SBA lays out path to prosperity in Fairmont
Jun. 28—FAIRMONT — To borrow a cliché, knowledge is power, and when it comes to small business, it's in short supply.
That's why Path to Prosperity, a conference dedicated to empowering small businesses with information and networking opportunities, came to Fairmont on Tuesday.
"They understand their idea, their product, their service, but they don't know how to get to market or finance," SCORE District Director Joseph Brisby said.
Tuesday's conference brought together bankers, lenders and members of various government agencies to discuss small business development at the Richard H. Mollohan Research Center. It was organized by 3 federal agencies, the SBA, USDA and FDIC. Panelists from various banks and regional community organizations offered advice ranging from access to capital, securing government contracts and cybersecurity.
The main theme of the conference could be summed up by the use of a widely repeated phrase, "they don't know what they don't know." Meaning that, there's a lack of knowledge among a lot of small business owners on how to run a business.
Jeffrey Davis, an outreach coordinator at the USDA, said that over two-thirds of people who applied for grants for fiscal year 2024 failed to do the most basic step of filing for a System for Award Management number. The SAM number allows businesses to enter any application or grant process with the federal government. Applying for a SAM number is free, but the lack of knowledge around that fact has opened up space for grifters to charge $500 to file one on behalf of a business.
Making sure applications are filled and filed properly is crucial, because according to Davis, the USDA has money to give. In fact, the agency handed out over $4 billion in grants over the last six months.
Part of the Path to Prosperity conference aimed to create a networking environment where individuals could find partners that can help them build a business plan or make sure all the checkboxes on an application are marked.
"That way, when a customer comes in, we can either send them to an organization or they have already gone to an organization like that and have a package that's ready for the bank to review," Sheldon Arbaugh, an executive for Pendleton Community Bank, said.
Curtis Grant, vice president of Buckeye Freight Express, a transportation company based in Trotwood, Ohio, was one of the attendees at the conference. He was there mainly to support his mentors, Terri Billips and Jacqueline Davis-Slay. Both work for the SBA and USDA, respectively. Both of them had helped Grant restructure his business through a program called Access of Legends, offered through the NFL.
"The main thing that I got out of the first panel was all the different access of tiers in the SBA," he said. "Meaning, learning about the people who can help you get loans or insurance."
The SBA is also working to make sure minority small business owners aren't left behind. Terry Bolden, a deputy district director for the SBA, said that the SBA has several resources specifically to increase capital access to minority business owners, or provide guidance to navigating government contracts.
Conference organizers plan to release video of the event to the general public in a few weeks.
"We want to give you the money," William Ferris, a risk management specialist in the U.S., said. "So work with, and most importantly, access the free information that's on all of our websites to find out who to contact."
Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com
