President Obama, Congress, and Small Business Help

President Obama has recently been pushing for banks to lend more to small businesses - especially the banks that were bailed out by taxpayer dollars.

"These are the very taxpayers who stood by America's banks in a crisis, and now it's time for our banks to stand by creditworthy small businesses and make the loans they need to open their doors, grow their operations and create new jobs," Obama said. "It's time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to help ensure a wider recovery, a more secure system and more broadly shared prosperity."

While President Obama has been publicly pushing the banks to lend more, there has been no word on whether the banks have acknowledged his statements or will do anything about them.

So far, $5 billion in tax breaks has been made available to small businesses from this year's $787 billion economic stimulus package. Congress has also been pushing for immediate relief. Senator Mark Warner has made a proposal:

Warner wants to create a $50 billion loan fund for small businesses by taking $40 billion of the remaining Troubled Asset Relief Program money and adding $10 billion that would be raised from banks of all sizes. The president's plan would increase the top limits on Small Business Administration loans and provide lower-cost capital to community banks, credit unions and community development financial institutions. He's asked the Treasury Department and SBA to confer with Congress members, lenders and small-business leaders to determine additional steps to help businesses.

(Source: USA Today)

You can read the entire article here. You can also find out more about programs available to you at www.sba.gov or get answers from other business owners here.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

How Does the Economic Stimulus Bill Help Small Businesses?

With the passage of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, everyone wants to know how and what they have coming to them. As many politicians struggled to read the more than 1,000 page document, journalists are having just as hard a time filtering through the most important measures the bill enacts. In the form of small business benefits, there's an argument on both sides on whether the bill does enough.

For starters, you can deduct business expenses up to $250,000 - up from $128,000. Small businesses, which the bill classifies as firms making $15 million or less in gross revenue, will also benefit from a net operating loss carry-back provision. This will allow you to use existing losses to offset taxes paid on profits in the previous five years.

One of the major issues the first stimulus bill was hoping to remedy - which was largely seen as a bank bailout - was to get banks to start loaning money to small businesses again. Right now, this stimulus bill authorizes the Small Business Administration to reduce or eliminate fees for banks participating it its new loan-guarantee programs, which will insure banks against default by small business borrowers.

Small business owners can get some immediate relief from the SBA in the form of loans up to $35,000 - which can be used to pay off up to six months of existing loans. Borrowers must repay the loan within five years and will also not have to make any payments for the first year. The allocated money by Congress is limited though; When the $630 million dollars begins to run out, borrowers will have priority over lenders, and small bank lenders will have priority over the larger ones.

While the SBA "applauds" the Stimulus Bill for the help it will give towards "unlock(ing) credit markets and begin economic recovery for the nation's small business sector," the American Small Business League says the bill offers "no specific provisions to direct even one dollar to those funds to America's 26 million small businesses.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

P.S. Be sure to participate in our forthcoming survey on whether you approve of certain elements of the stimulus bill. Thanks.

Who is the New Head of the SBA?

President-elect Obama today announced Karen Gordon Mills as the new head of the Small Business Administration (SBA). Mills has a background as an investor and venture capitalist.

"A venture capitalist who invests in small businesses, Karen understands the challenges faced by both small businesses' owners and the workers they employ," says President-elect Obama. "With a background in the private sector and experience helping Maine's governor promote growth across the state, I am confident that Karen will lead an SBA that will not only help small business owners realize their dreams, but help our nation rebuild our economy."

You can find out more about Mills here and here. Here are some other posts on MerchantCircle about the SBA.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

Finding Small Business Loans When Banks Won't Lend

Since a $700 billion bailout was approved and almost half of it has been dispersed among the banking industry, small business owners have yet to see any of this money in the form of loans. Despite warnings from congressional leaders, and even President Bush, to not horde cash and begin loaning again, the banks seem to be reluctant to do so.

In this CNNMoney.com story, titled 'Message to Obama: Send Loans Fast,' the author suggests President-elect Obama should do exactly what he promised to do during the campaign, which is: 'start cutting loan checks directly from the government.'

