We’ve been writing of late of the resurgence of franchising, particularly in the food sector.
But funding, as we wrote on Monday, is a still a contested and critical subject, with franchisors filling the breach where banks still struggle. Interestingly, the SBA has not gone away, and according to new findings, there has been a big spike in loans to small businesses loans coming from Washington.
To be exact, a recently-released fact sheet says that SBA loans have increased by about 90% from February, 2009 to April, 2010. That’s a staggering figure. That funding comes directly from the $730million pledged to the SBA in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
So here we find further evidence of the revitalization of the small business and franchising sector. Karen Mills of the SBA is obviously excited by the findings.
"The increased guarantee and reduced fees on SBA loans helped put more than $23 billion into the hands of small business owners and brought more than 1,100 lenders back to SBA loan programs," she said.
Over on the Small Business Trends blog, Scott Shane has warned small business owners and exprets against losing the run of themselves. Check out the chart on his blog. If anything, the figures seem to state the SBA lending seems only to be returning to normal, because of the government plan. So perhaps, we’re not looking at another bubble in lending, but it’s certainly encouraging to see a dramatic shift away from the difficult days of 2009.