SBA: Small Businesses Are Leading The Country Out of the Recession

Seth Goodall, the New England Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, was fired up on Tuesday April 15 to speak to a room full of small business owners and entrepreneurs at Quality Inn in Mystic, and not just because of all the success his department has had growing the economy out of the recession.

“How about those Huskies!” said Goodall, who has a  Bachelor’s Degree in Agronomy and a Master’s Degree in Plant Science from the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

But then it was back to business for Goodall, who was joined at the podium by state Commissioner of Economic and Community Development Catherine Smith, and Small Business Development Center Director Emily Carter. They were all at the luncheon sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut to speak about the successes and the challenges for the SBA and its partners.

Goodall, who founded a full-service landscaping business with his brother in 1992, recalled that when they were starting out, “we were riding blind. We knew we had to pay our bills and provide great customer service, but we didn’t know anything about running the business. How much smoother would it have been for us if we could’ve walked into a program of the SBA like the SBDC or SCORE? Technical assistance is extremely valuable to small businesses.”

And the success of small business is “extremely important. Two of every three jobs created (today) are created by small business. Small business has led the way out of this recession. And SBA remains committed to job growth and to small business.”

Businesses face multiple challenges, Goodall noted, and the SBA is focused on helping provide access to capital and technical assistance, as well as access to federal contracts. In fact, 23 percent of the $500 billion federal contracting market is reserved for small businesses, and Goodall said that means $100 million funding these companies across the country, and allowing them to grow. He said that while usually the idea of a federal contract conjures up images of Electric Boat and nuclear submarines, there are myriad opportunities. He noted that a glassware company in New England recently won the contract to supply all the glassware and stemware to the U.S. Embassies around the world, worth millions of dollars.

In all, through loans and grants, the SBA has funneled $30 billion into businesses with the help of banks and other lending institutions, Goodall said. That has touched more than 300,000 businesses.

“We’re there to help get that deal across the finish line,” he said. “We are able to allow the entrepreneurs to chase their dreams.” In Connecticut, $280 million has been distributed through 570 loans. For every million dollars invested, 5.4 jobs are created, he said. The SBA is a resource for a business that cannot seem to get funding through traditional means. The SBA guarantees the loan, “and that gets that loan approved.”

Goodall, who was appointed to the position by President Obama in July 2013, lives in Maine. Goodall previously co-owned a full service landscaping company from 1992 to 1999—building the foundation for a successful, multi-million dollar company that today employs nearly 30 seasonal and 15 year-round employees, according to an SBA press release.

Most recently, he worked as an attorney at Dyer Goodall, P.A., where he represented municipalities, individuals and small businesses in a variety of cases, according to the SBA. He has also represented Sagadahoc County and Dresden in Lincoln County as a State Senator in the Maine State Legislature since 2008 and was the Senate Majority Leader.