For some percentage of small businesses that applied for assistance through the federal Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic, it was their first interaction with the U.S. Small Business Administration, which directed the program.
SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman told the Brownsville Herald she wants to keep helping those businesses now that they’ve been introduced to the agency.
The SBA approved loans for 9,132 small businesses in Cameron County and 19,154 in Hidalgo County, according to the agency. Altogether, 23,446 of those loans were forgiven under PPP rules, representing about $1.17 billion in loan assistance to small businesses in the two counties.
“The SBA put out $450 billion in relief when the pandemic hit,” Guzman said in a recent phone interview. “Those relief programs really helped so many of the businesses stay afloat. We want to build on that. Now that they know the SBA we want to help them grow their businesses with capital and technical assistance.”
Small businesses in the Rio Grande Valley stand to benefit from the Biden administration’s goal of ensuring that 15 percent of government contracts — representing tens of billions of dollars — are awarded to disadvantaged small businesses by 2026, she said, noting that the SBA is taking steps to make it easier for business owners to take advantage of such opportunities.
“The challenge is that often times the smallest businesses don’t know how to navigate government,” Guzman said. “There’s complexity, and they need simple. Often times there’s knowing who to reach. So the (American Rescue Plan) included a community navigator pilot program, which was funding organizations across the country to better build bridges to communities and for small businesses.”
Providing access to these networks, capital and markets in order to help businesses launch, grow and attain resiliency is central to the administration’s agenda, she said. That agenda is focused on “building the economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” which directly involves small business, Guzman said.
“Through these networks we hope to better position small businesses to be not only capital ready but contract ready,” she said. “That’s the market access I was referencing. The president is committed to equity in procurement, in making sure that our smallest businesses can compete.
“They are the hearts of our main streets, our communities, and they do make the products and services that we come to depend on. And so … we’re trying to make more in America and … we’re trying to rebuild out industrial base and focus on an inclusive ecosystem, so that more of our communities can thrive. I think that entrepreneurship is an incredible pathway to help achieve that.”
Guzman said the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law the president signed into law last year presents opportunities enormous contract opportunities for small businesses. More than 4,000 projects have launched related to the new law, and SBA wants to make sure small businesses are on the forefront of landing those contracts and benefiting from those investments, she said.
“It’s really critical that they reach out to our district offices, or SBA.gov, and get that local assistance, because we have business-opportunity specialists that focus on government contracts and helping businesses get positioned. That could be for local contracts, private contracts or government contracts.”
SBA Lower Rio Grande Valley District Office
SBA.gov/offices/district/tx/harlingen
(956) 427-8537
