BUS101: Introduction to Business

Find A Local SBA Office

Looking for small business counseling and training close to home? SBA can help! SBA provides small business counseling and training through District Offices across the country. Business guidance and support are crucial to increasing your odds of long-term success. Find counseling, training, and business development specialists providing free and low-cost services in your area.

SBA District Offices

SBA's District Offices are responsible for providing businesses with the tools for enhancing and growing their businesses. SBA's District Offices also oversee the delivery of SBA's programs throughout the states such as:

• Free counseling, advice, and information on starting a business through SCORE.

• Financial assistance for new or existing businesses through guaranteed loans made by area bank and non-bank lenders.

• Free consulting services through the network of Small Business Development Centers. SBDCs also conduct training events throughout the district - some require a nominal registration fee.

• Assistance to businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals through the Minority Enterprise Development Program.

• Women's Business Ownership Representatives are available to advise women business owners.

Check out your local District Office today!

Small Business Development Centers

Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) provide assistance to small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs throughout the United States and its territories. SBDCs help entrepreneurs realize the dream of business ownership and help existing businesses remain competitive in a complex, ever-changing global marketplace. SBDCs are hosted by leading universities and state economic development agencies and funded in part through a partnership with SBA.

SBDC advisors provide aspiring and current small business owners a variety of free business consulting and low-cost training services including business plan development, manufacturing assistance, financial packaging and lending assistance, exporting and importing support, disaster recovery assistance, procurement and contracting aid, market research help, 8(a) program support, and healthcare guidance.

With dozens of host networks branching out with hundreds of service delivery points throughout the U.S., the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, SBDC assistance is available virtually anywhere.

Find a list here: https://www.sba.gov/tools/local-assistance/sbdc

SCORE

The SCORE Association "Counselors to America's Small Business" is a nonprofit association comprised of 13,000+ volunteer business counselors throughout the U.S. and its territories.

SCORE members are trained to serve as counselors advisors and mentors to aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners. These services are offered at no fee, as a community service. The following lists some of the ways you can get in touch with SCORE and start getting the business advice you are looking for:

• SCORE Online: Choose a mentor. Ask your business questions with the click of a mouse.

• Visit Your Local SCORE Office: Make an appointment with a mentor and talk face-to-face or attend a business workshop.

• Online Workshops: Check out one of the free online workshops or register for a webinar.

• Business eNewsletters: Subscribe to the eNewsletter and get business tips and interview with leading experts.

More About SCORE

• There are 348 SCORE chapters in urban, suburban, and rural communities.

• SCORE was formed in 1964 and nearly 10 million Americans have utilized SCORE services.

• SCORE can help you if you are trying to start a business or if you need so help with your existing business.

Visit the SCORE Website today!

SBA Loans

If you're planning to start a business or expand an existing business, you might need financing help. SBA participates in a number of loan programs designed for business owners who may have trouble qualifying for a traditional bank loan.

To start the process, you should visit a local bank or lending institution that participates in SBA programs. SBA loan applications are structured to meet SBA requirements so that the loan is eligible for an SBA guarantee. This guarantee represents the portion of the loan that SBA will repay to the lender if you default on your loan payments.

The SBA Loan Application Checklist provides a listing of forms and documents you and your lender will need to create a loan package to submit to SBA.

The following are direct links to information about commonly requested SBA programs:

Starting and Expanding Businesses

• Basic 7(a) Loan Program

  Gives 7(a) loans to eligible borrowers for starting, acquiring, and expanding a small business. This type of loan is the most basic and the most used within SBA's business loan programs. Borrowers must apply through a participating lender institution.

• Certified Development Company (CDC) 504 Loan Program

  Provides growing businesses with long-term, fixed-rate financing for major fixed assets, such as land and buildings.

• Microloan Program

  Offers very small loans to start-up, newly established, or growing small business concerns. SBA makes funds available to nonprofit community-based lenders which, in turn, make loans to eligible borrowers in amounts up to a maximum of $50,000. Applications are submitted to the local intermediary and all credit decisions are made on the local level.

Disaster Loans

• Disaster Assistance Loans

  Provide financial assistance to victims of disasters or to individuals in a declared disaster area. You may be eligible for this type of loan even if you don't own a business.

• Economic Injury Loans

  Assist small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, and nonprofit organizations as they recover from economic losses resulting from a physical disaster or an agricultural production disaster.

Export Assistance Loans

• Export Express

  Provide exporters and lenders with a streamlined method of obtaining financing for loans and lines of credit up to $500,000. Lenders use their own credit decision process and loan documentation; exporters get access to their funds faster. SBA provides an expedited eligibility review with a response in less than 24 hours.

• Export Working Capital

  Offers loans targeted at businesses that are able to generate export sales but need additional working capital to support these opportunities.

• International Trade Loans

  Gives term loans that are designed for businesses that plan to start/continue exporting or those that that have been adversely affected by competition from imports. The proceeds of the loan must enable the borrower to be in a better position to compete.

Veteran and Military Community Loans

• Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan

  Offers funds to eligible small businesses to meet ordinary and necessary operating expenses that could have been met, but are unable to meet, because an essential employee was "called up" to active duty in their role as a military reservist.

Special Purpose Loans

• CAPLines

  Help small businesses meet their short-term and cyclical working-capital needs through the SBA umbrella program called CAPLines.

• Pollution Control Loans

  Provides financing to eligible small businesses for the planning, design, or installation of a pollution control facility.

• U.S. Community Adjustment And Investment Program (CAIP)

  CAIP is a program established to assist U.S. companies that are doing business in areas of the country that have been negatively affected by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). To be eligible, a business must reside in a county noted as being negatively affected by NAFTA, based on job losses and the unemployment rate of the county.

Source: U.S. Small Business Association
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