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68 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2016 Small Business INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › companies, so it was a mutual recognition of opportunity." e regional program in Connecti- cut started with one buyer in the national partnership, Pitney Bowes, and 38 small businesses were registered. In the pro- gram's first 100 days — it was announced in October 2015 and officially began Jan. 1, 2016 — it had three buyers and more than 100 suppliers. "We will pass the 200-supplier mark before we get halfway through the year," Bruhl said. Money matters Efforts by groups like the Business Council are indeed having an impact in Connecticut. e growth of small businesses is borne out in the data. For example, Connecticut's regional SBA office said lending is back to 2011 production levels. e state's district office made 695 SBA-backed loans worth $287 million in 2015, and counseled more than 37,800 clients, its best year since 2009, according to Robert Nelson, acting district direc- tor for the SBA in Connecti- cut. (e SBA named Anne Hunt District Director in April 2016.) Small businesses in Connecticut re- ceived $309 million in government con- tracts, while small disadvantaged businesses (mainly women-, veteran- and minority- owned businesses) received $181 million in contracts. Industries flourishing under SBA care are manufacturing, up 66 percent over last year, and educational services, Nelson said. Food service and hospitality companies also are well represented in the SBA portfolio. "Lenders oen will not do these loans unless there is an SBA guarantee," he explained. SBA construction lending is on par with last year, Nelson said. "During the economic crisis, banks were gun-shy about construction and the build- ing trades, but that has picked up," he said. "With the number of loans we're doing on the construction side, I think we're helping banks get more comfortable with that, and that's good for the overall economy here." Nelson, an 18-year SBA veteran, also spent years with the Federal Deposit Insur- ance Corp. and was a commercial bank lender earlier in his career. Most of the SBA lending in Connecti- cut is being done by community banks, Nelson noted. As of February 2016, Berk- shire Bank topped the Connecticut district's list with 39 SBA loans worth $2.6 million. Webster Bank was second with 31 loans ($8 million), and Wells Fargo was third with 23 loans ($2.5 million). To encourage more banks to participate in SBA lending, the agency is rolling out a web-based application and loan file system called SBA One. e system will reduce application er- rors by flagging inappropriate or incorrect entries, or warning lending officers that a loan does not meet SBA guidelines. In the past, manually prepared loans could have gotten approved at the bank level and later rejected for SBA guarantees because of im- proper or incomplete paperwork. "It's really going to cut down on denials and repairs," Nelson said. "If we can help the lenders so they have 100 percent confidence in the SBA guarantee, they're going to keep coming back and using our program, especially if we streamline the processes and reduce the costs for them to process a small loan." e SBA is also intro- ducing a new matchmak- ing system called LINC that introduces lenders to small business owners electronically, according to Seth Goodall, SBA regional administrator for New England. "We know it can be intimidating to even start the relationship for a lot of small business owners and anything we can do to match bor- rowers and lenders is a good thing," Goodall said. "If they're not ready to access capital, we direct them to a resource partner such as SCORE, the SBDC, Women's Business Center. e lenders are upbeat because it's an opportu- nity to see a new set of customers and build a long-term relationship." ❑ Top SBA Lenders in Connecticut (Ranked by number of loans, FY 2015) Bank No. of loans Totals amount loaned Loan average per deal Berkshire Bank 39 $2,636,000 $67,590 Webster Bank 31 $8,021,900 $258,771 Wells Fargo Bank 23 $2,457,600 $106,852 M&T Bank 14 $3,606,000 $257,571 TD Bank 12 $4,711,200 $392,600 Source: SBA > Continued from page 67 ' Anything we can do to match borrowers and lenders is a good thing. ' — seth Goodall, sBa reGional administrator for new enGland