The Small Business Administration
About
Created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Small Business Administration's (SBA) has two strategic goals: first, growing businesses and creating jobs, and second, to serve as the voice for small business. SBA claims that the core of their entrepreneurial development is the foundation of targeted, effective advising, training, and mentoring services to drive business. Their entrepreneurial development performance goal focuses on driving greater participation in the resource partner advising and mentoring programs and training courses. The SBA primarily offers a range of financial assistance programs for small businesses that may have trouble qualifying for a traditional bank loan. Follow this link for a list of the major SBA Loans. SBA's programs also include financial and federal contract procurement assistance, management assistance, and specialized outreach to women, minorities and armed forces veterans. SBA also provides loans to victims of natural disasters and specialized advice and assistance in international trade. [1]
Companies affiliated with the SBA include: Small Business Investment Company (SBIC), Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), and Small Business Development Centers (SBDC).
Contact
Answer desk: answerdesk@sba.gov Houston office: houston@sba.gov Office of Chief Information Officer: (202-205-6708) Office of Performance Management and the Chief Financial Officer: (202-205-6449)
FY 2016 Entrepreneurship Goals
- Broad goal: Strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems through a variety of strategic partnerships to provide tailored training, mentoring, and advising services that support entrepreneurs during every phase of their business growth.
- Performance goal: reach 1.4 million clients with online and in-person training, mentoring, and advising in FY 2016.
- Programs offered: Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers, SCORE, Learning Center, Boots to Business, Regional Innovation Clusters, Entrepreneurship Education, Emerging Leaders
- Strategies:
- Harness SBA's nationwide network of resource partners
- Improve entrepreneurial ecosystems through cross-agency and public-private partnerships
- Offer tailored training through structured programs and online access
Budget
SBA's total budget request for FY 2016 (including Stafford Act Disaster funding) is $860 million. Of this amount, $3.3 million is for business loan subsidy, $19.9 million for the Office of the Inspector General and $9.1 million for the Office of Advocacy. This total is inclusive of $28 million for administering non-Stafford Act disasters. FY16 Budget Highlights
Some 2016 budget reforms include:
- Launch SBA One, a program designed to increase loan efficiency process
- Allocates $3 million towards "idea lab" which will help adopt private sector best practices
Criticisms
The five most prevalent criticisms of the SBA include [2]:
- Creates uneven playing field by aiding some businesses while denying aid to others, thus distorting markets;
- Duplicating activities already provided in private markets;
- Harms businesses and consumers;
- Government intervention in deciding market trends can often bet on the wrong companies at taxpayer expense;
- SBA fosters corruption.
Specifically,
- The Government Accountability Office (GAO) criticized SBA's ability to provide timely disaster assistance to Gulf Coast hurricane victims through their disaster loan system. For more information about this criticism, go to GAO's report on the SBA's disaster relief loans.
- GAO also released Report 10-108 which found that failing to hold firms accountable sent a message to the contracting community that there is no punishment or consequences for committing fraud. See the report for more information.
- The CATO Institute argues that the very conception of the SBA was a bad idea, questioning the federal government's strategy in intervening in the credit market. They say that the United States grew to be an economic powerhouse with a small centralized federal government that largely left business development to the private sector. For more information about the CATO institute's criticism, see this article.
