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National Small Business Week is upon us. There are a number of events happening around the country to accentuate the notion that small businesses and franchises are the life blood of the US economy. We’re of the opinion that every week is small business week, but we’re happy to unite with the franchising community, as well as entrepreneurs and small businesspeople and trumpet the important economic work wehttp://www.franchisedirect.com/blog/wp-admin/edit.php all do.

Franchisees or small business owners around the Beltway might be interested to visit the National Small Business Week event winding up at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Conference. After all, SBA head Karen Mills has made headlines for a bold new small business initiative announced in her address yesterday.

Ms Mills introduced a new temporary program for small businesses, America’s Recovery Capital (ARC). Through ARC, the SBA will provide short-term relief to small businesses in urgent financial trouble.
These are some of the details of the plan:

• These short-term loans of up to $35,000 can be used to cover payments on non-SBA debt.
• They have no SBA fees or interest costs for the borrower and are 100 percent guaranteed by the SBA.
• The loan is for six months, followed by 12 months of no repayment and then 5 years to pay it back.
• ARC loans are for viable businesses, meaning that the business must have an established history of good performance – but they are in a situation where they just need a little extra help to bridge the “troubled waters.”

This is a very promising initiative and comes right on the back of an interesting new study saying that small business confidence is at its highest ranking all year.

Finally, have a look at this great video, created by entrepreneur phone service Grasshopper, and feel the positivity of entrepreneurship during this National Small Business Week.