SBA: Empowering Entrepreneurs for over 50 Years– Region 8 June Newsletter

Thank you for taking the time to read the June 2003 edition of Newsline Eight. Newsline Eight is the monthly newsletter from the SBA’s Region Eight Office in Denver. Our office covers the states of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. This month, Mick Ringsak continues his introduction to SBA’s 50th anniversary plans. Over 10,000 individuals across America receive Newsline Eight.

We keep the format of our newsletter simple – easy to read, with timely and useful information. Beginning this Summer, our newsletter will be posted on the NEW Region Eight Website located on http://www.sba.gov. Stay tuned!

If you have any questions, please contact the Region Eight Office at 303-844-0501.
Mick Ringsak, Regional Administrator
Jim Henderson, Regional Advocate
Chris Chavez, Regional Communications Director

2003 has been proclaimed the “Year of the Exporter” in Region VIII. Would you like more information on how your firm can export? Dennis Chrisbaum can give you information on lenders in your area that do export loans! Tell him you heard it on Newsline Eight.

Email us at [email protected]

NewslineEight

Volume 9 – Issue 6 Contact: Chris Chavez ([email protected])
June 2003 Phone: (303) 844-0501/Fax 844-0506

SBA’s Monthly News Update
-Serving Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming-

Newsline Eight is circulated to our resource and lending partners by SBA’s Region Eight Office

721 19th Street, Suite 400, Denver, Colorado 80202.

Elton W. Ringsak, Regional Administrator

James R. Henderson, Regional Advocate

Christopher Chavez, Regional Communications Director

Mick Ringsak’s Thoughts and Remarks

SBA’s beginnings date back to the Great Depression. Although the SBA was officially established in 1953, its philosophy and mission were shaped years earlier through predecessor agencies, largely as a response to the pressures of the Great Depression and World War II. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation, created by President Herbert Hoover in 1932 to alleviate the financial crisis of the Great Depression, was SBA’s grandparent. The RFC was basically a federal lending program for businesses large and small hurt by the Depression. It became the personal project of Hoover’s successor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Concern for small business intensified during World War II when large industries beefed up production to accommodate wartime defense contracts, and smaller businesses had difficulty competing. To help small businesses participate in war production and give them more financial viability, Congress created the Smaller War Plants Corporation in 1942. The SWPC provided direct loans to private entrepreneurs, encouraged large financial institutions to make credit available to small enterprises, and advocated small business interests to federal procurement agencies and big businesses. The SWPC was dissolved after the war, and its lending and contract powers were handed over to the RFC. At this time, the Office of Small Business in the Department of Commerce also assumed some responsibilities that would later become characteristic duties of the SBA. Its services were primarily educational. Believing that a lack of information and expertise was the main cause of small-business failure, the OSB produced brochures and conducted management counseling for individual entrepreneurs. Congress created another wartime organization to handle small business concerns during the Korean War, this time called the Small Defense Plants Administration. Its functions were similar to those of the SWPC, except that ultimate lending authority was retained by the RFC. The SDPA certified small businesses to the RFC when it had determined the businesses to be competent to perform the work of government contracts. By 1952, a move was on to abolish the RFC. To continue the important functions of the earlier agencies, President Dwight Eisenhower proposed creation of a new small business agency — the Small Business Administration. In next month’s Newsline Eight, I will discuss the Small Business Act and how SBA will be transformed for the future. Stay tuned!

The Regional Advocate’s Corner by Jim Henderson

Contract Bundling Changes Will Help Small Business. Small business owners know as the hard truth….”federal contract bundling has reached record levels.” They cite contract bundling as a major barrier to accessing the federal marketplace. A bundled contract is a contract that, originally or by modification, incorporates dissimilar activities which often takes the contracts out of the bidding capabilities of small businesses.

Research funded by the Office of Advocacy documents the contract bundling trend and its detrimental impact on small business. In fact, the 28,916 bundled contracts in fiscal 2001 represented an eight percent increase form fiscal 2000 and a 19 percent jump since 1002, according to Paul Murphy, president of Eagle Eye Publishing, a firm that tracks federal procurement spending.

While Advocacy’s research clearly identifies the problem and sets out obvious benchmarks for change it is President Bush that has called for change with his Small Business Agenda on March 19, 2002. Then Angela Styles, Administrator, of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) within the Office of Management and Budget issued a 12‑point plan to reduce contract bundling. Requiring quarterly reports, it is the administration’s first step toward holding agency officials accountable.

