Small Business Loans For Women

Small business loans women? I was asked about this a few days ago and it’s suddenly very topical. A lady was looking to grow her business that was doing quite well. She was struggling to find the cash!

In fact it’s not just a question related to women.

You probably saw that President Obama is now focusing on loans for small business. His proposal is to take $30 billion of the repaid TARP money and give it to small and medium sized banks so they will increase their lending to small business.

“We’re going to start where most new jobs do — with small businesses,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in Nashua, N.H. This was a repeating of a statement he made in his State of the Union address last week.

The issue is that banks have been receiving bailouts and then not lending to small businesses. The knock on effect is that small business is not hiring people to work as they are very cautious about coming months. net result, the economy slows down even more. Did I just read that 1 in 6 people are now unemployed or working less?

Anyway, back to the question of small business loans women. Here are a few sources for you to start looking, if you are a Woman Owned Business (WOB):

Community or small banks that are local to you. Many people are switching away from the “too big to fail” banks to smaller community banks. You’ve probably driven by them in your town. Drop in on one of them and have a chat. You many be surprised!

The SBA (Small Business Administration) has a whole area devoted to women. Their Office of Women’s Business Ownership is a good place to start.

Federal Grants – Try going to Grants.gov and you can see a complete list of funding opportunities. This can be complex and drawn out, but if you need cash….

There’s no denying that getting small business loans women, or anyone, is tough at the moment. But use your ingenuity and don’t forget to be armed with a very well prepared business plan. There is also a good article at on this at Womenowned.com by Phyllis Rawley.