Loading ...New Push For Small-Biz Lending
As everyone working in the franchising sector knows, even though the calendar has changed, the economic challenges haven’t gone away. Luckily, this fact hasn’t escaped the eyes of President Obama, who has spent some of the first week of the year lobbying America’s banks to accelerate their small business lending.
According to Entrepreneur magazine’s Diane Ransom, President Obama has asked that bankers give small businesses that had loan applications rejected this year “a third and fourth look” this year. They are strong words from the President and now the ball is firmly in the court of America’s big banks to do something about it.
Will they, though? The CEOs of Bancorp and PNC Bank, after meeting with the President, subsequently made pledges to reconsider rejected loans. And according to outgoing Bank of America president Ken Lewis: “Small and medium sized businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Our improved financial condition and our optimism about the economy will allow us to step up lending to support these clients.” That statement is backed up by pledges of up to $5billion to small banks, so at least Bank of America are putting their money where their mouth is.
But still the lending market remains stalled. We welcome the President’s lobbying on behalf of small business owners, but it is time for these hugely profitable banks to start to push some of their earnings back into the real economy and into the pockets of America’s franchisees and small business owners.
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According to the study, the most important tool for small businesses to succeed in 2010 is search engine marketing, while email marketing, public relations and social media cited as crucial for success.
The Center for Media Research has released a study by Vertical Response that shows just where many of these ‘Main Street’ players are going with their online dollars. The big winners: e-mail and social media. With only 3.8% of small business folks NOT planning on using e-mail marketing and with social media carrying the perception of being free (which they so rudely discover it is far from free) this should make some in the banner and search crowd a little wary.