SBA – Empowering America's Entrepreneurs Since 1953

The countdown began when the formal speeches were over. “Four. Three. Two. One…” And then, at exactly 9:30 A.M., August 5, 2003, SBA Administrator, Hector V. Barreto rang the NASDAQ opening bell.

For most of the financial industry it was just the start of another day of trading. But for US small businesses, the ceremony and day had special significance. It was part of the kickoff of the Small Business Administration’s 50th anniversary celebration.

And there’s much to celebrate. Over the 50 years it has been in existence, the SBA has played a key role in fostering the growth and development of small businesses in the U.S. In turn, those small businesses helped fuel the unprecedented economic prosperity we enjoy in the US today.

In a presentation immediately following the opening bell ceremony, Administrator Barreto noted that during the SBA’s 50-year history, it has backed over $140 billion in loans to small businesses, and provided some $30 billion in venture capital. SBA provided $600 million in disaster assistance to New York City in the aftermath of 911, and in the last year has made a total of more than $1 billion in disaster loans available throughout the country.

In fact the agency’s current loan portfolio, which includes some 219,000 loans worth more than $45 billion, makes it the largest single financial backer of U.S. businesses in the nation.

The SBA has helped small businesses grow into huge corporations. Many of them such as Intel, Nike, Apple, FedEx, Compaq, Callaway Golf, and Outback Steakhouse have become household names. And many of the businesses the SBA has helped have started completely or partially at home. Albany Molecular Research, for instance, was launched by Dr. Thomas D’Ambra out of his home and the chemistry lab at Siena College in 1991. The company received a small business loan in 1993 to help fund growth. It now employs 500 people in the Albany, NY area.

But funding isn’t the only way the SBA aids small businesses. The 20 million businesses the agency has helped over the years have benefited from a range of assistance that includes federal procurement assistance, advocacy programs, educational training programs and specialized outreach programs to women, minorities and veterans, and the new matchmaking programs to bring big business and government buyers together with small businesses.

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About the author
Janet Attard is the founder of the award-winning  Business Know-How small business web site and information resource. Janet is also the author of The Home Office And Small Business Answer Book and of Business Know-How: An Operational Guide For Home-Based and Micro-Sized Businesses with Limited Budgets. 

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