As a small business owner myself, I have insight into this banking vs. small business vs. Obama’s small business proposals, much better than the pundits do and I can see there is many a slip between cup and lip.

Maria Bartiroma discusses Obama’s push for small bs lending w/banking executives…

It’s interesting to note that Maria didn’t have several owners of small business on this program to combat what the bankers were saying. I’ve heard nothing but war stories from small business owners looking for funding from their bankers, they having particulary good credit but needing to either purchase inventory for purchase orders or raise capital for purchasing product to resell (companies who have been in business for over 10 years, have steady clientele and can show they can pay the money back). In the course of running a business these are not unusual requests in any given year and heretofore businesses got the funding. Everyone I am speaking with these days can’t get funding (access to capital), at least the small businesses that the Obama administration is trying to support.

I wonder who these banks and Bartiroma define as small business. Listening to this report tells me they don’t know anything about how small business operates. Most of the companies who have been able then to gain access to capital for short term lending have had to reach out to angel investors or even friends to cobble together what they need or go without, thus the laying off of employees and the no hiring. So Obama is acting on good intel, however, what the bankers are saying about the federal regulators is also what I am hearing….the regulators have clamped down to a significant degree and have tied the lenders hands, as if things weren’t difficult enough anyway.

The New York Times reported on how badly the ARC loans (the Small Business Administration America’s Recovery Act program that was to have provided emergency bridge loans) have been administered. A lot of the banks aren’t even doing the loans because they seem so risky to them, and the ones who are have been very slow to respond to the small bs. owners needs. Sounds like what I’ve heard also from home owners who are trying to get their loans renegotiated….it’s a process that is slow to happen, constant keeping up….calling to make sure their paperwork has not fallen through the cracks, and then to only have a short term fix on the loan created.

In the private sector we talk about how all successful programs are based on good execution of a plan. And here is where this administration is failing is in the execution. Leave it up to Congress to create the details? That’s a surefire recipe for failure. While I don’t agree with most of what is said in the above video, I do agree that everyone needs to get on the same page. That’s not that difficult. We all speak English. However, the expectation that Congress can do its job accordingly is just foolish, too many in Congress act on the basis of their own agendas and petty squabbles come with the territory. We have a White House administration for this purpose, to set and administer policy. Leadership sets the directive, and makes sure the team has all the tools necessary to do it’s job.

True what they say that government should not be in charge but our private sector isn’t doing it’s job either. They are doing whatever they can to hang onto what they have (with the exception of the no account banking system which seems to be the one making money hand over fist & keeping it….this will come back to haunt them).

Maybe I should have titled this post the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, clearly.

Bookmark