Entrepreneurship For Next Generation Not A "Cupcake Walk"

Entrepreneurship for the next generation was the center of discussion at a roundtable hosted by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.), chair of the Senate Small Business Committee.  The roundtable kicked off with a round of Georgetown Cupcakes, provided by founders Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis, who were accompanied by other frustrated young entrepreneurs from around the country.

“We basically started by maxing out all of our personal credit cards and putting in our personal life savings,” said LaMontagne.  “When we went to expand our business, banks still wouldn’t give us the time of day, even though we were a proven business with a strong cash flow [and] profitable.” 

Landrieu had a very strong opinion of banks who do not extend a line of credit to small businesses with success like Weeks.

“I am dead serious as the chairman of this committee, if we cannot get community banks in America to lend money to businesses like this, maybe they don’t need to exist,” said Landrieu. “We don’t have jurisdiction over banks, but I most certainly can make their life miserable.”

Lynn Ozer, Vice President of Small Business Lending at Susquehanna Patriot Bank, answered the questions young entrepreneurs have been continually asking, Why?

“The banks feel you have to come to the table with something. You can’t be 100% financed by the banks, they expect their to be some capital on your part to be invested in the business,” said Ozer.  “This economy has created more and more entrepreneurship just by the nature of people losing their jobs. What do they turn to but themselves.”

- Robert Hune-Kalter, Talk Radio News Service