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Small businesses have opportunity to start up or expand |
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Saturday, November 22 2008 |
By TJ HEMLINGER
Staff Writer
There is money available for those who want to start or expand a small business in these troubled economic times, and it’s not hard to qualify for a loan.
The money comes from the Community Development Corp., which offers “alternative financing for business” out of its Fort Wayne office.
Darren M. Renier, a finance specialist with the corporation, spoke to a Chamber of Commerce breakfast Friday morning, telling the audience his office “is a non-profit business development corporation with low interest rates.”
Renier said, “Typically we have a low down payment because the money has been advanced to us (by the federal government). We’re not a bank.”
The CDC works with economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, the Small Business Development Center and others to make large or small loans. The smaller loans, for example, can be from $10,000 and more at 3 percent. They are available to firms in small communities in the nine northeast Indiana counties. Companies in Fort Wayne are in a city that is too large for the CDC to do business, according to its charter.
“These companies may be too small or too new” to do business with banks, Renier explained. “We have the resources to help you out. We have established a good relationship within the business community.”
Larger businesses can go through the Small Business Administration, with money going for real estate or large equipment purchases.
“We don’t have that cash lying around,” Renier said. “We require a 10 percent down payment.
“We’re not in competition with banks,” he added. “Six of our 18 board members are bankers, and we don’t like to interfere with their business.”
Some of the businesses CDC works with are in the service industry, while others are retail or manufacturing. It also has financed doctors’ and dentists’ offices, gas stations, a sign business, veterinarian clinics and beauty salons. The CDC has been in operation for 30 years.
It works with a Department of Agriculture grant for rural development. Through principal and interest payments it continually builds its funds back up. The last new funds came the CDC’s way in the 1990s.
“If you need money tomorrow, we’re not the best source,” Renier said. The money for larger projects typically comes from banks (50 percent), grant money (40 percent) and capital raised by the businessman or woman (10 percent).
Alan Tio, president of the Whitley County Economic Development Corp., introduced Renier, saying his job was to bring together resources to meet the needs of existing businesses or those new to the county.
“We call it an ‘incubator without walls,’” Tio said. “It’s demand-driven, and we want to surround them with the right people in a new or growth business.”
He said the EDC has four strategies: work with entrepreneurs to look at the long term; invest in skills; surround them with the right network; and work to build a better entrepreneurial community in the county.
“At the end of the day, I don’t have any money,” Tio said.
That’s where Renier comes in. He can be reached at 427-1127 or
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E-mail staff writer TJ Hemlinger at
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, November 25 2008 )
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