Help for Entrepreneurs

As we see frequently in our profiles of different parts of the state, small business is the backbone of Georgia’s economy. Following are some of the resources available to help Georgians start and grow their own small businesses – and we ask you to bear with an alphabet soup of acronyms for the varied supporting players.

Helping Obtain Capital: Allan Adams, state director at the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center. | Photo credit: Kevin Garrett

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC), a function of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) housed at the University of Georgia, runs 18 centers throughout the state to offer small businesses and entrepreneurs face-to-face counseling and mentoring. In the last five years, the center’s work has led to 2,178 new small businesses, 14,933 jobs, $1.1 billion in capital (loans and equity) and $9.5 billion in sales.

In November, the UGA SBDC received a $6.2 million grant for the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) to expand resources as part of a $10 billion federal program. The funding will increase the center’s ability to provide one-on-one counseling, as well as training programs and credit-repair guidance to help small business owners who have found it challenging to obtain capital.

“Some businesses lack the credit history to qualify for bank loans, or their loans aren’t big enough – anything under a million is difficult for a bank to handle efficiently,” says Allan Adams, state director at the SBDC. “Some will offer a business credit card, but the interest rate may be too high. There is a [venture] capital component to the SSBCI program as well.”

Other SBDC resources include Export Georgia, which in the last 25 years has helped more than 200 companies sell in excess of $40 million worldwide, and SCORE, which has chapters throughout Georgia to provide mentoring services for small businesses.

“We have 15 core groups we work with to help veterans find resources they need, which can be complicated.” Dan Valentine,  director, Connecting Cobb Veterans

Georgia surpassed $49.7 billion in exports in 2023, and small businesses make up nearly 90% of Georgia exporters. In 2020, the SBA launched the Go Global Georgia initiative out of the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) to provide reimbursement funding for preapproved export activities. Small food and agriculture companies can partner with the Southern United States Trade Association to share the costs of overseas marketing to build commercial export markets, reimbursing half of eligible marketing expenses.

Georgia Foreign-Trade Zone helps advise small companies how to reduce overhead costs and reduce, delay or eliminate tariffs. The Georgia Department of Agriculture offers Rural Small Business loans to companies in designated rural areas, and Georgia’s regional commissions also offer help for small businesses through SBA 504 loans.

Another resource is the Georgia Mentor Protégé Connection, which is a small business development program of the Georgia Education Foundation, the educational arm of the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, supported by Georgia Department of Economic Development and Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute. Georgia Tech also offers the Apex Accelerator that helps teach small business owners about the procurement and RFP (requests for proposals) qualification and process, providing free counseling for government contract success.

Additionally, small businesses and entrepreneurs have access to CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution) funds through the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, which are also used to support affordable housing.

Providing Loans: Grace Fricks, founder, president and CEO of Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE). | Photo credit: Lindsay Snyder

“Many lenders cover multiple small business concerns,” says Adams. “Workforce is a big one – it’s difficult for small companies to compete with big company benefits. Certainly, interest rates are an issue. Supplier networks haven’t fully recovered from [COVID-19]. Vendor relationships are difficult.” Supply chain diversity is important to large companies for continuity’s sake, he says. “There is often a social benefit for a corporation, but their primary interest is supplier sustainability.”

There are 29 CDFI institutions in Georgia, mostly banks but also several nonprofits such as Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE), Albany Community Together (ACT!), Georgia Cities Foundation in Atlanta, NewTown Macon, Small Business Assistance Corp. (through the Savannah Chamber) and Southwest Georgia United in Cordele. ACE, the largest, has provided more than $200 million in loans and services, helping create or save more than 21,000 jobs. While not exclusive, ACE focuses on women, people of color and low- to moderate-income business owners. Their 27-year run of success has attracted the attention of some big philanthropists.

“We most recently received $6.3 million from the Cooperative Assistance Fund, with no strings attached,” says Grace Fricks, who founded ACE and is president and CEO. “Also, a gift from McKenzie Scott for $5 million came last year, and we received an additional $5 million from the Rockefeller Foundation. It’s amazing. What we do has become in vogue.”

Banks often work hand in hand with CDFIs. Wells Fargo donated $20 million to support local small business owners in Atlanta in 2022 as part of its Open for Business Fund, working with United Way and Invest Atlanta. ACT! was awarded $1 million last year from the Truist Foundation to build a community hub that will combat food insecurity. Synovus offers small business services in such specialties as restaurant finance, healthcare services, technology, media and communications and financial institutions. Bank of America launched the Small Business Down Payment Grant Program in 2022 to help minority and women small business owners in Atlanta. Many credit unions, banks and local entities also offer special help and lending to small businesses.

In 2023 out of nearly $50 billion delivered by the SBA nationally in capital, disaster relief and bonding to small businesses and disaster-impacted communities, 2,000 traditional microloans were approved for a total of $1.4 billion for Georgia small businesses, an increase of nearly 20%.

Finding Resources: Dan Valentine, director of Connecting Cobb Veterans. | Photo credit: Kevin Garrett.

