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Opportunity for entrepreneurs: NetWork Kansas will offer new loan program to region's 'e-communities.'
Dec 06, 2009 (The Hutchinson News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
An agency created to support entrepreneurship in Kansas announced a new revolving loan program available to businesses in several south-central Kansas communities, including Sterling, Alden and Marion.
NetWork Kansas will create the program using a $75,000 Rural Business Enterprise Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The program will provide matching dollars ranging from $5,000 to $30,000 for loans to new or existing businesses in designated Entrepreneurship (E-) Communities.
All loans provided through the program, which require at least a 40 percent local match from a bank or other funding partner, will be administered by the South Central Kansas Economic Development District (SCKEDD), a NetWork Kansas partner.
Once the new loan program is successfully piloted in south-central Kansas, its goal is to expand it statewide, said Steve Radley, NetWork Kansas director.
NetWork Kansas was established under the Kansas Department of Commerce, as a component of the Kansas Economic Growth Act of 2004, to further entrepreneurship and small business growth in Kansas.
Originally called the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship, it later became NetWork Kansas, explained Associate Director Eric Pedersen.
"One of the core focuses we have is to be a central portal to connect entrepreneurs and small business with the resources they need," Pedersen said. "We get calls every day from people who have a business challenge and don't know where to go. We act as a conduit to get them to the right resources."
The focus of NetWork Kansas is not just dollars, Pedersen said, but providing access to three E's -- expertise, education and economics.
The idea, Pederson said, is to find that expertise -- whether needed, for example, to write a business plan, find a way to address cash flow issues or to develop a financing plan -- within the local or area community.
The education component works to identify seminars and workshops offered around the state that members of an E-Community might find helpful.
The economic piece, Pedersen said, usually includes identifying what capital exists in a region, both public and private, and then using tax credits available through NetWork Kansas to help access them.
To be designated an E-Community, local leaders must apply to NetWork Kansas and then raise funds in the community for the program, with the assistance of the agency's tax credits.
"It's very much a program to empower a community," Pedersen said.
Currently, there are 12 E-Communities operating throughout Kansas with more than $2.1 million in funds available, including Great Bend and Kiowa County.
Eight others were recently named E-Communities and are expected to have programs operating by February. Those include Greeley County, Finney County, Hillsboro, Inman, Salina and Scott County.
For more information on applying for business loans through specific E-Communities, go to www.networkkansas.com/communities.
To see more of The Hutchinson News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.hutchnews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Hutchinson News, Kan.
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