To the editor:
We have a small business, a two-man shop. We started with $4,000, an American dream and a prayer. We have managed to survive with our shop for six years, and I mean just survive.About four years ago, we went to the Small Business Administration to apply for a loan of $98,000 to help get us into a building of our own, to build up inventory and to hire needed personnel.
After many weeks of gathering information the SBA requires, we were refused our loan because we were not asking for enough money and did not have $98,000 in the bank.
We were told by an SBA officer we should have asked for $350,000 and we should have at least half of that amount already in our bank account.
If I had half of this amount in my bank account I would not be seeking a loan.
I know of a large doctors office and big corporations being granted SBA loans that already have the money in their banks and didn't really need the loan, other than the fact they didn't have to spend their own money. I would like to know how the SBA is allowed to keep its name when it is not even for the small-business man?
Why don't the government and all loan companies put into law that a person has to be rich to own a business?
They say small business is the backbone of America; what happens when you keep stacking excessive weight on a backbone? I feel something would have to break.
Annette Robinson
Tooele