Tuesday was the third annual ‘SBA Day’ at the Embassies of Christ in Gary and the Regional Development Company, U.S. Small Business Administration, Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center, Better Business Bureau and Peoples Bank teamed up to deliver an informative presentation titled ‘Borrowing the SBA Way’ to current and future small business owners and entrepreneurs.
The U.S. Small Business Administration was created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. The major role of the SBA is primarily as a guarantor of loans made by financial institutions. The presentation gave small business owners and entrepreneurs an intimate look at SBA Lending and the who, what, where, why and how of obtaining a loan through the various programs offered by the SBA, the RDC and financial institutions.
“This is an event we have done here at the Embassies of Christ for several years,” said Erica Dombey, Executive Director at the Regional Development Company. “It’s a great program allowing us to provide outreach into the community to help grow entrepreneurship and small business.”
“The RDC regularly partners with the ISBDC, and we share a good number of clients. If a borrower is in need of financial projections, we will send them to Lorri to assist with preparation. When the ISBDC has a client in need of hard asset financing, they send the client to us.”
Lorri Feldt is the Regional Director at the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center and she works to assist small and start-up businesses in assessing market opportunities, understanding and improving finances, and business planning and execution.
“We help start-up entrepreneurs as well as small business owners,” said Feldt. “We will provide them with counselling and help them get off to a good start. We’ll work with their business plan and help them to see what their market is and hopefully get off to that start successfully and develop their market further if they’re already in business.”
“Often, the first thing that I say when I’m talking to a group is that it’s not easy to run a business or start a business,” Feldt said. “We don’t charge for our business so the individuals that might be planning a business or have a business we can sit down and talk with them and assist them at no charge.”
Brian Rusin, from Peoples Bank, hosted the ‘SBA Day’ presentation and spoke about how educational events like these help small businesses and entrepreneurs.
“Peoples Bank hosts this event each year, bringing a group of small business experts together to share our knowledge with the community. It’s a well-attended event, and one in which we are proud to be part of.”