America’s small business sector is on the road to recovery, and it is happening much faster than the experts predicted. More than half the jobs lost to the pandemic have already been regained. This comeback is not happenstance; instead, it is a result of the President’s decisive leadership.
While state economies were shutting down as a result of necessary public safety orders, the President was mobilizing the greatest public-private disaster response in modern history.
So far this year, the SBA has approved more loans – by both value and volume – than it has in all of the years combined over its 67-year history.
Paycheck Protection Program
In just six days, SBA, in coordination with the Treasury Department, built and launched the largest economic response program aimed at small businesses in American history – the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
In just over four months, the program approved more than $525 billion in forgivable loans to millions of small businesses and nonprofits.
SBA tripled the number of lenders to originate loans, and we emphasized lenders that specialize in connecting minority entrepreneurs with capital. As a result, nearly 70 percent of all PPP loans went to small businesses with fewer than 10 employees – an important metric since the average minority-owned firm has eight employees.
PPP loans helped keep more than five million small businesses viable, buying them time and giving them the financial certainty they needed to adapt to a changing economic environment.
Over 50 million small business employees at risk of losing their incomes were kept on payroll because of the PPP, and as a result, hundreds of thousands of families at risk of slipping into poverty were kept financially viable.
Economic Injury Disaster Loans
SBA has issued more than 3.6 million Covid-19 EIDL to small businesses impacted by the pandemic, providing them with much-needed working capital at low-interest rates with no payments for an entire year.
With round-the-clock support from the White House, the SBA’s dedicated workforce approved more than $190 billion in these low-interest loans to help impacted small businesses recover.
Start-up Capital
It is not just during a global pandemic that this Administration prioritizes the wellbeing and growth of small businesses. We have seen measurable success every year in our efforts to expand access to critical capital for entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses. We have done this, in part, by proactively seeking out aspiring entrepreneurs in underserved communities.
Approvals of long-term, fixed rate loans often used for business expansion or modernization have grown by nearly seventeen percent, helping more Americans become entrepreneurs even in the midst of the pandemic.
And SBA’s microloan program, which offers loans up to $50,000, is closing in on another record-breaking year, underscoring our commitment to helping the truly small businesses and start-ups that need assistance.
Federal Contracting
Additionally, SBA continues to help more small businesses compete for and win federal contracts. Women-owned small businesses, for instance, are now winning federal contracts at the highest rate ever.
Women are one of the categories of underserved entrepreneurs I have prioritized from day one as the head of this agency. I am extremely proud to report we now have 117 Women’s Business Centers strategically located across the country – eight of which have been added since April – that specialize in providing guidance and business support to women entrepreneurs Furthermore, for the first time this year, we have expanded our reach to serve African American entrepreneurs with the addition of Women’s Business Centers at three Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs
The President understands that small business ownership is a powerful vehicle for upward mobility and wealth creation. Helping aspiring and current entrepreneurs in underserved communities is top of mind at SBA. For instance, to ensure the small businesses most in need could access capital, SBA expanded its approved lenders to include Minority Depository Institutions, Community Development Financial Institutions, and FinTechs, among others.
In our continued work to assist veteran-owned small businesses – another category of entrepreneurs that has been historically overlooked – SBA has a tremendous partner in President Trump. He donated a portion of his salary to boost SBA’s veteran assistance programs. As a result, SBA launched the Veteran Owned Small Business Growth Training Program, filling a critical role in helping existing veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs grow their small business. Additionally, more veteran entrepreneurs are being served now than ever before through SBA’s strategic partnership with Veterans Business Outreach Centers and the Boots to Business program.
America’s small businesses have been coping with the most challenging economic disruption in my lifetime, but they have not – and will not - go through it alone.
Neither the President nor I will rest until we see every small business fully recover and continue doing what they do best – fueling our economy, creating jobs, and building wealth in every American community.
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