JOURNAL OF MARKETING DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVENESS
SBA 504 Loans Help Improve Balance Sheets: A Micro Analysis
Author(s): Thomas P. Mihajlov
Citation: Thomas P. Mihajlov, (2012) "SBA 504 Loans Help Improve Balance Sheets: A Micro Analysis," Vol. 6, Iss. 1, pp. 22 - 33
Article Type: Research paper
Publisher: North American Business Press
Abstract:
The US Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 504 Loan Program was established to provide long-term,
fixed-rate financing for small businesses. Research on SBA lending has tended to focus on economic
development, revenues, and delinquency factors as measures of SBA lending success. This paper studies
504 Loans initiated by the Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corporation (WBD) to determine if
such financing helped improve the balance sheet structure of small businesses. Employing commercial
lending ratio analysis, this study finds a positive improvement in small business balance sheets. It further
appears that the staying power of small businesses is substantially enhanced.