By DIANE XAVIER
The Dallas Examiner

The U.S. Small Business Administration is a government agency created to support the development and growth of small businesses and entrepreneurs. It has district offices in each state that provides local tools and resources.

With National Black Business Month in August, Ted James, SBA South Central regional administrator, visited with the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce and other groups and organizations, July 28.

James was appointed to region six of the SBA, which is the south-central region by President Joe Biden. He officially began Jan. 31 and is responsible for 10 offices, six in Texas and others in Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

His first stop was at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center where he met with members of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce. Recognized as the first Black chamber of commerce in the United States, the chamber was formed in 1926 to support, promote and advocate for Black businesses in the Dallas area.

James shared with the group that prior to his current position, he was part of the Louisiana Legislature for 10 years. During that time, he served as the chairman of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus and chairman of the House Committee on Criminal Justice.

“So, the information you share to me is more than near and dear to me,” he expressed. “As we experienced during COVID, the Black Chamber was key in helping businesses access the paycheck protection program by creating an app where they had ready access to bankers to do business and get these particular business dollars in the owners that you serve quickly and efficiently.”

James then thanked Herbert Austin, SBA’s Dallas-Fort Worth District director since 2008, for helping the local region flourish. Under his leadership, the office reached over $1 billion in the history of this area in 2015 and has produced $1 billion since then.

“Yes, we have produced $1 billion, but we need to look at how many of those are from African American businesses and need to grow that sector,” Austin said.

James agreed and said growing Black businesses is important.

“I believe that I am the poster child for the proverb, ‘It took a village’ because from every walk, every school, every job I deal with, somebody saw a potential that I didn’t see in me and pulled it out.,” James said. “As far as the SBA, historically it has been the lack of opportunity, the lack of information and clearly there are some systemic things that have always impacted our community in terms of access to capital.”

James discussed the importance of the Community Navigator Pilot program, a program which offers funding to nonprofits, state and local governments, universities and tribal entities to help and reach small businesses in underserved communities.

“I think the community navigators piece is so important because I think it was a recognition of the fact that in our community we are not going to go show up and run to a governmental agency but rather we are going to go to the entities that we know of and trust and the community navigator program was a recognition of the fact that we are not penetrating certain communities,” he said.

James said relying on community members and leaders is critical to help businesses grow.

“We need those trust brokers in our community to go carry the message and bring folks to the resources that we have as an agency and that was a major part of the American Rescue Plan that passed Congress last year is a pilot program that I will tell you is something that continues in that you don’t start something and then leave it,” he said.

“I recognize how important it is for all of you in this. I go to other communities and there is not the relationship between the SBA and the Black Chamber of Commerce. Some folks have to google and research to find somebody, but you guys, it is clear to me that you have a very strong relationship. Without these connections, and before the community navigator just your relationship with folks, too many of our people just don’t have the necessary information to even access all of the programs that we have.”

James said two critical things that are important to him as regional administrator is to have access to capital and then access to contracts. He said it is not just about getting people certified to run a business, but getting the right people certified.

“We got to get the right people certified because we don’t want folks sitting there with certifications and not you know, don’t have the ability to do the work,” James said.

He said Biden made a lot of executive decisions recently to try to increase the percentage of contracts going to smaller disadvantaged businesses, which includes Black businesses.

“The statutory goal is a mere 5% but his executive order was to increase it to 11% this fiscal year with a goal of 25% by the end of his first term,” James said.

According to the SBA recent figures, they have surpassed the goal that Biden set and are about $156 billion in contracts to small businesses, which include small, disadvantaged businesses, woman owned or veteran owned business.

“So, we’re seeing the gains, but like Austin said, we still see the low numbers in our community,” James said. “So, our partnerships are important in order to make sure that we are seeing gains in our communities.

He also emphasized how important it was to work with banks and lenders to loan small businesses loans that they need that are in their ballpark.

“We have to do a better job of bringing those folks and encouraging them to write loans that are under $500,000 dollars,” he said. “Like right now, your average loan is about a million dollars. That’s great for some folks, but we know that small businesses probably aren’t asking for a million dollars and can’t qualify for a million dollars. But are qualified for somewhere between $25,000 to $250,000 dollars.”

James said he has spoken with certain lenders about this and was told that it takes the same amount of paperwork to issue a $4 million dollar loan versus a $20,000 loan and said the banks make more profit off the higher loans.

“I get it, they are in the money-making business as well,” he said. “So there is clearly something that if we can incentivize those entities who are mission based and we want to make those small amounts and it’s clear to me that there has to be greater conversation on the policy of mutual implementation to make sure that we are getting our money down to the ground.”