New program helps small firms get more contracts

WASHINGTON -- For many small company owners, the Small Business Administration is a provider of economic assistance after a natural disaster. Some also get SBA-backed loans to help their businesses expand. The agency, however, provides other services, including a new program called Business Matchmaking that helps small businesses get contracts with the government and big corporations.

Matchmaking events have already been held in cities including Orlando, Fla., and Chicago, and more are scheduled this year and next. SBA administrator Hector V. Barreto spoke with The Associated Press recently about what his agency has to offer small businesses.

What is the matchmaking program about?

Barreto: We're demystifying what it means to do business with the government. ... What we're doing is basically taking the contracts out of Washington, D.C., and taking them to Main Street, and that's what these procurement matchmaking events are. ... We schedule over 2,000 one-on-one procurement appointments between qualified small businesses and 80 federal agencies and Fortune 500 companies with about a billion dollars in potential contracts.

We also had our lending partners there, so people could get more information on how to get capital. We also had many of our technical assistance providers there so we could provide them with some education and information. There was a tremendous amount of networking there -- 700 small business people showed up for the event in Chicago.

In addition to the matchmaking, how do you reach small business people to let them know what you're doing?

Barreto: We do our outreach from our incredible network of offices and providers. ... We have 70 major program offices in the United States. We have 1,200 Small Business Development Centers that help us get the word out. We have 12,000 retired executives that help us get the word out, through SCORE (www.score.org).

We have 1.5 million visitors to our Web site (www.sba.gov) every week now, so a lot of this information is going out through the Web site. ... The chambers of commerce we work with, obviously they communicate with their members.

The easiest thing is for small businesses to go to businessmatchmaking.com and they can get all the information on when the next (matchmaking event) is coming up, the next one closest to their area. ... They can register online and set up their own appointments.

A lot of small business owners know "the SBA will help me get a loan," but they really don't know what else the SBA is there to help them with. What do you say if someone comes to you and says, "What can you do for me?"

Barreto: We can help you sharpen your saw. That's one of the most important things that you're going to need to do. We can do that again through all of this education, information and technical assistance that we provide. Those SCORE representatives that we talked about, that's like a secret weapon, all these senior executives, many of them have experienced what a small business is going through. ...

Oftentimes, before they can get that loan, they're going to need a comprehensive business plan, they're going to need to know how to market their products, they're going to need to learn what kind of employees they need and actually be able to access those employees. They're going to need to learn how to use technology, they're going to need to learn how to have good books and good financials. They may need to repair their credit. All of those things and much more is available through the SBA.

Last year, we counseled 1.5 million small businesses in the United States. That's the place where we touch the most small businesses. ...

One segment that is particularly hurting is manufacturing. How can the SBA help small manufacturers?

Barreto: One of the things we can do is make sure that they know about all of the SBA programs. One program that we think can be helpful to them is the 504 (loan) program, because this is the larger types of loans. ... When a manufacturer needs to buy equipment, you're not talking about $100,000 equipment, sometimes you're talking about a million or more. Maybe they want to buy the building they are in, which especially in the last few years has been a great equity investment. So the 504 program can be very helpful.

Events like the matchmaking event, where they can diversify their client base. Maybe they were doing business with a particular segment of a particular industry. If that is becoming difficult, maybe they need to look at ways that they can branch out.

How do you help the manufacturer who says, "People overseas are undercutting me"?

Barreto: Sometimes there's an opportunity for them in international trade. Last year, we took a couple of trade missions with the Commerce Department, and we invited some of those small manufacturers to come along with us. ... Unless you venture out of your area of expertise and comfort, you may not know about some of these opportunities. There are some joint venture opportunities as well for some manufacturers here in the United States, especially in some of the things that are in the Midwest -- farm implements, tractors, those kind of things that these developing countries desperately need. ... Sometimes there are challenges that occur from someone underbidding you, but there may be other opportunities that can open up as well where you still have a distinct competitive advantage.

If someone wants to find out about these opportunities, where would they go?

Barreto: We have an Office of International Trade. They can access it directly on the Web site. We have something called Trade Mission Online, which is a great program that actually allows small businesses to participate in a virtual trade mission where you can find out if there's somebody in this country that's looking for this kind of product or service, and you can go online and get matched up with them. The Department of Commerce does a tremendous amount of work in this area through their Commercial Service. Then you have other agencies of government -- the Trade Development Agency, Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. We work very closely with them, and they are all very interested in small business. Many of them they have products or services specifically for the small business community.

When small businesses start thinking about overseas trade, some might think there'll be a lot red tape and ask, "Is it going to be impossible for me to do it?"

Barreto: There is a program called USEAC, the United States Export Assistance Centers. This is a collaborative program between the Department of Commerce and SBA and a couple of other federal agencies. These USEAC reps are spread out all round the country. This is all they do. Just like I have SCORE counselors, I've got USEACs all across the country as well.

Every district office has a person called a DITO -- District International Trade Officer -- and every district in the country has somebody assigned besides the USEAC for international trade opportunities. If somebody walked into any of our offices in the country and said, 'I want to talk about international trade,' you're going to get referred to one of several people, a DITO, a USEAC, or possibly one of our partners in commercial service or one of the other agencies in government, and possibly an SBDC or a SCORE counselor.