SPREADING THE LOVE: SALT LAKE COUNTY IS CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL BUSINESSES.

AuthorClark, Garrett
PositionSILICON SLOPES

"Utah is the best state for doing business."

We've all heard it said before. But is this same phrase true for all of businesses across the state? According to the Kauffman Foundation's Entrepreneur Index, Utah is No. 1 in high-growth company density, No. 2 in startup density and No. 3 in startup growth among small states. For startup businesses, Utah is indeed "the place."

However, the same Kauffman Index ranks Utah No. 24 (out of 25) for "Main Street Entrepreneurship," or a measure of small business activity across the state regardless of industry or geography. The measurement looks at the annual percentage of adults owning businesses, the five-year survival rate of those firms, and the established small business density (or the ratio of small businesses to the number of total firms in the economy). While Utah boasts a robust ecosystem of high-growth startups and the angel, seed and venture capital funds to help them grow, this data suggests a bigger opportunity still exists to help "Main Street" small businesses overcome the barriers that exist in accessing growth capital to become bankable.

Salt Lake County is working to fix this. For the past 25 years, the county has operated a revolving loan fund targeting small and medium business job growth. But the loan fund has some real limitations: When first established, it needed subordinate capital to incentivize larger banks to join as investors, and turned to federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds--money that comes with significant geographical limitations.

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams has worked to change this by investing an additional $150,000 in county funds to underwrite $1.3 million in new loans without geographical restrictions across the county. But Mayor McAdams knew this was only a first step.

During this legislative session, a bill was drafted in partnership with the Utah Association of Counties that would allow the county's loan program to take advantage of existing state programs targeted at job...

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