May 27, 2009

Center can help businesses seeking SBA loans

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- To boost the economy and help ailing small businesses, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is launching a new loan program and the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale can help businesses seeking funds through the program.

The SBA recently announced that starting June 15, America’s Recovery Capital (ARC) loans will be available. These loans provide up to $35,000 in deferred-payment loans for existing, viable, historically profitable small businesses that need short-term help covering principal and interest payments for existing qualified debt. The borrowers will incur no fees and pay no interest on the SBA-guaranteed ARC loans.

The SBA will disperse the loans for up to six months, helping qualifying small-business owners cover debt including mortgages, business credit card payments, lender account payments, utilities and other financial obligations. Business owners will begin paying back the ARC loans 12 months after getting the final disbursement and will owe no interest for this loan. They’ll repay the loan principal over a five-year period.

Commercial lenders, not the SBA itself, will make the ARC loans. For details about the loan programs look online at http://www.sba.gov/recovery/arcloanprogram/index.html. Business owners who believe their businesses qualify for the assistance should begin by contacting their current lender for information.

The Illinois Small Business Development Center at SIUC, known by the acronym ISBDC, is an extremely valuable resource for area businesses, said Lynn Andersen Lindberg, director of the ISBDC. The center helps small businesses in Southern Illinois in a number of ways, including assisting businesses that are applying for the ARC loans through their lenders.

“We can help business owners update their business plans or prepare other financial paperwork that will assist them as they seek the ARC loans from local lenders,” Lindberg said.

For information about the ISBDC at SIUC and the many services and programs it offers, call 618/536-2424, e-mail sbdc@siu.edu, or look online at http://www.southernillinois.biz/.