Name: Neida Heusinkvelt Title: Assistant District Director for Economic Development Organization: U.S. Small Business Administration, Kansas City District Office Contact Information: 323 W 8th Street, Ste. 501 Kansas City, MO 64105 (816) 374-6701 ext. 272 www.sba.gov
Target Businesses & Services*: Aspiring/Start-ups and Established/Expanding businesses. Strategic planning and financial services.
Neida Heusinkvelt has been with the Small Business Administration (SBA) for 26 years, helping qualified small businesses obtain financing when they might not be eligible for business loans through normal lending channels.
She said the beauty of the job is working with competent staff members and affecting the business community in small but productive ways.
Heusinkvelt manages and promotes the SBA’s financial assistance programs for the western half of Missouri and the eastern third of Kansas. The SBA, through its lending partners, provides loans for working capital, machinery and equipment, furniture and fixtures, land and building (including purchase, renovation and new construction), leasehold improvements and debt refinancing (under special conditions).
Heusinkvelt considers herself a life student. She earned a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Toledo and a master’s in political science and public administration from Bowling Green State University. Since then she has completed a variety of coursework in finance and other business topics.
Before working for the federal government, she worked in retail, taught undergraduate political science while a graduate student and even started a cabaret nightclub.
Heusinkvelt is proud of both the short-term and long-term positive impact that SBA financial assistance programs have in growing small businesses. She said her job is like watching a play from back stage where she is privy to the entire process, from the flurry of hard work in preparation to the finished product and the audience reaction.
“I love hearing the stories of satisfied entrepreneurs that tell us how owning and managing their small business enriched their lives, and I like watching unique buildings change the skyline, knowing that these small businesses in turn are providing jobs to people who need and want them.”
Heusinkvelt said that this is still a “people” business, even though credit scoring is having a profound impact on decision-making at the larger institutions.
She said the SBA continues to find simpler ways to provide access to capital for entrepreneurs. SBAExpress, another version of the 7(a) loan guaranty program, has expanded nationally and locally. A year ago, fewer than a dozen lending organizations were involved in this program, and now there are nearly 50 lenders in her district that use the 50 percent guaranty loan program.
The SBA also has reduced the fees slightly on the 504 loan program, the fixed-asset financing program that is provided in connection with area certified development companies. These organizations now can provide fixed-asset financing in the entire state where they are chartered, not just in their immediate area.
In the loan programs, her department works locally with more than 250 lending institutions in the district. The department also has hundreds of networking relationships with other small business for-profit and not-for profit technical-assistance providers.
“This makes the Kansas City area really open for business to entrepreneurs,” Heusinkvelt said. “Like SBA, many of these organizations have steadily and quietly been making a difference in the small business landscape here in this area.”
Ellen Jensen is managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly.
