The U.S. Small Business Administration launched last month a new program speeding up the process for which veterans can receive loans to start or grow a business. The Patriot Express Pilot Loan offers financial assistance up to $500,000 at the lowest interest rates The money can be used for starting a business, expansion, equipment and real estate purchases, working capital and inventory. Because the program is so new, some area veterans running their own businesses were not aware the funding was available. The loan program would be a welcome way to get additional capital, said Santa Clarita business owner James Anderson. “Sometime we feel we (veterans) don’t get enough appreciation,” said Anderson, who served in the Air Force from 1996 to 2004 and started his own printing company in 2006. There are 2.3 million veteran-owned businesses nationally, according to the Center for Veteran Enterprise, which is part of the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department In California, there are more than 7,000 veteran-owned businesses registered to be vendors for government work, according to the center. The Los Angeles district office of the SBA has long been a leader in underwriting veteran loans, said director Alberto G. Alvarado, who anticipates a strong demand for the new program. “This new lending initiative is even more flexible and more inclusive with respect to members of the military community and who can qualify,” Alvarado said. Loans are available to veterans, service-disabled veterans, reservists and National Guard members, and active duty service members participating in the Transition Assistance Program. Spouses of qualified veterans can also receive the loans. Santa Clarita resident Hans Sitarz said he would have would have been interested in the Patriot Loan program at the time he and wife Nina were talking with the SBA about purchasing A Private Affair, a lingerie store in Sherman Oaks. Their discussions pre-dated the announcement of the new program, said Sitarz, an Army artillery officer who served in the late 1950s. “If they knew the program was coming it would have been good to have said something,” said Sitarz. The couple refinanced their home for the capital to buy the business serving women with breast cancer and with hard to find sizes. However, in the future the Patriot Loan program might be worth pursuing, provided the terms and conditions are agreeable, Sitarz said. The same goes for Anderson who has aggressively grown his business, Xpress Printing. He branched out with a second company, XpressToonMaps, to produce maps for cities in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. The two companies are primarily self-financed although Anderson has looked at other options, including other SBA loan programs and venture capital. The Patriot Loan program could assist him in getting government printing jobs, Anderson said. The downside of the government contracts is that payment often takes up to six months and he can’t afford that. But if Patriot Loan funding could get him through that period it would help the printing company in the short and long run, Anderson said. “I want to expand and grow the business then I could go after more government contracts,” Anderson said.
