John Miller - Small Business Association Award Nomination

Helping Small Businesses Move Forward Interlocking gears often symbolize the idea of maximum team efficiency, but any small business owner will tell you that success is not as neat - or as predictable - as these mechanical parts. John Miller connects the right people and the right parts to help small businesses accelerate their financial success.

2018 Award Category - Financial Services Champion

John Miller Vice President | MEDC 757 N Broadway #600 Milwaukee, WI 53202 (414) 269-1446 | John.Miller@MEDConline.com

Nominated by:

David E. Latona President | MEDC 757 N Broadway #600 Milwaukee, WI 53202 (414) 269-1445 | David.Latona@MEDConline.com

John Miller

Vice President medc

John Miller Biography John Miller is the Vice President with the Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) where he helps small businesses in the greater Milwaukee area open new doors and move forward. His primary role with this non-profit organization is to provide direct loan credit enhancements to customer projects in the City of Milwaukee, typically in conjunction with a traditional commercial bank partner. Since joining the organization in 2011, John has run various financial loan programs that have helped small businesses borrow the capital that they need to sustain and grow. Over the years, his loan programs have helped small businesses: • Retain approximately 3,000 jobs • Create over 1,000 new jobs • Close 40-45 new small business loans ranging from $350K - $800K In addition to providing direct financial support to small businesses via loans, John helps counsel small business owners on how to succeed in the current financial markets; connecting them with lenders and other business advisors, coaching them on expansion plans, reviewing and analyzing business plans and budgets, educating them on how to take advantage of the right tax credit funding, referring them to other financial resources and more.

Some of the specific businesses John has helped through MEDC’s loan assistant programs include: Palermo’s Pizza, The Milwaukee Discovery Museum, Falk Corporation and others.

Prior to his time at MEDC, John worked as the Controller /Admin – Ops Manager for Manchester Group, Inc. in Lannon, Wisconsin. Before that, he was the Vice President of First Bank Financial Center providing full service commercial banking services to businesses in SE Wisconsin. He also held financial services positions at Milwaukee Western Bank and Associated Bank, both in Milwaukee.

John graduated with a Business Administration and Accounting degree from Marquette University and currently lives and works in Milwaukee.

The amount and quality of assistance given small businesses in obtaining financing outside of regular business duties Beyond the financial support John provides small businesses through MEDC, he also volunteers and supports various groups and organizations in the community that help small businesses obtain financing.

Johns serves on the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin as a member of the loan committee where he works with a team to provide debt capital for underserved/under resourced Hispanic and non-Hispanic enterprises and small business. Through this group, he helps to advocate and promote the business development of Hispanic and other small business through education, access to capital, advocacy and networking. He provides small businesses with services such as one-on-one business assistance, business development strategies, access to financial strategies, and helps them secure required licenses and financial incentives with city government. In some cases, these businesses could not normally afford these services.

John has also served on the Board and on the loan committee for the WBD Opportunity Fund.

WBD is a business finance resource that provides knowledge, services and access to capital that small businesses need to create jobs, grow their businesses and build communities. The opportunity fund was created to raise capital for businesses located in Wisconsin’s low-income communities to help create more business and job opportunities in Wisconsin’s most underserved areas.

In addition to these two business organizations, John plays an active role in his church where he serves on the finance committee, helping to raise and allocate funds for church initiatives and corresponding philanthropic efforts.

Finally, John consistently participates in public speaking opportunities and leads small group sessions in the community to educate business owners on financing opportunities, financial processes and resources available to them.

Advocacy of changes in the financial services industry to assist small firms

MEDC in of itself is a non-profit that advocates for change in the financial services industry to help small businesses move forward with their missions. Before MEDC was formed, business owners wanted to raise revenue, but were running into issues with bank lending limitations, and they didn’t have enough equity to fill the gap. An initial idea that was presented to solve this industry challenge was to find a way, through city money and federal and state grants, to fund a loan pool — and thus MEDC was born. John is committed to advocating for companies who need loans but banks won’t lend to. His work with MEDC funds a portion of these transactions to help small business grow. He also worked with the City of Milwaukee, on behalf of small business owners, to fund MEDC’s flagship Second Mortgage Program so there were more financial resources available to small businesses in the city.

