With regard to yesterday’s blog post about the Chilean miners, today’s New York Times ran the following article:

“Rescued Miners’ Secrecy Pact Erodes in Spotlight:

The miners rescued in Chile have asked for as little as $40 and upward of $25,000 for an interview” (article by A. Barrioneuvo and S. Romero).

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Shortly after the Chilean miners were all safely above ground again, stories of their experience began to surface. In the days immediately after the cave-in, there was understandable fear, stress and anxiety. Without a clear plan of how to survive, there was fighting, dissension, differences of opinion and the reality that even if they were to be rescued, it would take time and there were insufficient food supplies to last more than a few days. Some miners even questioned what would happen if some of the miners died – would they be forced to resort to cannibalism?

Their foreman stepped-up and took a leadership role explaining that without solidarity that their chance of success would diminish significantly. The miners rallied and became an organized and mutually supportive group that kept themselves emotionally and physically strong.

Shortly before they were rescued the group made a pact agreeing that any money earned as a result of their experience would be shared equally among the miners. After their rescue and return to civilization they have found themselves as media stars and negotiating the rights to movies, books and interviews. Already some of the miners have argued that their pact does not apply if they negotiate an individual book deal or receive an interview request. In the end, the media spotlight and attention that they are receiving will likely be more harmful than their experience in the mine collapse.

While we can’t blame them for taking advantage of their 15 minutes of fame, the true heroes are the foreman who took the leadership role and rallied his troops, the engineers, drilling crews and medical staff who worked around the clock for more than a month with professionalism, speed and precision so the miners could once again see the light of day. Most of the true heroes will fade back to their jobs without any interviews, book deals or recognition in a movie.

Similarly, the real heroes in a successful business are often the unassuming person who takes a leadership position, and the individuals who roll-up their sleeves and take an active role toward the business achieving their vision and goals. Be sure to recognize the real heroes.

Given the fact that it’s an election year, it’s no wonder that we’ve heard about small business being the key to the economic recovery. Small business accounts for approximately 75% of new jobs. A representative from the Philadelphia mayor’s office stated that small business will account for 92% of new jobs in that metropolitan area.

Job creation is the key to recovery from the recession. The economic stimulus package failed to create new jobs. You may ask why the politicians have not worked together to create jobs. Perhaps that’s a question that you should consider on Election Day, but that’s not the purpose of this article.

For those who are not in business or are fortunate to have a business that does not rely on loans, you may not be aware of the difficulty obtaining a business loan. I often speak to university business classes about entrepreneurship, business sustainability, social responsibility and business strategy. When the topic of financing is discussed, at least half of the students routinely indicate that they were not aware that funding can be such a challenge.

The students and business owners are often not aware that the Small Business Administration (SBA) does not actually loan the money; that is done through various financial institutions. When the banks significantly tightened their lending criteria, very little of the SBA money was actually being loaned by the banks. That is now beginning to change.

On September 27, President Obama signed into law new legislation that will help to kick-start the economy and will specifically help small business.
The new law has two components – financing and taxes. The part that will be of the most help to small businesses is the financing.

The law established a $30 billion fund earmarked for community banks to increase their SBA lending. This is significant because the smaller banks, credit unions and community banks are the banks that most small businesses prefer to work with. Since the SBA guarantees the loans, the banks are taking on lower risk.

The loan limits have also been increased. The micro-loan size has been increased from $35,000-$50,000. The maximum loan size for the larger loan program had been increased from $2 million-$5 million. There are also intermediate loans available.
The smaller banks and community banks are very willing to expand their SBA lending programs. It is reasonable to expect that the increased availability of money to small businesses will help to further stabilize and improve the economy by allowing small business to expand their operations and create new jobs.

A second financing option that may appeal to some business owners is a new and unique community lending program. “Crowdfunding” is a unique lending platform that is currently being introduced as an option to U.S. businesses by Profounder (http://www.profounder.com)

ProFounder provides a program of assistance for businesses to pitch their business to potential investors. The investors include local investors as well as public investors. The investors can invest $100, $1000 or more toward your fundraising goal.

Although this is a new option to businesses in the U.S. the concept has been around for several years and is highly successful. The founders of Kiva.org became the world’s first microfunding organization and provide a means for people around the world to invest in businesses in third world countries. Kiva and its investors have now loaned more than $165 million to those businesses. As a result of the success of Kiva, and realizing how the recession has hurt small business in the U.S., Kiva’s founder recognized an opportunity to help businesses in the U. S.

ProFounder has been in the planning, organizational and testing stages for more than a year and will be active this fall.