SBA Recovery Act Funding Extended

Defense Appropriations Bill contains funding to extend programs thru February 2010.

WASHINGTON – With Recovery Act funding running out and with almost 1,000 small businesses on a waiting list for about $500 million in SBA-backed loans, the Senate today voted to extend funding for vital SBA Recovery Act provisions through February 2010. United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, who along with 12 of her colleagues, requested this extension and praised the inclusion of funds to continue vital Small Business Administration (SBA) lending programs.

“Small businesses have been left in limbo since the funding ran out in late November. Today’s action by the Senate will immediately clear the waiting list established by the SBA and will provide a lifeline to small businesses in need of credit,” Senator Landrieu said. “With these additional funds, SBA will be able to offer lenders a higher guarantee for 7(a) loans and a fee waiver on 504 loans, and reduce the cost of capital for small businesses by waiving the fees on both 7(a) and 504 loans. These changes proved very effective at jumpstarting small business lending, and the need to continue them is clear. Since funds from the Recovery Act ran out in late November, we’ve seen the volume for 7(a) and 504 loans drastically decrease. Reinstating these funds is a important to small businesses and our overall economic recovery and job-creation efforts.”

Senator Landrieu, along with 12 other Senators, sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee asking for the funds to continue these provisions from the Recovery Act. Of the $479 million dollars requested from the Senators, $125 million is included in the DoD appropriations bill, with the remaining $354 million included in the jobs-creation package introduced in the House. The House jobs-creation package, which is expected to be considered by the Senate early next year, also includes the authorization to extend the authorization for the 90-guarantee on SBA loans through FY2010

ACE Business Idea Tweet Competition

ACE is all about entrepreneurs. As such, we like to think that the planning committee is entrepreneurial and keeping abreast of the latest tools for our community. In that spirit, we are trying something new, quite possibly the first time ever in the history of the world: a business idea pitch competition using twitter! The judges are anyone and everyone with access to Twitter - so get your friends and business partners engaged.

Rules for competitors:

If you don’t already have a Twitter account, please go to Twitter to set one up.

Tweet your business idea (115 characters max – assuming your username is not more than 10 characters – with #ACEbizIdea at the end) by 5:00 pm EST on 1/13/2010, and you’ll be entered in the contest.

We will RT (retweet) your plan as it comes in. (Or as humanly close as we can get to that time, during business hours.)

Others will vote for your plan by RT’ing or by marking it as a favorite. Voting will close at 5pm on 1/15/2010, so the sooner you get your plan in, the more chances you’ll have to be seen.

Rules for competitors:

Follow @ACEevent on Twitter.

Vote on business plans as they’re Tweeted, either by:

Marking them as a favorite, or RT’ing them

Only one vote per account for each business idea will be counted. You are welcome to vote for multiple business plans; but you can only cast one vote per plan!

Voting must be complete by 5pm on 1/15/2010.

Prizes and recognition:

The business ideas of the top five voter getters will be displayed at ACE.

The winner will be recognized during the program - and their idea will be shared with the audience.

The winner will receive a prize of $140 (which is even more money, on a per character basis, than Charles Dickens was paid!)

The Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship is the place where Great Lakes region entrepreneurs gather to network, learn, and connect. Each year at ACE, you'll join an exciting, forward-thinking community of innovators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders - people like you who have the vision and drive to build new ventures for a new future.

For more information please visit: http://ace-event.org/acebizidea.aspx