May 18-20: During National Small Business Week, SBA Will Salute Small Businesses that Drive America’s Economy

The nation’s top entrepreneurs will be honored at the U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Week 2011 events, May 18-20, in Washington, D.C. Under the theme, "Empowering Entrepreneurs," a series of events and educational forums will mark the 58th anniversary of the agency and the 48th annual proclamation of National Small Business Week.

More than 100 outstanding small-business owners from across the country will receive awards while gathering for three days at the city’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel. There, they will meet with top administration officials, congressional representatives and national business leaders. The highlight of the celebration will be the announcement of the National Small Business Person of the Year.

Men and women also will be recognized for their involvement in disaster recovery, government contracting, and their support for small businesses and entrepreneurship. Awards will be presented to SBA partners in financial and entrepreneurial development -- including the year’s top SCORE chapter, Small Business Development Center and Women’s Business Center.

Interested parties can register online at www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com, where a tentative schedule and other information are available. The event will also be webcast live at the website.

"Small-business owners and employees across America are proving their resiliency as they continue to drive the nation out of recession through economic growth and job creation," said SBA Administrator Karen Mills [pictured]. "National Small Business Week gives us an opportunity to honor their achievements and the spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and determination that makes them the engine of our economy and our nation’s economic recovery."
The State Small Business Award winners and recipients of the Champion and other Entrepreneurial awards are nominated by local trade associations, chambers of commerce, plus business organizations and government agencies.

Small Business Week 2011 sponsors and cosponsors include: Association of Small Business Development Companies, AT&T, CareerBuilder, Dun & Bradstreet, Google, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, National Association of Development Companies, National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, National Association for the Self-Employed, Nomadic Display, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Sam's Club, SCORE, Verio, Visa, and Women Impacting Public Policy.

SOURCE: U.S. Small Business Administration
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Kerry Calls for Investigation Into Women’s Business Center Funding Delays

On Wednesday [May 9], Sen. John Kerry [D-Mass.] asked the Inspector General of the Small Business Administration to conduct a thorough investigation into the agency’s onerous grant disbursal process to Women’s Business Centers [WBCs] nationwide.

“I want to know why Women’s Business Centers are receiving federal grants months and even years late,” said Kerry, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

“Each year, WBCs -- such as the Center for Women & Enterprise in Boston, Worcester and Providence -- help tens of thousands of women, minority and veteran entrepreneurs turn dreams into reality by providing critical business development assistance," Kerry noted. "These centers should be allowed to focus on providing these services, instead of worrying about how to get their funding from Washington.”

Leaders from WBCs around the country have charged that the application process for grants is arduous, with circuitous procedures that result in delayed grant disbursals for qualified centers.

Last year, WBCs assisted more than 197,000 businesses nationwide. In Massachusetts, WBCs served almost 2,500 women in 2006. Since 1995, the Center for Women and Enterprise, which serves Massachusetts and Rhode Island, has trained more than 13,000 entrepreneurs and helped them secure nearly $30 million in business loans, generating more than 15,000 jobs and $430 million in wages.

Following, is the text of Kerry’s letter to SBA Inspector General Eric M. Thorson:


May 9, 2007

Dear Mr. Thorson:

I have repeatedly heard from the leaders of Women’s Business Centers [WBCs] around the country that they are experiencing problems receiving their grants from the Small Business Administration [SBA], and I request that you immediately undertake an investigation into this matter.

For a number of years, the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship has received complaints from WBCs about the process of applying and receiving grants from the SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership. According to their stories, the process is unnecessarily lengthy and arduous. Information is repeatedly requested from WBCs and then lost. There have been cases where the same information is requested 10 or even 12 times. In addition, the process lacks clear guidelines and transparency. A WBC may believe that they supplied all necessary information, only to be told months later that they must supply additional documentation.

As a result of these and other shortcomings, the grants are often disbursed months or even years after the quarter in which the expenses were incurred. Since most WBCs rely on SBA funding as a major source of funding, this delayed reimbursement can be disastrous, especially for new or small WBCs.

It is simply unacceptable that WBCs continue to struggle to receive funding from the SBA. Therefore, I request that you undertake a full and complete investigation to determine the extent of any problems with the grant disbursal process and make recommendations on how to improve it.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Karen Radermacher on my staff at 202-224-5175. Thank you for your attention to these matters.

Sincerely,

John Kerry


GoodBiz113's take: We're very pleased that Sen. Kerry is holding SBA's Office of Inspector General accountable for achieving its stated mission, "To improve SBA management and effectiveness, and to detect and deter fraud in the Agency's programs." Kerry's bold efforts are bound to have positive and far-reaching ripple effects on all small businesses and our myriad stakeholders.

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