bizjournals: Reinventing the SBA -- bizjournals.com

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"Everyone has given up out there on the SBA for developingy small andminority businesses," said Harry Alford, presidenr and CEO of the National Black Chamber of in testimony last year to the Hous e Small Business Committee. Slicing small businesses' piece of the contractingg pie into even smaller bites leads groupes to fighteach other. Companies in the SBA's 8(a) program for minority-ownedd businesses oppose efforts to give more contracts toHubzone companies. Members of other minorityu groups resent the fact that so much monet is going to AlaskaNatived corporations, which are not subject to the same contracg size limits that othet 8(a) businesses face.
Service-disabled veterans thinkj they deserve to be in the front of the line becausr of their sacrifice tothe Women-owned businesses have been waiting more than sevemn years for the SBA to implement legislatiobn that requires contracts to be set asidd for them in industries where they have been This delay has been a huge embarrassmenf for the SBA, which contends it has had troubl e coming up with a program that would survives a court challenge. The Supreme Courgt has ruled that set-aside programs based on race are unconstitutional unlesd there is clear evidence of discrimination and the programd are narrowly tailored to addressthat discrimination.
The NFIB'ws Eckerly said the government shoulcd stop worrying about a smalkbusiness owner's race, sex or veteran status and "justy treat the small business as a Each agency should be accountable for its overall smal l business goal, and that'xs it, she said. The U.S. Chamber'se Coratolo, however, said preferences for certain groupas were created forvalid reasons, to help business owners in these groups overcome hurdles that limited their success in the past.
But their successd won't be achieved if these busines owners remain dependent ongovernment contracts, he There should be incentives for small business contractora to diversify into the private sectord and international trade, he said. Through its network of Smallo Business Development Centers andother partners, the SBA providex training and counseling to thousands of small businessed around the country. It also increasingly uses the Internet to provide small business owners withuseful information. Fundintg for these programs, however, has been flat, except for a slightt increasethis year. Money may be less of a problem, than lack of coordination.
"The market is flush with smallkbusiness training," Kerrigan said, citint programs by universities, community colleges, local government economid development offices and chambers of "The federal government needs to think of ways it can feed the publixc into these training programs," she said. Or it could partnee with private-sector programs and locaol and statetraining initiatives, she suggested. The federapl government also should focus its training effortsx on areas where there is an emerging or immediate such as helping workers displaced by the global economg start theirown businesses.
More also shoulxd be done to help smal l businesses take advantage ofexporyt opportunities, Kerrigan said. There needs to be a "one-stop Web site with resources for small business including a master calendar of training programs acrosszthe country, she said. The SBA has startede down this road withits Business.gov Web site, but that's not said George Cloutier, CEO of American Management Services Inc., a business consulting firm that partners with the U.S. Conference of Mayors on smalol businesstraining programs.