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Owning your own company can be risky business, especially in a struggling economy. But new loan opportunities in Missouri are giving some already thriving companies the chance to stay ahead of the game. KSMU’s Chasity Mayes reports.
Even if you haven’t heard of Anderson Engineering, chances are good that you’ve seen their work. The engineering company is responsible for several significant builds in Springfield including the Broadway Baptist Church, the O’Reilly Family Event Center, and MoDOT’s management center. But even with multiple projects under its belt, the employee owned company needed a business loan.
“It was our relationship with Commerce Bank. We were needing a loan and they basically got us the information and we were able to go from there.”
That’s Neil Brady, the president of Anderson Engineering. He says Missouri’s Linked Deposit Program, which is managed by State Treasurer Clint Zweifel, is making all the difference when it comes to getting a small business loan in a less than stable economy.
“Everything we do engineering wise is done on CAD which is Computer Aided Drafting Design. So, its basically enabled us to keep our software current and able to compete with the other firms in the area. That’s basically what it’s doing. It’s allowing us to keep doing what we’re doing,” says Brady.
The loan was made in partnership with Commerce Bank, which is lending money through the program.The loan is for 38,000 dollars which will go toward purchasing new equipment.
State Treasurer Clint Zweifel says small business loans, like this one, are just the beginning. Missouri’s Linked Deposit Program has streamlined qualifications that make it easy for almost any small business to get a low interest loan.
“If you have less than 100 employees, if you’re creating or you’re retaining jobs, if you’re a local government, if you’re deploying green technology, or if you’re any farm in this state then you qualify,” says Zweifel.
The loan received by Anderson Engineering will save the company 3,500 dollars in interest costs. Zweifel says the low interest loans will save many businesses on interest.
“The interest is a market rate that we then are able to reduce by about 25 percent. So, often these loans then will save that borrower about 25 or 30 percent off the cost of their capital depending on what the interest rate is at that point and time. But it’s a market based program so we don’t set an interest rate, the state doesn’t take credit risks, we really serve as a partner to help just provide low interest financing for those businesses,” says Zweifel.
More than 570 million dollars in loans have been approved statewide impacting nearly 7,200 jobs and 2,100 farmers since January 2009, according to Zweifel’s office. Of the 570 million dollars loaned, southwest Missouri has received 60 million impacting hundreds of jobs.
Zweifel says applying for a loan is as simple as stopping in at one of several participating banks, which are listed on the treasurer’s website: www.treasurer.mo.gov.
For KSMU News, I’m Chasity Mayes.