Innovating for Growth: How Digital Platforms Are Transforming Small Business Support

Innovating for Growth: How Digital Platforms Are Transforming Small Business Support

该中心与社区再投资基金的合作伙伴关系强调了使用数字技术来加强188bet网址怎么打不开美国小型企业生态系统的三个机会。
Kelsie Kay Haskell making smoothies

Friday, July 8, 2022 - 9:45am

内容:博客

经过:Sandy Fernandez

When Kelsie Kay Haskell decided to open a coffee shop on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, she knew she would need funding. Like many small business owners, Haskell had neither personal wealth nor access to affordable loans. She worried that big banks wouldn’t give her loan application serious consideration.

公平地获得负担得起的营运资金是major barrier for all small businesses, more than half of whom cannot obtain sufficient funding to meet their needs. Yet the issue is even greater among Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs, whoreceive$30,000 less in financing and pay steeper interest rates than their white counterparts.

幸运的是,Haskell能够阻止趋势并发起梦想的业务-Kelsie Kay的Coffee Depot。她在借助Four Bands Community Fund,一家本地社区发展金融188bet网址怎么打不开机构(CDFI)。全国四个乐队和CDFI对于缩小小型企业的资金差距至关重要。他们是任务驱动的贷方,他们为服务不足社区的企业家提供负担得起的资本和业务发展服务。188bet上不了关注低收入和中等收入社区的关注和接近性使CDFI为受风险最大,受到经济和健康冲击影响最大的企业家提供服务。对于四个乐队来说,这涉及帮助企业发展和发展弹性,以导航企业家的起伏。

Haskell于2009年开始与四个乐队合作,这是其财务教练计划的一部分。她与个人理财教练一起实现了多个目标,包括建立储蓄帐户和建立信誉。

该计划使Haskell能够追求开展业务的梦想,而四个乐队也在那里支持她的旅程。CDFI帮助Haskell确保了其启动孵化器的空间,提供了扩展到更大空间的贷款,并通过大流行帮助她获得了小型企业的缓解。

“It was the working capital I needed to get started,” Haskell says.

As part of our commitment to supporting more small businesses like Haskell’s, the万事达卡中心包容性增长中心(The Center) teamed up withCommunity Reinvestment Fund, USA(CRF)是国家非营利性CDFI,其使命是通过创新的金融解决方案改善生活并加强社区。CRF与CDFI和业务支持组织网络合作,使用技术创新来扩大对负担得起的资本的访问,以实现系统性影响。

One of those partnerships was with the Plains Regional CDFI Coalition, including Four Bands, to connect Native-owned small businesses to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and bolster their access to vital capital.

在该中心的支持下,CRF通过数字和流程创新扩大其集体网络能力,从而在社区贷方之间建立能力,从而推动量表,增加访问权限188bet网址怎么打不开并提供更高质量的客户和运营经验。从合作伙伴关系中的影响和见解指出了三个机会使用数字平台来加强服务不足社区的小型企业贷款生态系统。

Speed and scale loan processing

Getting government aid during COVID was especially tough for BIPOC-owned businesses. Though 86% of Black-owned businesses reported sales declines, nearly half of those businesses that applied forPPP资金被拒绝贷款. And big banks have further tightened lending requirements.

Haskell worked with Four Bands and CRF to secure $4,200 in PPP funding to cover staff wages and hire additional workers to pivot to curbside service. The CDFI also covered her rent, allowing her to continue operating the coffee shop and providing “much peace of mind,” during an uncertain time, she says.

CRF开发了SPARKplatform to digitalize the end-to-end lending process for U.S. Small Business Administration and small business loans by mission-driven lenders, enabling lenders to quickly deploy PPP loans to small businesses during the pandemic. The platform is transforming the lending landscape for community financial institutions and banks by eliminating manual tasks, increasing automation and simplifying the entire loan process from origination to repayment.

SPARK demonstrated its capabilities during the COVID crisis and deployment of PPP which was pivotal because it streamlined the application process and cut loan origination times in half. The Center made a fortuitous and strategic investment in SPARK immediately before the pandemic to build its core capacity. This positioned the platform to scale lending exponentially from $1 billion during the six-year period of 2014-2019 to more than $6 billion in 2020, driven by PPP lending via CRF’s network of community lenders.

Expand the marketplace for affordable small business capital

But before a CDFI can process a small business loan, business owners need to find them.

That’s why CRF builtConnect2Capital, a growing digital lending marketplace that enables small businesses to connect to more than 90 mission-driven lenders across the U.S. that provide a range of affordable lending products and services that meet the various needs of growing small businesses in low-income communities.

The platform aims to provide a responsible alternative to高利益小企业贷款可从一些在线贷方获得。

Through the platform, small businesses can easily apply and get matched with an appropriate CDFI loan product within two minutes. CDFIs also save on costs to acquire new, pre-qualified loan applicants.

CRF has leveraged the platform to connect small businesses to local and regional small business resiliency programs throughout the country. In 2021, these programs deployed more than $145 million in loan capital in 13 states, with a majority of the loans going to diverse small businesses.

Equipping small businesses with better business intelligence

贷款对于小型企业来说是一个关键的挑战,但缺乏数据见解也是如此。小型企业需要及时的见解来与更大的连锁店竞争并帮助做出明智的业务决策。在该中心的支持下,CRF正在努力纳入其Connect2Capital平台的地理,本地经济,业务数据,以及见解和预测分析。这些工具的引入是潜在的“改变游戏规则者”,因为它们使CRF成员组织及其企业家能够更准确地评估其业务的财务状况,包括销售趋势,现金流量和预测。例如,当企业显示压力指标时,CDFI可以使用该技术接收通知并通过干预措施做出响应。

例如,Haskell告诉我们,通过获得历史数据见解,她可以在夏安河苏河部落Fair和Rodeo等重大事件之前做出更明智的购买决策。没有它,她冒着订购过多的杯子,吸管,糖浆和其他需要大量前期投资(最终可能坐在货架上)或订购太少并用尽的用品的风险。这些见解将不仅有助于Haskell管理日常工作,还可以计划其业务的未来增长,抓住机遇并管理风险。

有一个流行的拉科塔短语,四个乐队用来描述夏安河苏族保留地。该术语是“伊卡亚·伍登(Icahya Woecun)”,这意味着一个成长的地方。这一增长的一部分将源于四个乐队如何采用变革性的数字工具来满足服务不足的小型企业的需求。毕竟,当小型企业蓬勃发展时,当地的社区和经济也是如此。

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