Another big part of John’s job is to network with banks to further more gap-funding initiatives in the industry. These financial partnerships that John secures help small businesses obtain the loans they need. He is able to make the right financial connections to meet the needs of each small business he works with.

John’s efforts in leading training and coaching programs also supports small businesses in that he will bring the right business partners to the table and analyze company business plans to ensure they can (and will) succeed.

midwest stairs & Iron

Encouragement of the flow of investment capital to small ventures

Through his work at MEDC, John has encouraged and facilitated the flow of investment capital to small ventures through the following programs and initiatives: • The Second Mortgage Program is a staple program for MEDC that John is actively involved in, making up about 75 percent of the organization’s loan portfolio. The program works similarly to a Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 loan, in which a bank or other type of lending source is a partner in a deal, along with MEDC and the small business owner. Typically, the deal is made up of about 50 percent bank loan, 40 percent MEDC loan, and 10 percent is the minimum equity from owners. The MEDC lending program that John runs is unique because it requires less equity investment from owners, which is a very attractive and affordable, benefit for smaller companies.

• MEDC also takes part in the SBA Community Advantage Program. With this program, MEDC can underwrite SBA loans up to $250,000 in total aggregate size as a single-source lender.

Most often, MEDC does not have a bank partner with these loan arrangements because they’re smaller deals and banks aren’t typically interested in loans that size.

• A few years ago, MEDC participated in a joint venture called the M7 Venture Debt Program, which focused on regional coverage of the seven-county area of southeast Wisconsin.

MEDC was authorized to lend up to $1.5 million to early-stage businesses that were not yet generating positive cash flow, but had high growth potential, much like ABC’s Shark Tank. The organization was able to put all $1.5 million into the market between six projects total.

• Additionally, John has worked on standalone projects through federal New Market Tax Credits and reaching the Venture Debt Program’s goals with matching funds.

active support for legislative or regulatory action designed to help small firms

John actively supports legislative and regulatory incentives that have been designed to help small businesses. Most of the time, these business owners just don’t know what legislative options are available to them. John advises small business owners on how they can take advantage of programs like tax credit funding, SBA guarantees, federal business grants, municipal grants for real estate ventures, job tax credits for businesses looking to hire and grants and funding available for non-profits.

TJM Innovations LLC

other significant contributions made by the nominee through financial services or accounting industry to advance small business interests John played a key role in securing and creating Milwaukee County’s own revolving loan program for small businesses out of tax credits, enhancing MEDC’s ability to lend more money to the city at a lower interest rate. The loan program was designed to provide a low-interest, short-term, working capital loan for businesses looking to invest in labor, material costs and/or equipment.

Loans from this program are given to small businesses ranging anywhere from $7,500 to a maximum of $30,000 credits.

John is also focused on reaching small businesses beyond Milwaukee County, expanding the reach of financial loans to companies and small business throughout the state of Wisconsin.

"if everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself."

- Henry Ford

During the last four decades, MEDC has worked with more than 100 banks, supported thousands of small businesses and participated in financing projects that have accomplished over $1.5 billion of new investment. Most importantly, these projects created thousands of new jobs in Milwaukee and the surrounding region. In 2016, MEDC continued to add to its capital base and invested $15.5 million in 37 projects that, in combination with bank and private equity funds, generated $195 million of private investment that added to Milwaukee’s business base.

Altogether, the new projects hope to add 362 new jobs in the city, while retaining more than 1,900 full-time positions.

2016 Project Highlights:

Cheesehead Factory LLC

Pete's marketplace II, llc

third space brewing