start a small business. credit unions offer micro loans. we do a lot of micro loans up to $50,000. this is -- we check credit. we need a business plan. then we look at the three-year tax return and that statement. we do a lot of home care and mom-and-pop shops. we also do start ups. we asked for approval through documents. we work a lot with people who do not know how to file taxes properly. we are mainly focused in san francisco. we are small. we focus mainly on the tenderloin, chinatown, bayview, visitation. we do a lot of expansion. people start small through the credit union and then want to go to the bank. we know we are limited. we cannot afford to give out a big loan. starting from the credit union, we educate them about filing taxes properly and then moving on to the bank, a small one, expansion, and we work with the bank. the bank and credit union are similar. we do allow tax returns, projections. credit unions do not charge an additional loan or processing fee. processing time, on a small loan, -- consumer loans probably a few days. because we require a business plan, sometimes it takes longer. business plans take a while. especially bank statements. we need to see consistent income coming in. so far, a credit union delinquent rate is quite low because we are working with a client. we want to keep that low and as part of our mission. there is no application fee. if you are interested in an application or information, i have brochures, or you can give us a call. >> thank you. next is marked with wells fargo. >> hello, i work for wells fargo bank. i cover the northern california region. i usually focus on about $350 -- $350,000 of sbe loans. last year, for 2010, i did 43 loans. so we are lending. i usually focus on six different types of loans. start-ups, business acquisitions, real estate purchases with ti's, working capital, a partner buyouts, business expansion. when i am looking at a potential loan, i use the standard five c's of credit. the first one is character. what we are looking for is a minimum score around 640. we would like to say no recent bankruptcy foreclosures, bankruptcies, tax liens. if we see a loan that has been modified, we would like to see a reason it was modified, what ever reason it may be. it cannot be, i did not want to pay that payment any more. the second c, conditions. basically, how precise will the money be used? we are looking at a business plan. when you look at a business plan, that is just a start up. we are looking to see where there will be the need for lending. if you are an existing business, we want to see the money that we give you goes to the growth of your business. the third c is capital itself. basically, how much of yourself had the-- how much capital haveu invested? if you are a startup, and generally, 30%. if you are an expansion, you are looking to expand your restaurant, that is generally around 20. the fourth c is capacity. capacity is pretty important. that is the ability to repay your loan. if we are going to be looking at a debt service, we look at a percentage of 1.25. for start-ups, we like to see startups near 1.25, generally closer to 1.5. the fifth c is collateral. i will put it to you this way. on a startup, we like to say 25% to 30% in the form of cash or real estate that has fungible equity in it. a purchase of real estate will count as collateral. pretty much, at wells fargo, we have this process streamlined. i am the front end. after i review the alone, i put it together, put it into underwriting. they will review the file and see if there is a loan file. then you have the of loan) who works with you through the end. so the average time for a 7a loan, which is my focus, about 35, 45 days. if there are other things that need to be looked at, 45 days to 60 days. we are preferred lending partner. we are able to approve a loan up front, close the loan, and then we go back to get the guarantee. i do not have the exact numbers. i should. i do not know how many loans we did last year. it was a lot. i know we were the first lender -- i do not know, historically -- mark, maybe you can help me. wells fargo is the largest in dollar amount by the country and in california, and bay area. we are trying to do our part. we are easy to work with. i have been doing this for four years now. i am pretty good where i can look of something and realize if we can help you out. if we cannot, i look for the micro guys to help me out with the smaller loans. it is a collateral loan that we cannot do, i do what i can. we are here to lend. >> thank you. hopefully, people have their question cards. i am going to open it up to the audience. if you have written a question down, please give it to us so we can start compiling them. if i see a repeat questions, it will help to expedite the process, answering those questions that people want answered. we have some of the best and brightest minds here. don't be shy. if you could do us a favor and use the microphone so that everyone can hear your question. >> you had mentioned about assistance in public contracting. for small companies, one of the issues is bonding. what do you do on that? >> for all public contracts, public agencies need to see that there contractors have bonding in order for them to demonstrate they can complete the contract. sba provides an insured bond guarantee to those who do bonding to small businesses on public contracts. so there is an sba program on a maturity bonding, similar to what we do. it is a guarantee to be assured the in the event of a default, that is a guarantee. so there is a charity bond guarantee, structured differently than the sba guaranteed loan program. >> i am a big fan of marketing. let us know if you have a small business in there that we can patronize. thank you. -- in that area that we can patronize. >> i have