In October, Obama proposed temporarily suspending the fees the Small Business Administration charges for participation in its flagship loan-guarantee programs, which insure banks against losses on a portion of the money they lend to qualifying small businesses. But he also suggested making direct loans available through the SBA's Disaster Loan Program, which traditionally assists natural-disaster victims.

Well, until President-elect Obama takes office, it seems unlikely a President with less than 10 weeks left in office will be able to accomplish anything in a Democratic Congress. We've written before about Small Business Help, Resources, and Loans, but if you aren't having any luck and have been maxing out your credit cards, check out this article titled '5 Alternatives to Borrowing from Banks.'

Sincerely,
Kevin
MerchantCircle Community Relations

Small Business Help, Resources, and Loans

With many local businesses struggling due to the recent economic condition, we've launched a number of programs to help merchants save money and find more customers.

• Marketing Advisor Program - Pays you money for each merchant you sign-on to the MerchantCircle network.
• Merchant Marketplace - Saves you money on essential business needs and products from Fortune 500 companies.
• Instant Website - Instead of paying a company hundreds of dollars to build you a website, buy a domain name, and host the website - MerchantCircle offers all of this for as low as $6.99 a month!

There are many government organizations that are designed specifically to help out small businesses. With the $700 billion dollar bailout, some of that money is supposed to help out local businesses. Check out these sites:

• U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) - You can find programs, services, and tools to help you grow your business.
• Business.gov - Find government loans and grants, licenses and permits, and links for many other resources.

Hopefully these links come in handy.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

What's new at MerchantCircle

Every month we try to push out great new features for our merchants to enjoy and help them find new customers here at MerchantCircle. This month is no exception, we have loads to offer so take a moment, read what’s new, and start taking advantage of our new offerings.

1. Custom URL – Want a shorter, easier to remember url for your MerchantCircle listing? Check out our Custom URL feature. You can claim your custom url by 1) Log into MerchantCircle 2) Click on Listing Configuration 3) Click on Edit Business Profile. From there scroll down to the Customer URL field, fill in your desired name space and click save. From then on, it’s yours. Give your new url to your customers, print on business cards, and place on any advertising you do.
2. Widgets – Display your MerchantCircle colors on your personal website, MySpace page, and email signature. It’s easy, just go to our downloads page, copy the html next to the example widget and use where you see fit.
3. Getting Started Guide – Have questions about MerchantCircle? We’ve compiled an easy to use Getting Started Guide to using MerchantCircle and all the features we offer to find new customers. Download here and let us know what you think.
4. Better Forums – We’ve restyled our forums, added a sticky thread feature, included search capabilities, and now have the ability to assign moderators. Check out our forums today and join the discussion. And, if you are interested in becoming a moderator, drop us a note at support@merchantcircle.com and let us know why you would be a good fit.
5. Talk to Me - Ever wish you could interact with your online visitors? Well, we've just created a new feature called "Talk to Me". This feature establishes a 2 way dialog between your visitors and yourself on your MerchantCircle listing. Check back often to see what people are saying or asking of you. Participate regularly and it can drive even more customers through your door.
   

As always we’re constantly on the look out for the next wave of features to offer our merchants, so if you have feedback be sure to let us know.

I’m waiting to hear from you.

Best,

Ryan
Product Marketing
MerchantCircle

It's all about the community

Let's face it, starting and running a business is tough work. I remember reading that some 600,000 small businesses fail each year. 600,000 is a huge number and because of this, I think it's great to see our merchants banding together in support of one another on MerchantCircle.

You can see this most obvious in our Merchant to Merchant forums. Here you can find the support and help of our merchants to questions like How do I generate customers walk-ins?, What are some free or affordable ways for me to promote my business?, and my personal favorite Has being a MerchantCircle member helped bring you sales?.

I think it's wonderful to see this kind of support in our community. I can't wait to see more! So, if you have some great advice to share, feel free to stop by the MerchantCircle forums and lend a hand. I guarantee you that your support will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Ryan
Product Marketing
MerchantCircle