How I became a rock star for a day

Last week, I was a rock star—and it felt great.  But I wasn’t on a big stage with a lead guitar, playing sick licks for a gigantic crowd.  No, not at all.  I simply asked a question that was on everyone’s mind at a recent conference.

During a packed, small business conference hosted by the mayor of Savannah, Georgia, I directed the following question to Terri Denison, District Director for the Georgia Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA):

“During last week’s hearing on small business lending hosted by the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, D.C., a small business owner testified that millions of small business owners are frustrated for two main reasons: 1) Banks, especially community banks, are not experienced enough to evaluate properly good business plans and ideas 2) Banks refuse to lend because regulators have implemented increasingly difficult standards such as higher capital reserves.  Why can’t the SBA lend directly to businesses to circumvent these obstacles?”

Ms. Denison, who is a good friend of mine, answered the question artfully, outlying several of the same points that appeared in an article published by The New York Times a few hours later. Her answer, which didn’t assuage business owners starved for capital, didn’t matter.  I was a rock star as soon as I finished my question. 

During the conference breaks, many small business owners thanked me for asking such a great question.  They also shared that they are doing everything possible to survive this economic maelstrom. The credit crush has only made things so much worse.  

So, in a nutshell, that’s how I became a rock star for a day, singing the blues of small business owners all across the country.

[ Read The New York Times article. ]