BUSINESS LOANS FROM UNCLE SAM

FORTUNE SMALL BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2008

The government can help you get cash with the SBA’s 7(a) program, but banks still hold the purse strings. Assuming that an SBA-backed loan makes sense for your business, you need to figure out exactly what you want to do with the money so that you spend it wisely, says GERMAIN BOER, a professor of management and entrepreneurship at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.  A clear plan will also help you get the loan. “That makes the bank feel more comfortable with you,” says Boer. But small business owners shouldn’t look to the SBA program as some sort of freebie: “This is not any kind of a gift,” Boer says.