Utah Business Persons of the Year Jen and Joseph Watson, owners of K-9 Sport Sack.
SMALL BUSINESS IN UTAH
SBA DEMONSTRATES STEADFAST COMMITMENT TO UTAH’S SMALL BUSINESS COMMUNITY WRITTEN BY: U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, UTAH DISTRICT OFFICE
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The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), through its Utah District Office, remains committed to providing its full range of programs and services, including new COVID-related loans, to small businesses throughout the state. The business landscape has changed dramatically over the last year, but SBA’s mission to provide financial, technical and management assistance to small businesses has not. “In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Congress enacted legislation that has enabled SBA to support and sustain small businesses through the crises with critical new lending programs” observed Marla Trollan, District Director of SBA’s Utah District Office. “These specialized lending programs have allowed Utah small businesses to keep and pay employees during the economic downturn. These programs, combined with the inherent resiliency of Utah’s economy and small business owners, have allowed for a swifter recovery in Utah’s economy and job market.”
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LIFE IN UTAH 2021 | SLCHAMBER.com
The Utah District Office continues to host successful events such as National Small Business Week, various webinars, and rural roundtables and roadshows. “The current pandemic presents logistical challenges, but we continue to focus and execute on our major outreach and rural initiatives to provide support and resources to communities across the state,” Trollan continued. Trollan also noted the significant local impact of SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program during the pandemic and recent natural disasters. “Since March, these two loan programs have provided more than $6.5 billion of capital to Utah small businesses. The most current figures we have available through the end of September 2020 show that SBA, through its lenders, has provided Utah small businesses with more than 52,000 PPP loans totaling over $5.2 billion. Additionally, SBA directly funded almost 22,000 EIDL loans totaling over $1.3 billion. SBA EIDL loans
have also been made available in many rural communities due to drought conditions.” Aside from its emergency loan programs, in its 2020 fiscal year, SBA also approved 1,065 traditional 7(a) and 504 loans amounting to almost $626 million in funding to small businesses across the state. Due to the significant efforts of its two certified development companies, the Utah District Office ranked fifth nationally in the number of approved 504 loans and seventh nationally in the dollar amount of approved 504 loans according to the latest SBA data. To further support Utah’s business owners in accelerating the growth of international sales, SBA has awarded World Trade Center Utah with a State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) Grant of $641,000, a record amount for the program here in the state. SBA has increased Utah’s STEP Grant from $300,000 to $641,000 over the past two years, the largest increase among any state in the country in this
