Use the internet to find the best resources for boosting your business.

Starting a small business is not easy. Growing a small business is not easy. And maintaining a vibrant small business is not easy. Entrepreneurs must be willing to take risks others won’t. They must work around the clock if necessary, often acting not only as CEO, but also as head of sales, accountant and whatever else it takes to get the job done. But it can be done, and truly successful business owners take advantage of partnerships and resources along the way.

One of the SBA’s goals is to be a partner to entrepreneurs. Over the years, we’ve helped many of our best-known corporate icons get started: Amgen, AOL, Apple Inc., Ben & Jerry’s, Callaway Golf, FedEx, Intel, Nike, Outback Steak-house, Staples and Under Armour, to name a few. Today, we help entrepreneurs in numerous ways.

The SBA lends or guarantees more than $78 billion in loans and investments.

The SBA helps small businesses procure a fair share of government contracts—a record $80 billion in 2005.

Last year, the SBA and its technical assistance partners counseled nearly 1.5 million entrepreneurs, and the SBA website received 26 million hits.

Through its Office of Advocacy, the SBA helps protect small businesses from harmful new government regulations, and through its National Ombudsman, it helps small businesses deal with the unfair application of existing regulations.

Over the past six years, SBA lending to minority entrepreneurs has increased by more than 150 percent. The number of entrepreneurs receiving SBA counseling is up 40 percent.

You can find these resources by visiting the SBA’s award-winning website (www.sba.gov), which has recently relaunched with improved navigation, updated content, new features and a sharper focus on giving small businesses what they need. We’re building our website’s reputation, which has been highlighted by major awards and accolades over the past few years—Money Magazine has called it the “best stop for one-stop shopping.”

At the SBA, our goal is to give small businesses the tools they need. Whether they need help developing a business plan, additional training, or technical or financial assistance for their growing company, we’re here to help.

The SBA’s site offers more than 10,000 pages of information on starting, financing, developing and managing a successful business. Topics include SBA-backed financial assistance, contracting opportunities, training and counseling, disaster recovery and international trade. Useful links to regulatory compliance information and forms are also available. You can access timely expert advice in web chats, prepared pod-casts on business issues and services, a library, a periodic newsletter, a startup guide, useful statistics and much more. Extensive contact information is provided for local SBA district offices, Small Business Development Centers, SCORE chapters, women’s business centers and Veterans Business Outreach Centers nationwide and in U.S. territories.

The SBA will make numerous improvements to its website over the next year based on feedback received from small businesses during interviews, surveys, usability studies and focus groups from the past year.

Again, starting, growing and maintaining a small business is hard work. I often say that small-business owners match every dollar of equity with $10 of sweat equity. But that’s also why they’re successful when others are not. America has an economy that regenerates, is flexible and adapts to opportunity. Much of this is because our entrepreneurial culture has taught us to dream, see possibilities and act on them.

Small businesses drive our economy. They create 70 percent of new jobs and represent more than half of our nonfarm private GDP. Since August 2003, more than 7.2 million jobs have been created in the U.S.—more jobs than in the European Union and Japan combined.

Entrepreneurs drive a tremendous amount of the innovation in our country; small patenting firms produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than their larger competitors do. Small-business ownership allows people to realize dreams, not only for owners and their families, but also for those they employ and those they serve.

We are a small U.S. government agency with a very big reach. We are also an agency with a very big job.

We have a new Congress and expect from it a continuation of the sound economic policies that have helped small businesses flourish, fueled our economy and created more jobs. We do this by:

• Making it easier for small businesses and their employees to obtain affordable, high-quality health insurance
• Keeping taxes low and reforming an unnecessarily complex tax code
• Cutting burdensome government regulations and red tape

Along with the president, I believe ownership anchors us to what is important. We want entrepreneurs to think big because they are the ones driving the economy, creating better jobs for Americans, increasing competitiveness in the global marketplace and transforming our communities. The men and women of the SBA have the honor and the responsibility of helping that engine reach its full potential.

By visiting the SBA’s website and www.business.gov, you will help make your business—your legacy—last for decades to come.

Steven C. Preston
SBA Administrator