A state program backed us up
A state program backed us up
Owner: Jonathan L. Hagmaier
Location: Roanoke, Va.

Years ago, my grandfather would walk into a bank, shake the manager's hand and get a check.

But that's not the case anymore. It's hard out there. Now, you really need assets to get a loan. And if you don't have a lot in assets, you need financial backing from someone who does.

Last year, we spoke to many banks in our area. At the time, we needed the money to open up new locations for our student assessment software company. Finally, the bank BB&T agreed to loan us $750,000 for our expansion plans. But rather than have to put up $750,000 in assets to back the loan, which isn't exactly easy for a $3.8 million company, we applied for the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority's loan guaranty program.

We had to go before a panel and answer all sorts of questions about how we planned to use the money and how long it would take us to pay it back. It was almost like an interview. In the end though, the Virginia SBFA agreed to back the loan by putting up 25 percent of the assets needed while we put up the remainder.

We're lucky. There's no way we could have secured the size of the loan we did without the backing of Virginia.


As told to Cindy Waxer, contributing writer @CNNMoney - Last updated April 20 2012: 3:59 PM ET
Join the Conversation
Most Popular
 
 
 
 
 

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.