The U.S. Small Business Administration says changes to their loan program will make it easier for start-ups to get funding. Among the changes the SBA would like to implement this year are less paperwork and changes to rules about affiliations with other businesses.
The measures are in response to small business candidates complaining that getting financing was overly difficult. SBA Buffalo District Director Franklin Sciortino says the proposals will speed up the process and enable more access to funds.“They’re eliminating the personal resource rule; this was a rule where we always had to take into consideration the principles of the business, what their personal resources were, because if they were there trying to apply to get a $100,000 loan and they had $200,000 in their personal bank account then they don’t need us. To do that we had to do a lot of research and a lot of paperwork, so we’re eliminating that,” says Sciortino.
Sciortino says that loan applications have also moved online. The SBA Buffalo district office located in the city’s downtown covers all 14 counties in upstate New York and assists nearly 80-thousand small businesses a year.
