of revenues at that point.

gne19632• 17 years ago

patio11-

please source your data on why they are NOT set up to fund developers or websites.

That is not my experience... and at some point your business will require capital and an SBA loan is a nice alternative.

callmeed• 17 years ago

Actually, we had an SBA loan for a web software company in the web 1.0 days. We were doing web-based products and some custom dev for the higher-education sector.

From what I recall, they were less worried about what you did and more concerned about crossing your Ts and dotting your Is. They wanted detailed biz plan (not your 37signals 1 pager), 3-5 years of projected P/L statements, balance sheets, etc.

We got the loan (roughly $100k) through a local bank and, while there were mountains of paperwork, they were great to work with. After the .com bust, a lot of Calif. schools (our main market) got their budgets and grants slashed and our business slowed. The bank was really cool about letting us make interest only payments for a while.

Eventually, we were able to sell the business for enough to pay off the loan and have a little extra dough.

charlesju• 17 years ago

Assuming you have a "profitable model" wouldn't you want to leverage as much capital and you can muster?

notehall• 17 years ago

This is great news!

veritgo• 17 years ago

Obama is also making it easier to invest in small businesses and startups, according to the whitehouse blog:

"... a series of tax cuts for small businesses and tax incentives to encourage investments in small businesses. He noted further that in his budget, he proposes permanently reducing to zero the capital gains tax for investments in small or startup businesses"

Not sure how much investors care about taxes when they are investing in a startup, but it seems like this would make funding more available.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/16/Help-for-small-busin...

Obama: $15B for Small Businesses

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