a company here in san francisco. like all small businesses, working for the city of san francisco is difficult. cash flow is a problem. invoices' get paid anywhere from 60 to 120 days. being cash for, i do not know how that would help me qualify for a loan, but it is a problem. so my question is, where do you go, if you do not have a lot of collateral, you do not have a lot of credit, have the you go about securing a line of credit? i have a lot of contracts for the next two years, but as my company grows, i cannot keep up with payroll. >> we have made loans in those situations. if you have contracts and can show us how they are going to be paid, if your credit is good, we would certainly like to take a look at that. we do not currently offer -- i should be careful. it is on and off whether we have a true line of credit. sometimes it can be structured in such a way to meet your cash flow needs, we can disperse it over time, allow you to pay it down. we have brochures back there. i encourage you to talk to us. >> let me add on that. over the last several years, a lot of small businesses have relied on their personal credit as a means to support the business. also, they relied on home equity lines of credit, which in many cases do not exist anymore, also as a source for financing their business. as far as doing public contracting, one thing about public contract in that you can count on is the city of san francisco will stay in business and pay its debt, just later than you would like it to be. when you're doing public contract thing, if you will, cash cycle -- when you do the work and when you get paid is something you have to factor into your understanding of capital needs. so you have to figure that into the process. usually, that is figured into the pricing. but it is also the case that would you also probably need is a line of credit. depending on whether you feel your credit situation is where you want to go to a bank like wells fargo or another regulated bank, and line of credit, or work for a working- capital type of loan, which is something you look to do, the opportunity fund. you probably want to try both avenues. as far as your credit scores, everyone realizes, everyone here has a credit score. the first thing any lender will look at is your credit score. after looking at that, they all do not do the same thing with it. an opportunity fund will look at your story in addition to your score. some are limited to your score, that if it is above or below a certain threshold, and they are may not work with you. not every one of the lenders is going to see your situation the same, so you should be shopping. >> [inaudible] >> you can do contract financing. that exists. but a line of credit is probably what you're looking for. >> thank you, marc. i have a question from the audience about a burgeoning market. any avenues for san francisco medical cannabis dispensaries? open to the panel. >> in terms of financing? i can tell you what will be the licensing and zoning regulations, but i think i would turn it over to our financial institutions, in terms of -- in terms of the type of business that you would consider financing. >> we look at all kinds of business. we always want to see a business plan. we want to see the cash flow. just like the lady before, you can have a good plan, but if you do not have cash -- good credit is always important. people sometimes have no cash or they may have a cosigner or partner that could help. >> opportunity fund is a 51 say -- 501 c nonprofit and we can make the bay area a better place especially for low and moderate-income communities. some of our funding sources, like the sba, certain kinds of businesses we cannot lend to. adult entertainment, primarily, alcohol sales, and then there are some things that we decided we are not going to lend to. we choose not to lend for fire arms sales. medical cannabis, to be honest, as the ceo of a non-profit, i may not want to open up that can of worms. we have a lot of people that donate money to our program. given that that there is a discrepancy between federal and state law on that, strong beliefs that people have about it, we make a pledge that we will look at every loan to make sure there is positive community impact. i think that is at least controversial enough to choose not to do it. we have not had a request yet, so i have not had to rule on that. >> we have a question in the back. >> i wanted to ask wells fargo, what is your interest rate on a loan? >> 6%. 2.75% over prime. >> ok. the second question, is a line of credit like a payroll advancement? i am a small business. just recently got contracts in san francisco. as you say, they pay slow. i want to get a loan for $50,000, but i do not want to pay the interest. i would like to get a payroll advancement where the money is available to me, should i needed for payroll. if i should need it, i can get that money. when the city pays me back, i pay them back, but that line of credit is still there. is that what they line of credit is? >> yes, ma'am. as you have a need for something to pay -- in this case, your bills -- before you get your invoices paid, that you would be able to do that. a line of credit is typically the way that most small businesses deal with cash flow variations. when invoices are paid, you pay down your line. that is slightly different from a permit working capital loan. those businesses that need permanent working capital for their business on an ongoing basis. in some cases, one can be used interchangeably. typically, what you are describing is a line of credit. when you go to a lender, you want to show them that you have the contracts that will be able to pay. lines of credit are typically going to be based on the credit scores of the business in this case. an important piece is making sure we do everything to know what our credit scores are. >> what is an average to good credit score? >> mark mentioned the 650. 