The Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments has a Revolving Loan Fund Program (RLF) to help individuals who wish to start up a business or expand an existing business. Program Manager, Dawna Housekeeper stopped by Castle Country Radio to talk about the program.

“What I do is to help businesses – startup businesses or businesses that need expansion or retention to be able to get funding that they may not be able to get in a traditional financial institution,” explained Housekeeper. Retaining or creating jobs in the community is a criterion for the program.

A lot of times the RLF program will do Gap Financing for a business owner. “A sample of that would be a business comes in and they are doing a very large loan and SBA is one of them that we work a lot with and they will only allow up to a certain amount and then we can go in, technically to fill that gap,” stated Housekeeper. The RLF is only able to lend up to $150,000.00. The money can be used for purchasing land and buildings, construction/renovations, machinery/equipment, leasehold improvement and working capital.

The type of eligible businesses can include industrial/manufacturing, retail commercial, and service/professional. “We have actually worked with manufacturing companies, we’ve worked with convenience stores, we’ve worked with funeral homes, we’ve done daycare, we’ve done food trailers, so we’ve done just amounts of different places,” said Housekeeper. This program is open to folks in Carbon, Emery, Grand and San Juan Counties.

There is an application process where you will need to submit an application, business plan and projections for three years. “We actually have the Small Business Development at the university, Austin Preston is an awesome help to these people that really can get started and show them that way and get some of that business plan and some of those things that are required in business lending. So we do have some resources to help them,” said Housekeeper. The Small Business Development Center is located on the USU-Eastern Campus inside the Reeves Building Room 165 or can be reached at (435) 613-5460.

To learn more about the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments Revolving Loan Fund Program visit their website at http://seualg.utah.gov/ or by calling (435) 613-0031.