SBA Update
Demand for SBA Loans Rises—Through the third quarter of the fiscal year, small businesses applied to the SBA in record numbers to obtain funding. The numbers show a 21 percent increase over this period last year, and a 49 percent increase over two years ago. Small business secured 71,131 loans under the 7(a) program through the first nine months of the fiscal year, amounting to $11.1 billion, 19.5 percent more than at the same time last year. The Certified Development Company (504) loan program issued 6,434 loans worth $3.44 billion during the first nine months. This is a 6 percent increase over last year. The current budget allows for $21 billion for both programs.

Acting Deputy Administrator—President Bush has designated SBA Chief of Staff Stephen Galvan as acting deputy administrator of the agency. Galvan will continue to serve as chief of staff and chief operating officer. As acting deputy administrator, he is responsible for overseeing policy development and program supervision for the SBA.

Web Chat Series—The SBA has kicked off a live Web chat series for small business owners. The series will provide business owners an opportunity to exchange ideas with industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs on relevant business issues. The chats will be held monthly on a variety of small business topics. Go to www.sba.gov for information.

Study Finds Drop in Entrepreneurship
A recent study of entrepreneurial activity in the United States has found that roughly four million fewer persons created businesses in 2004 than the previous year, more than a 20 percent decrease. Prof. Paul D. Reynolds, director for the Entrepreneurship Research Institute at the Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center (GEC) and the study’s principal investigator, said that the drop is significant because new businesses account for half of all U.S. job creation. Entrepreneurship also helps make the economy adaptable and innovative. He said the drop may simply be a correction from the high 2000 levels at the peak of the dot-com craze.

Entrepreneurship in the U.S.: The 2004 Assessment looks at those active in business startups and management and gathers details on entrepreneurial demographics such as age, ethnicity, gender and education. More than 12,000 interviews were conducted. To view the study, visit www.entrepreneurship.fiu.edu.

SourceLink Model Expands to Kansas, Wisconsin
Kansas and Wisconsin are connecting entrepreneurs and resource organizations throughout their states using KCSourceLink’s customized online search engine.
NetWork Kansas is a statewide initiative of the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship, which developed from the Kansas Economic Growth Act of 2004. It is a resource clearinghouse connecting non-profit resource organizations to entrepreneurs and small businesses statewide. The clearinghouse will serve small business owners through a hot line and Web site. NetWork Kansas expects to launch this fall with a base of more than 60 resource organizations, eventually increasing the network to more than 200 resources statewide. Existing KCSourceLink resources based in Kansas automatically will also become a part of NetWork Kansas.

Wisconsin recently launched the Wisconsin Entrepreneur’s Network (WEN) to connect small businesses and resources through KCSourceLink’s Resource Navigator. The WEN Web site was launched in June with a base of 50 Wisconsin resource organizations.

SBA Criticized for Proposals
The SBA is taking some heat from small business owners over its size standard proposals. At 11 hearings held across the country to discuss proposed size standard modifications, several small business owners voiced their concerns that the SBA has lost touch with it constituents—small businesses—and is catering to the needs of large corporations.

The SBA’s proposed policies include continuing a receipt-based size standard for small businesses rather than an employee-based size standard, establishing a tiered system of size standards, and grandfathering federal contracts so the large businesses could hold onto their small business set-aside contracts for five more years. The SBA also proposed that small businesses majority owned by venture capital companies should not have to take into account that affiliation when determining small business status.  

NFIB Awards Scholarships
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Young Entrepreneur Foundation has awarded six of its 381 annual scholarships to graduating seniors in Kansas. This is the third annual NFIB Free Enterprise Scholars Awards, a scholarship program to set future small business owners on the path to entrepreneurship. The scholars will attend the school of their choice with $1,000 in tuition assistance from the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation. The scholarship is based on standardized test scores, GPA and an essay on the importance of free enterprise.

The recipients are Alex Gotlob of Winfield High School, Zachary Oswald of Hutchinson High School South, Zachary Turner of Auburn, Stephen Heimsoth of Shawnee High Magnet Academy, David Voorhees of Prairie View High School and Matthew Heinrich of Shawnee Heights High School.

Rojas Accepts National Leadership Position
Cici Rojas, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City (HCCGKC), has accepted a leadership position with the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC). She will begin her duties in September as vice president of Strategic Alliances and Special Projects for the USHCC in Washington, DC. Rojas has been involved with the local Hispanic chamber since 1997 and has served as president since 2001. Under her leadership, HCCGKC has had a 200 percent growth in membership and a 300 percent increase in organizational revenues.

Rojas follows in the footsteps of other Kansas Citians who have become national leaders within the Hispanic/Latino community. Janet Murguia is president of the National Council of La Raza, and Michael Barrera is president of the USHCC. Hector Barreto, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, also is from Kansas City.