Is the new SBA chief really small business oriented?
July 9, 2008 by ShannonCherry
Filed under Business
I’ve been wondering about your opinion on something.
If you haven’t heard, on June 25th President Bush appointed a new chief of the Small Business Administration (SBA). The thing is, for the third time in a row, the appointed chief, Sandy Baruah, has very little small business experience.
Not only has he never run a company of his own, his closest connection to small business would be a consultant job for a Performance Based Consulting Group in
The SBA has constantly struggled with hitting targets and has had tons of problems with loans for small business owners.
Now, he’s not in just quite yet, as he is awaiting confirmation by the Republican Senate. I recommend you do some research on the subject. If you do or do not want him representing the administration, you can change the entire situation by letting your representatives know.
What do you think? Does it matter that Baruah has little experience? Will it make a difference?
Ultimately, it makes no difference. It’s not just the SBA’s chief that matters. It’s the attitude of Congress and the WH towards small business that matters. The choice of SBA chief is but a reflection of their indifference. That’s unfortunate. Only small businesses are adding jobs. They, we, could add a lot more with a bit of support along the way.
Cutbacks at the SBA have made this institution less responsive to the small business owner. The SBA began a few years ago to become marketers of their loan programs not lenders and they have lost sight of the problems of small business owners. The idea of applying a SBA guaranty on credit cards was stupid and done to justify numbers. If you make 100,000 credit card loans of $5,000 each then you can report to Congress that you have helped 100,000 small businesses.