The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) offers the Georgia Small Business Credit Guaranty (SBCG) program comprising 50% of a loan up to $1 million and also helps small businesses through the Downtown Development Revolving Fund with the Georgia Cities Foundation, Main Street programs and the SSBCI.

Banks working with the DCA to lend to small businesses include United National Bank in Cairo, Southwest Georgia United in Cordele, South State Bank in Carrollton, Planters First Bank in Cordele, Pinnacle Bank in Elberton, Guardian Bank in Valdosta, First National in Chatsworth, Century Bank and Trust in Milledgeville, Carver State Bank in Savannah, BankSouth in Greensboro, American Pride Bank in Macon, American Commerce Bank in Bremen, Affinity Bank in Atlanta, Ameris Bank in Atlanta and Citizens Trust Bank in Atlanta.

The SBA manages the $1 billion EarlyStage Innovation Fund with matching capital for Small Business Investment Companies and also supports the VECTR (Veterans Education Career Transition Resource) Centers in Marietta and Warner Robins, which offer a “Boots to Business” Veterans Business Outreach Center. Other resources for Georgia’s more than 100,000 veterans include the Veterans Business Outreach Center, the National Veterans Owned Business Association and SCORE.

“We have 15 core groups we work with to help veterans find resources they need, which can be complicated,” says Dan Valentine, director of Connecting Cobb Veterans. “While we work here in Marietta primarily with Cobb veterans and Dobbins Air Force Base, we’ll take any veteran that walks in without an appointment.” The Superior Plumbing VECTR Center, which is housed on the Marietta campus of Chattahoochee Technical College, provides academic transition support for veterans and gives them access to the Office of Career Development.

Many of Georgia’s 22 Technical College System of Georgia campuses offer full-time veterans’ assistance programs, veterans’ coordinators and financial incentives specifically for active and retired members of the military and their families, including an out-of-state tuition waiver for active-duty military, spouses and children stationed in Georgia.

Other resources available to women and minorities include the Latin American Association, the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship, the Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC) and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. The GWBC, which certifies women-owned businesses to qualify for working with large companies, celebrates its 25th anniversary next year and recently opened the WBE (Women Business Enterprise) Collective co-working space in Atlanta.

“We certify women-owned businesses and connect them with larger companies like Delta, Coca-Cola, Truist and UPS,” says Roz Lewis, president and CEO of the GWBC. “Our women-owned firms aren’t presented as such – we address supply chain issues first, then as Women Business Enterprises – and we only work with private companies, not public entities.”

Similarly, the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council qualifies and connects minority-owned businesses with supplier contracts with corporations and public entities like GDOT. “Government has a huge purchaser program with intention to recruit – like us, these other organizations help small businesses become strong enough and qualified to go after RFPs,” says Fricks. (For more on procurement and diversity efforts, see the publisher letter in this issue.)

WalletHub recently named Georgia the second-best state in the country for starting a business. Incubators have proliferated on Georgia campuses such as the BIGx Accelerator and GENIE (Georgia Southern University), Terry College Idea Accelerator (UGA), Hatchbridge at Kennesaw State University, LaunchGSU at Georgia State, Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute and Mercer Innovation Center. They have also been launched by cities and counties, such as Peachtree Corners’ Curiosity Lab and city of South Fulton’s CollabSouth.

Addressing Supply Chain Issues: Roz Lewis, president and CEO of the Greater Women’s Business Council. | Photo credit: Kevin Garrett.

There are also support groups and technology incubators such as the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Advanced Technology Development Center, Technology Association of Georgia, Startup Chicks and Atlanta Tech Village helping to connect research and development with angel companies like Atlanta Technology Angels, Atlanta Ventures, Knowcap Interactive and Kathryn Finney, a female tech entrepreneur known as the “fairy godmother of tech start-ups.” And there are venture capital firms like Engage, BIP Ventures, Fintech Ventures Fund, Mosley Ventures, Fulcrum Equity and TVV Capital – often introduced to small businesses through the Venture Atlanta event, which since 2002 has helped companies raise more than $1.3 billion in funding.

State incentives for small business in Georgia include Small Business Tax Relief, which allows for faster depreciation of equipment deduction for expenses claimed for one year as opposed to several, and angel investor tax credits, encouraging early investment in startups with credits of 35% of an investment toward income tax. There are tax credits for state-licensed childcare facilities and for retraining employees learning new technology. Tax credits are also available for businesses in federally designated Opportunity Zones and Enterprise Zones.

“We only serve businesses two years old and up, so we’re not in the startup business,” says Fricks. “But many national organizations have entered our market that aren’t VC or angel investors, just debt capital. Accion Opportunity Fund and Momentous Capital are national entities in our market who help not just with funding but with facilities and affordable housing.”

As noted, there are a lot of resources, and a daunting slew of acronyms, but there is also a lot of money on the table. Small business owners can benefit from joining business and trade organizations to network and establish brand and clientele. These resources offer a roadmap for marketing and networking with other companies, and the ability to fine tune funding opportunities to specific company needs.

It takes vision and tenacity, but owning your own business can be fun – not to mention profitable – and post-COVID-19 resources could bring the dream within reach. With all this liquidity and support, why not start your own small business in Georgia?