Supporting Southeast Small businesses: Heather Mitchell pitches in to bring new business to fruition.

• Author: Lavrakas, Dimitra
• Position: SMALL BUSINESS: ABM Celebrates Small Business in Alaska

In far-flung communities in Southeast Alaska, people wanting to start small businesses or those with an idea knocking around in their brain can contact Heather Mitchell, assistant vice president and loan manager, at Alaska Pacific Bank (APB) in Juneau for help.

It was this willingness to go out of her way for small-business owners and wannabes that caused the Small Business Administration to honor her with the 2008 Financial Services Champion of the Year award.

She was nominated by Karen Wilke, program specialist with the Juneau Small Business Development Center, who wrote: "With Ms. Mitchell spearheading the effort, Alaska Pacific Bank executed an agreement in 2007 for the Alaska Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to provide the technical assistance component for their Community Express loans. At the Juneau SBDC, we've seen a significant increase in clients being referred by Alaska Pacific for technical assistance for business planning as they pursue commercial loans, especially the Community Express loans."

HELPING SMALL-BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURS

It is what she loves to do, Mitchell said by phone from her office in Juneau.

"With new business owners, I go over how to approach a bank, how to finance, when to secure financing and the kind of services they'll need to become successful," she said.

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An anomaly in today's world of banking as more and more institutions are acquired by bigger banks from Outside, APC is decidedly an Alaska bank.

"We're comfortable working outside the traditional branch network," she said of the services provided in diverse areas such as Hoonah, Yakutat, Gustavus, and Prince of Wales Island, and teller machines are sometimes the bank's only physical presence in a remote community.

Still, Alaska more than many other states, is wired to the Internet.

"We're pretty technologically savvy," she said.

A federally charted savings bank with headquarters in Juneau, APB is the sole subsidiary of Alaska Pacific Bancshares, Inc. In 1999, Alaska Pacific Bank, formerly Alaska Federal Savings Bank, went public with stock. APB has offices in Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka, but serves all of Southeast.

Mitchell describes her role as that of a guide to aspiring entrepreneurs.

"I approach small business owners with an eye to counseling them to broaden their horizons on financial matters," she...