Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs

While Dahlonega has been a big tourism draw in Georgia over the past few decades, it has had a stubbornly high poverty rate.

Booming Business: Deb Rowe, right, owner of Shenanigans Restaurant & Irish Pub and co-owner of Bourbon Street Grille, received funding and coaching from ACE. Photo credit: Contributed

“There was very little capital there, so we decided to take a chance on Dahlonega,” says Martina Edwards, president and CEO of Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, Georgia’s largest community development financial institution dedicated to small businesses.

ACE created access to 27 small business loans worth $8.6 million in Lumpkin County, which includes Dahlonega, creating or retaining 258 jobs.

“We transformed the footprint of Downtown Dahlonega,” Edwards says. “When you stand in the square and look north, south, east and west, almost every business you see has been funded by ACE.”

Once-seasonal businesses are booming year-round – just try landing a table quickly at a restaurant.

“We stand in the gaps,” Edwards says, “and provide flexible capital for every entrepreneur regardless of their ZIP code. We help people who have trouble accessing funding from banks and more traditional sources.”

With offices in Metro Atlanta, Cleveland and Tifton, and a Women’s Business Center in Norcross, ACE’s program of mentoring, counseling and networking helps new business owners succeed with payroll, supply chain and marketing.

ACE started in 1997 by doling out $500 to $5,000 loans but now reaches every county in Georgia with loans from $15,000 to $1 million with a focus on the “missing middle” of businesses that need between $50,000 to $250,000 – too large for microfinance organizations, but too small and risky for traditional banks.

A window-blind company that started in a client’s basement now boasts a staff of 40 and is in negotiations with big-box retailers, Edwards says. “We help people’s dreams come true.”