MSBDC NEWS
Contact: Media & P.R., 662-915-7236
University of Mississippi
State’s Small Business Development Center
Offers Disaster Help to Gulf Coast Business Owners
OXFORD, Miss. – The Mississippi Small Business Development Center has stepped out of its usual role of helping grow existing enterprises and launch new businesses and is offering assistance to small business owners impacted by Hurricane Katrina.
The center has switched gears in order to guide people through the process of applying for SBA federal emergency business loans, said Mike Vanderlip, associate state director of the SBDC at the University of Mississippi.
“The Small Business Administration is the primary source for federal funds available after a disaster,” Vanderlip said. “If you have an uninsured loss in excess of $10,000, you are eligible for a low-interest, long-term SBA disaster loan.”
The first step for business owners is to determine their loss, figure out what insurance will cover, get a FEMA number. “We need to go on and start moving into recovery,” he said.
In relief efforts that began shortly after the hurricane, MSBDC state director Doug Gurley and Brian Reithel, dean of the UM School of Business Administration, met with the Board of Directors of the national Association of Small Business Development Centers in Baltimore, Md. As a result, the ASBDC agreed to provide $150,000 in temporary funding to help Mississippi and Louisiana, as well as recruit counselors with expertise in small business disaster to spend 12-day stints in storm-ravaged areas of the two states.
Volunteers are coming in from around the country to help process the thousands of loan requests and to help those in the devastated areas of the Coast. They loaded up vans with computer equipment and cell phones in order to get as many loans as possible processed, Vanderlip said. “We sent teams to Gulfport, Gautier, Bay St. Louis, Ellisville and Summit. We also opened the first MSBDC Business Assistance Centers in Hattiesburg last week,” he said. “Small business owners who have sustained either physical damage to business property or have sustained an economic injury as a result of Katrina need to meet with counselors at one of these field stations to discuss assistance programs and opportunities.”
Appealing to the public for help, Vanderlip said, “If you’ve got space on the coast or an RV that we could take down and use as a house for these disaster teams that are coming in, please contact our office.”
As an additional resource, the state SBDC has opened an emergency information center at its facility on the UM-Oxford campus. Staff members are available to provide information to small business owners impacted by the hurricane.
For assistance, call 800-725-7232 or e-mail msbdc@olemiss.edu.
For more information visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/mssbdc or http://www.sba.gov.
(rebecca lauck cleary)
* * * *
For more stories from the University of Mississippi, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/newsdesk.
