Opportunities Abound

by Sam Jones

Kansas City metro businesses can be in touch online with more federal buyers in one sitting than most businesses in most cities could expect
in 10 years

It should be no surprise that Kansas City is a fertile field for the growth of small businesses, which represent 99 percent of all businesses in the metro area.

One factor is the favorable regulatory climate. The mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, is working to make it easy to do business here. Another factor is the state’s cooperation with SBA’s Office of Advocacy to examine how regulations affect small businesses. Further, the SBA Office of the National Ombudsman’s regional fairness boards, on which we have a local member, determines whether they are enforced fairly.

Kansas City has a plethora of business assistance for mentoring services, spurred by assistance from entities as large as the Kauffman Foundation and as small as the new Service Disabled Veteran’s Assistance Center in Kansas City, Kansas. This privately funded incubator offers space and procurement. Its success is proof it doesn’t take $2 billion to make a difference.

Our city is home to the national FASTrac program, a low-cost business training course, and the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program, which selects mid-sized applicants to receive quality expansion assistance. The alliance of our business-focused public education resources has netted us SBA-sponsored Small Business Development Centers, sponsored by UMKC and Johnson County Community College.

SBA and community sponsorship have forged the development of two Women’s Business Centers in the metro, each with different focuses. KCSourceLink is now a prototype for up to six new similar centers across the nation. Opened three years ago with help from SBA, the Kauffman Foundation and UMKC, it has pulled 140 service providers together, many on site. Its highly sophisticated Resource Navigator and client-tracking software soon will be available nationwide. New business-to-business marketing and POWER minority programs are offered by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, along with other educational opportunities with outlying chambers.

There are monetary advantages to the Kansas City metro, too. Invest Midwest and new, local venture capital and angel investors will afford access to growth capital rivaling that of much larger markets.

Our community banking culture stands strongly behind business. SBA’s Office of Advocacy reported last month that minorities fare worse getting loans in transaction banking, where credit scores are paramount, than in relationship banking, where a lender’s decision is based on knowledge of the borrower. This culture has allowed SBA to assist far more small businesses in getting loans and in contracting and minority services in Kansas City than in St. Louis, where the pool of businesses is significantly larger.

Kansas City is competing for businesses seeking to relocate. Often we attract businesses from outside the area. Note the action around the Kansas Speedway in Wyandotte County, Independence’s Bass Pro Shop and other activity along the interstate highway corridors.

Transportation options—air, truck, rail, waterways and even the Internet—abound. Kansas City rates in the Top 10 of the most Internet-connected cities. It is a midpoint along the NAFTA highway, and it has a large inter-modal facility.

We also offer small businesses opportunities to sell to the government. Online Busi-ness Matchmaking, an SBA pilot program in five cities, started in April. Kansas City metro businesses can be in touch online with more federal buyers in one sitting than most businesses in most cities could expect in 10 years. Plus, we are home to some of the largest federal buyers of services.

We are within 100 miles of major military bases hosting a variety of activities from infantry to B2 bombers. Several of the Federal government’s top contractors are in town or nearby.

It is all in the Kansas City metro area and it is all coming together to make our city a cutting-edge player for small businesses.

Sam Jones is the Region 7 Admin-istrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration. He can be reached at 816.374.6380 or via e-mail at sam.jones@sba.gov.