New Loans Offered for Small Business Owners

Small business owners in North Dakota will get a little help in transforming their companies into big businesses The Small Business Administration is offering a new loan service that it s hoping will spur economic growth in rural areas The Rural Lender Advantage program is helping community banks to finance small businesses by guaranteeing loans up to 85-percent This is a new service that will be tested in 5 other states besides North Dakota SBA used to offer similar loans but the application process was too complex and lengthy so they weren t often used by smaller community banks Now the process has been simplified and shortened The SBA is hoping to expand the program nationwide next year Steve Preston with SBA says small business is essential to our economy Steve Preston SBA Administrator We ve seen 8 and a half million new jobs created in our country over the past four years most of those jobs come from new buisnesses half of our non farm economy is small business half of our private sector pay roll is small business much of our innovation and export is small business and when it comes to rural America small businesses are even more important Preston says the program is great because it lends to people who might not normally be able to get a loan which helps expand small rural businesses in our state