65250 to 700 is typically what e see. when credit markets are tight for financing and regulators are cautious about seeing their banks make loans, they keep pushing the credit scores further and further up. that is why it is an important avenue to be able to have non- traditional lenders, like opportunity funds and micro lenders, who can look at a business and see a credit score that might not be strong, but there might be a story behind that number. medical issues, other things that do not impact your business but impact your credit score. they can hear your story and understand your circumstance. >> i have a question. this is probably for myself or mark. what impact will be cuts in the sba budget have on the sba program? it seems the small business committee is try to make drastic cuts. from our perspective, the new majority leadership is looking to make drastic cuts, many of the program will hold near and dear to our hearts. the question the leader is continually asking is, show me the jobs. she wants to see house bills come to the floor that create economic opportunity for middle- class -- all of americans. if the small business committee is looking to cut funds from the sba, we see that as a detriment. we do not believe in cutting to create more jobs. we agree with the idea of the recovery act, putting more money out there to get people employed. >> on congressional action, that is not my role. in san francisco, we have been the beneficiary. all small businesses should be aware that we have been the beneficiary of a lot of good resources for small businesses. we have more nonprofits that are funded through micro lending here in the city from sba programs. some are expected to be looked at for budget cuts. some will continue. but we have more of those programs in san francisco, really, in any other city in california. we also have a small business commission. that is unique. the folks who are here, who have been supporting small business for many years are the reasons why san francisco's small business community has a voice in ways that other cities and businesses in those cities do not. i think we have, in san francisco, the benefit of a lot of good resources here, some of which are here because of federal funds, some of which because folks in this room have been an advocate for small business. we are hoping the impact of tight budgets all levels still allows us to have the tools we have been able to use for small business. it is an important piece. >> [inaudible] >> there have been a cut in the budget. he wanted to know how that would cut the sba program. >> now we are getting into arcane budget discussions. the 2012 budget does slate a couple of sba programs for cutting. it also talks about cuts comparing next year to prior years, when we were the beneficiaries of stimulus funds, jobs act funds. one time-type things are being set as benchmarks. a cut from those one time- funding pieces that were not expected to be continued. in some ways, we do not see it as big as a cut. speaker pelosi was important to us in the jobs act in getting a lot of money put into the sba program. it allowed california to be the beneficiary of having hired guarantees for banks, no sba loans fees. in the first quarter of the year, lending in california was the most we ever did. we did $1 billion worth of small business loans in december, for example. that is something we have never done before. but that was a one time funding piece. going forward, on the loan side, we are not going to see the cuts have an impact on sba lending. the big issue we see are two issues. the value of california real- estate, stability of businesses in california, and the confidence of our workers looking for credit. those are variables that would be important. >> thank you. we have a question in the back. >> good afternoon. thank you to nancy pelosi and for you panelists for providing this informative seminars. for our young company, we are a distribution company. i just heard you mention that you do not loan for the sale of alcohol. is that separate from distribution of wine? >> s.p.a. -- sba makes loans to winery's, stores that sell wine. i am not exactly sure what role you play in distribution. the federal government ought -- got out of prohibiting alcohol and long time ago. we are not in the business of regulating all bohol, beverage distribution or sale. we make loans to businesses who sell alcoholic beverages, restaurants, stores. so is not an sp a prohibition. it is regulated on a local level. we have made loans to a lot of businesses that have some degree of an alcoholic beverages, one distribution. >> terrific. following up to that, can you give any advice on particular resources that would speak perhaps to any tax benefits, subsidies in place for both domestic distribution of wine, as well as exports? >> why don't we take it off line. i think what is the case, there is a lot of complexity to the incentives that were put into the jobs act for small businesses to take advantage of on expensing equipment, investments and their businesses, as far as the tax treatment of those activities. obviously, as a small-business person, each of you needs to understand, it is complex, but there are a lot of tax incentives and investment in business that you should take aware -- advantage of. >> we have two questions in the back. just to be mindful for everyone's time, we will go for about five more minutes. >> my name is david. i am an internet or entrepreneurs. in general, to the lenders, what type of vanity do you traditionally see approach you for loans, an llc, corp., and who is liable, for whose borrowing the money? 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