A report from the Iowa offices of the U.S. Small Business Administration finds more Iowans are taking the leap by leaving the corporate world and starting their own dream businesses in their garages, in their bedroom-offices and on dining room tables. Joe Folsom, the S-B-A’s district director, says nearly 98-percent of Iowa’s businesses are now considered “small” businesses, an increase of more than five-percent from a year ago.
Folsom says “The major portion of that increase is actually in self-employed businesses, folks that are starting their own businesses and being self-employed, non-employer kinds of firms.” He says during the just-ended fiscal year, small businesses in Iowa employed nearly 650-thousand people, or more than half (53-percent) of the non-farm private sector workforce.
Folsom says “We’re continuing to work very closely with lenders to encourage them to explore the use of the new products that we’ve got.” He says small businesses innovate and create new jobs at a faster rate than their larger competitors. Folsom says they are nimble, creative and they’re a vital part of every community across the state. He says the S-B-A made 785 loans to Iowa small businesses in the past fiscal year, loans worth more than 172-million dollars.
Folsom says with one new program, lenders have 24-seven access to S-B-A programs and can take applications from a borrower on a weekend or weeknight, submit it and get approval back immediately without ever having to interface with an S-B-A employee. For more information, surf to “www.sba.gov” or contact the S-B-A offices in Des Moines or Cedar Rapids.