Are businesses having any better luck getting access to credit?
The news is good. SBA lending is up, and the SBA continues to provide capital to Tennessee’s small businesses. U.S. Small Business Administration lending in Tennessee increased significantly in the fiscal year 2010 second quarter ending March 31. Compared to the second quarter of 2009, the total number of SBA loans increased 59 percent from 217 to 344, and the dollar volume of lending increased 106 percent from $48 million to $99 million. What can businesses do to cope with the continued credit crunch? Businesses can seek options from the lender they normally work with, or investigate options with the SBA (www.sba.gov/tn) or resource partners such as SCORE (www.scorenashville.org) or the Tennessee Small Business Development Centers (www.tsbdc.org). We urge the small-business community to be persistent in seeking capital from SBA-certified lenders and from all prospective lenders as the recovery continues. What can the SBA, specifically, do to help? The American Recovery & Reinvestment
