Since 1987, the Iowa Department of Economic Development has worked to provide business loans to people, including women, minorities, who might have a hard time finding lenders on their own. Since then, the Targeted Small Business Financial Assistance program has provided $8 million in loans and raised another $24 million from banks, communities and recipients of prior loans whose businesses have become successful. To find out more about the program, the Business Record last week spoke with Donna Lowery, program manager for the Targeted Small Business Financial Assistance Program.

Q: How can someone qualify?

A: The first step is to become certified as a targeted small business. There’s an application process that’s handled by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals. To qualify, the business must be 51 percent owned, operated and managed on a day-to-day basis by a female, a minority or a person with disabilities.

Q: What types of businesses have you helped?

A: Since the program’s inception, we’ve helped professional day-care centers, beauty salons, marketing companies, technology companies, small manufacturing firms and retail and service-related companies. That’s really what our program is geared for. We’re a non-traditional lender because there aren’t a lot of programs nationwide that will help service-oriented or retail operations.

Q: How much money can you give a business, and what are the terms of the loan?

A: We can give up to a maximum of $25,000. The terms are normally anywhere from one year to five years, though almost nobody wants a one-year loan. The interest rates can go anywhere from zero percent to 5 percent. Nobody gets zero percent. The interest rate is determined by the business’s cash flow and whether it’s currently in business. We’re going to try to be a little more lenient on a start-up. Existing businesses, we would hope, can pay the going rate, or something close to it.

Q: Have you noticed any sort of trends?

A: There’s more demand than we have money for. National statistics are showing that start-up businesses continue to grow in the United States. More and more people are going out and starting businesses on their own. With the downturn in the economy and so much corporate downsizing, we’re also seeing a lot more people out there who want to start businesses. We’ve seen demand really pick up in the last five years. It goes in cycles.

Q: What’s in store for the near future?

A: Starting July 1, pending the approval of administrative rules, the program will expand to include low-income individuals. That will include people who are at 200 percent of the current poverty level.