It is early in the process. There are not definitive numbers to point to saying X percent of contracts have been unbundled. But in federal Region VIII there are some examples of what can be done. Over the last year and half the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) has continuously strived to search for ways to increase the contracts for the small business community. Recently WAPA has separated the Information Technology portion from its Technical Support Contract. The Information Technology acquisition will be set aside for small businesses while the Technical Support acquisition will be procured as a competitive 8(a). Each year WAPA looks at their support service contracts and a determination is made by the Contracting Officer to either leave the acquisition as it is or to see if there is a portion that can be separated into another contract for the small business community. WAPA’s actions prove that unbundling can be done. Now, many more federal agencies need to follow WAPA’s example.

District Office Reports

Colorado

The 2003 Small Business Community Resource Fair is coming to Denver! Are you starting or expanding your business? Do you need advice on how get start your business off on a solid footing? Do you want to know more about contracting with the federal government? Do you want to export your product or service? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes” then you need to attend this community resource fair. This event will be held Monday, June 16th from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Arapahoe Library District, Koelbel Main Library, 5955 S. Holly Street, in Centennial. This event is free. For more information, contact Donna Keslin at (303) 220-7704 X 260. This event is sponsored by the SBA, South Metro Chamber of Commerce, SCORE and SBDCs.

Montana

SBA 50th Anniversary Celebration workshops to be held in Havre and Sidney. Come celebrate SBA’s 50th anniversary by attending this free workshop series. Enjoy free refreshments, hear from other successful business owners – learn how they got started, what went wrong and what they’ve learned. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and network with various economic development professionals, local lenders, business counselors. Workshops will be held in Havre on June 10th from 9:00 – 11:00 am at the Bear Paw Development Corp, 48 2nd Ave., Ryan Building; and in Sidney on June 12th from9:00 – 11:00 a.m. at the Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory Technology Transfer Room, Hwy. 16 N., ½ mi. N. of Sidney. Register for either workshop by calling the Montana SBA Office at 1-800-776-9144 ext. 2. For more information about upcoming events, dates and locations, contact the Montana SBA District Office at (406) 441-1081.

North Dakota

New SBDC Office Opens in Jamestown. A new SBDC office has opened in Jamestown, thanks to the efforts and support of the South Central Dakota Regional Council. The Jamestown SBDC covers Griggs, Steele, Foster, Wells, Stutsman, Barnes, Lamoure, Logan, McIntosh, and Dickey counties. The SBDC plans to travel throughout the region and establish ‘office-for-a-day’ in several cities to provide better access to services for rural entrepreneurs. The most recent addition to the SBDC team is Jim Lees, located in Jamestown. Jim was employed by Qwest in Jamestown before joining the SBDC in late February and brings years of management and operations experience with him. For more information on this new site, please call (701) 252-8060.

South Dakota

Festival of Cultures to be held June 21st, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Falls Park in Sioux Falls. Over 60 booths from different nations will be on display. International food from 12 booths and free entertainment will be continuing throughout the day. SBA will be present to answer any of your business-related questions. For more information, contact the SBA’s Chuck Schroder at (605) 330-4243, ext 15

Utah

Statewide SCORE conference to be held in Park City. The Utah Statewide SCORE conference will furnish updates, training and success stories to participating SCORE counselors. This conference will be held in Park City at the Marriott Hotel on Monday, June 16th – Wednesday, June 18th. Carl O. Trautmann, SCORE Chairman, will address the meeting with updates from the National SCORE agenda, and SBA’s Utah District Director, Stan Nakano, will talk about SBA’s 50th Anniversary at the dinner event. There will a number of informative training workshops presented on both days. For more information, please contact the SBA’s Georgia Yoshida at (801) 524-3217.

Wyoming

Veterans Providers Meeting to be held in Cheyenne. The SBA, VFW, American Legion, Department of Labor and other organizations will participate in the “Veteran Providers Meeting” to be held in Cheyenne, on June 20th at the V.A. Hospital. Dave McNulty will head up the meeting. The discussions will incorporate the latest changes in Veteran services and programs, both on the State and Federal level. For more information, contact the SBA’s Dave Denke at (307) 261-6523.