Kathy Burch-Payne would like to offer HIV/AIDS treatment services to patients in rural southern parishes.

"Unfortunately, the need is growing," she remarked.

To do that Burch-Payne formed Life Matters LLC in Donaldsonville; but like any new business she will require some capital to pay for the many needs of the clinic. So it wouldn't hurt to know about new lending programs or tax deductions that are now available under the recently passed Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.

At Thursday's Baton Rouge Small Business Summit, Burch-Payne got some of the help she needed.

"A lot of times you come to these things and they just hand you a stack of papers," Burch-Payne remarked from the concourse of the Baton Rouge River Center. "But it was good that there were some lenders here onsite.

"It was good to see that there were more people than papers," she added.

More than a dozen lenders met one-on-one with summit attendees at one of the several break-out sessions. Also on hand at the River Center on Thursday were officials from the U.S. Small Business Administration, who say that too many business-assistance and financing programs spear-headed by the small business organization are going underused.

"So maybe that's an indictment on us," said Reginald Harley, lead lender of relations specialist at the U.S. Small Business Administration Louisiana district office in New Orleans. He went on to note that a large part of what Thursday was about had to do with spreading the word about the many new aspects to the small business jobs bill President Barack Obama signed on Sept. 27. Since that signing, more than 1,900 loans totaling more than $970 million have been approved nationwide, the SBA reported.

Despite those accomplishments, many would-be entrepreneurs or existing business owners are still unaware of what's available, officials said.

"Some get frustrated before they ever get to the gold mine," Harley said.

Some of those incentives are changes to the tax code where employers can get a tax credit for qualified new hires and can get new tax deductions by writing off up to $8,0000 of the purchase of a car used for a business. Also, many of the lending programs the SBA participates in now have increased borrowing limits.

"Ideally, we'd like to get this recession in the rearview mirror &hellip and that means we have to grow our small businesses," U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., told a standing-room-only crowd. Landrieu chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. The summit was hosted by Landrieu and Mayor-President Kip Holden.

"We're here today to look at the very real opportunities that are available in a variety of ways," Holden said.

Some of those opportunities made aware to the day's attendees are the changes to lending policies, that will hopefully free up capital so that businesses can begin investing again. About 160 lenders in Louisiana partner with the SBA to participate in its programs, Harley said.

"We stand behind you by giving security to the bank," he explained.

However, that's not to say basic lending criteria like a sound business plan and good credit can be overlooked with an SBA-related loan.

"If you can't get it past the smell test at the lender, then we never see it," Harley said. "Generally speaking, you have to meet the bank's underwriting criteria."

Limited access to credit still seems to be dragging down business activity. The Baton Rouge Area Chamber recently released a report saying that across the country outstanding loans to small business dropped from more than $710 billion in the second quarter of 2008 to less than $670 billion in the first quarter of 2010.

Locally speaking, lenders were particularly concerned with the "heightened personal credit standards," which place too much of the bank's decision-making on a person's credit score, the report concluded.

And a poor credit score is pretty common these days, said summit participants.

"My score is not the highest," admitted Ruby Williams who would like to one day have a business of her own. "I know a lot of people don't like to admit it.

"But right now, it won't even let me get to the next level," she told a panel discussion.

"Don't let that deter you,"  Landrieu told Williams, as she went on to advise credit counseling and meeting with a range of banks and other lenders. "Please don't let that stop you."

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/106220008.html