Michael J. Donahue
Vice Chairman and CEO Return to $nippers Text Page
As Vice Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Michael Donahue is responsible
for the overall management and strategic direction of InterWorld's domestic and international operations.
Donahue was one of the early visionaries to recognize the enormous
Potential of Internet commerce and how it would transform the way business is
conducted in the new global economy. As a result, he has been
recognized for his leadership in the industry and has received numerous personal and technology awards such as 1998 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year®, as well as being a recipient of an early Internet patent. Donahue also
sits on the Board of Directors for CommerceNet, a leading industry consortium
of e-commerce heavyweights. Prior to the creation of InterWorld, Donahue founded Donahue & Associates, Inc., an information technology consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and systems re-engineering. At Donahue & Associates, he leveraged his many years of experience in Latin America as Chief Technology Officer for Pepsi/Venezuela and TelCel Cellular. It was there that his vision for enterprise e-commerce took shape, leading to the founding of InterWorld.
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"FY 2002 Budget For the U.S. Small Business Administration"
May
16, 2001
Prepared Remarks of David Means
Association for Enterprise Opportunity
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, for the opportunity to
testify before you today. My name is David Means. I am the Executive Director
of Greater Newark Business Development Consortium (GNBDC) and a member of the
Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) the nation's only microenterprise
development trade organization. My testimony represents the views of AEO as
well as the Greater Newark Business Development Consortium.
I am a retired banker with thirty-three years experience. I retired as Senior Vice President responsible for Branch Administration, Operations and Legislative Relations.
My interest in community development began early in my banking career as project manager in the banks' Urban Development Housing Programs.
Today I am the director of New Jersey's leading SBA/Microloan Program. Over the past seven years, GNBDC has borrowed from the SBA, directly or indirectly $3,523,139. The GNBDC has approved and closed 207 loans with an average loan of $22,000. The default rate is 6% with fifty-seven borrowers fully repaid. "Make the loan, then make the loan work".
AEO, founded in 1991, is the national association of organizations committed to microenterprise development. AEO provides over 400 organizational members with a forum, information and a voice to promote enterprise opportunity for people and communities with limited access to economic resources. A good number of AEO members are SBA Intermediaries as well as Women's Business Centers. AEO has three policy priorities for this Fiscal Year. They are to fund the SBA Microloan technical assistance and loan capital programs at $30 million each, to fund the Office of Women's Business Ownership's Women's Business Centers Program at $13.7 million, and to fund PRIME at $15 million in FY 2002. I will expand on these requests later in my testimony.
Microenterprises are small business with five or fewer employees that have difficulty accessing small amounts of credit from conventional sources. Many microentrepreneurs, particularly those served by microenterprise development organizations, are low income, women, minorities, or disabled individuals who may face other challenges to business success as well. Microenterprise is an effective economic development and self-sufficiency strategy strategy that that reduces reliance on public assistance, creates jobs, and raises the income, education levels, job skills and assets of poor and moderate-income entrepreneurs. The Aspen Institute estimates that there are at least 2 million low-income microentrepreneurs in the United States.
Locally based microenterprise development programs provide credit, training, and technical assistance to microentrepreneurs. Over the past decade, several Federal programs have emerged to provide funding support to microenterprise development programs.
As I mentioned earlier, in order to meet the demand for training, technical assistance and credit among microentrepreneurs, AEO urges Congress to support and acknowledge the distinct and complementary programs within SBA and to assist microenterprise development organizations to serve more entrepreneurs more effectively. The other small business service providers, such as the SBDCs and SCORE give assistance to small businesses with up to 500 employees. However, they differ markedly from microenterprise organizations whose primary mission is to provide specialized services to help the smallest and most disadvantaged enterprises. In addition, despite some suggestions to the contrary, these three SBA programs meet the needs of micro-entrepreneurs that no other federal programs -- not the New Markets Initiative, not the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and not any other federal business development programs -- do. We in the microenterprise industry rely on the SBA programs to meet the needs of our clients.
Conventional sources of business credit, such as banks, are often beyond the reach of micro-entrepreneurs. These potential borrowers often seek very small amounts of capital, have poor credit histories, and can offer banks little or no collateral. The SBA Microloan Program contributes to solving this problem by providing funding to over 160 community-based intermediaries to help microentrepreneurs gain access to credit. To date, these intermediaries have made more than 12,000 microloans totaling approximately $130 million.
Since microloan borrowers require training and technical assistance to start or expand their businesses, the SBA Microloan Program also provides funding to intermediaries to offer these services. In contrast to PRIME, however, this program supports the training and technical assistance needs of borrowers - and provides only a minimal amount of funds for technical assistance to individuals who do not borrow.
The SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership (OWBO) is the only federal office that specifically targets women business owners. Its Women's Business Centers provide training and technical assistance to women starting or expanding businesses. There are a total of 92 Women's Business Centers. Fifteen new Centers were added this past year. The Centers are required to target services to economically and socially disadvantaged women, some of whom are micro-entrepreneurs. The vast majority of Center clients are women for whom participating in a targeted program is important because of the special challenges that face women in business. The Centers create opportunities for networking among women business owners and are particularly responsive to their needs. Over the past ten years, Women’s Business Centers have provided consulting, training and technical assistance to more than 50,000 women.
Finally, In order to succeed in our complex economy, microentrepreneurs need training and technical assistance in areas such as financial management, bookkeeping, and marketing. Fifty of the PRIME Act's funds are to be used to support training and technical assistance for low-income entrepreneurs. Low-income entrepreneurs often require especially intensive training services and may not require loans. (In 1995, 82% of all microenterprise program clients did not take out loans.) The PRIME funds will provide grants to microenterprise development organizations to offer training and technical assistance to low-income microentrepreneurs, whether or not they take out loans.
PRIME funds will also enable non-profit microenterprise organizations to build their management, outreach, and program design capacity so that they can more effectively serve low-income clients. PRIME funds can support the full range of non-profit organizations that assist microentrepreneurs, not only those organizations providing microloans.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman and members, I would like to put a human face on the statistics, facts and numbers I have shared with you today.
Business location:New Jersey (Home based)
Start-up date:September 1994
Loan amount/term:$10,000 / 4 years
Date loan paid in full:July 1996
Letter by Borrower dated April 1995:
"Dear Mr. Means, Allow me to take this opportunity to thank you for your help and cooperation in the start-up of our small business. The GNBDC Small Business Loan Center has been indispensable to us and without it we couldn't have come this far. It is helpful to know that you are always there to help us when the need arises."
Business location:New Jersey
Start-up date:November 1995
Loan amount/term:$15,000 / 3 years
Date loan pain in full:November 1998
Interview Comments by Borrower, 1999:
"I thank the GNBDC for their vote of confidence early in my company's development. This partnership is greatly needed for many people, especially African American males who, I believe, have historically had a difficulty time securing financial assistance from major institutions. I look forward to our continued good business relationship."
These kinds of responses are widespread throughout the 164 SBA intermediaries. Nationally, intermediaries have made over 12,420 loans for $129,962,235 million since the inception of the Microloan Program in June 1, 1992.
Thank you very much for this opportunity. I would be happy to answer any questions at the appropriate time.
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