Spreading seeds of business capital among rural areas
Q: You are retiring from your position at the SBA on Monday. What precisely does the SBA do, and what was your role within that?
A: Region Eight has six states — it has North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado — and it’s the most rural region in the nation. It has 82,000 square miles, and it has less people than the city of Chicago. Additionally, one in two of them live in Colorado and one in four live in Denver, so the population mass of course is centered in Colorado, and the business activity is the same. But there’s still a great need for business development and capital in the more rural areas.
In the region, since I’ve been regional administrator in 2001, we’ve provided $3.5 billion in capital to over 20,000 businesses.
Q: How has the environment for small businesses changed during your tenure?
Resources for
