Small businesses make up most of Vermont's economy, some of them have been having a hard time in the down turn and those doing well might not have been able to expand because of the recession.
Business is thriving at NEHP, but it's still been affected by the economy.
"In May last year the bank wasn't able to lend us money," Chief Financial Officer, Robin Morris said.
Last year, the Williston company, which makes piping for semi-conductors and pharmaceutical companies, wanted to expand and needed a loan to do so.
But Morris said banks wouldn't lend them money. With the economy, banks have gotten picky about loaning money.
"Credit standards have obviously increased," Philip Smith, VP of Business Banking at Key Bank said.
NEHP turned to the Small Business Administration for help, and its not the only one.
The SBA has received dozens of calls recently from other businesses. And it can help.
Recently two new loan programs went into affect. One takes away the risk for banks to lend money, by reducing the amount they would loose if a business couldn't repay them.
"We've increased our guarantee on loans that banks make to small businesses from basically 75% to 90% so if you take an example of a $200,000 loan to a business the banks risk used to be $50,000 now it's reduced to $20,000," Darcy Carter, District Director of the Small Business Administration said.
There is also normally a fee for a loan, which can cost a business thousands of dollars, but those have been waived for small business loans through the SBA.
With the programs in place banks are able to loan to more businesses.
"A lot of banks are going to be talking more and more about the SBA," Smith said.
Seventeen loans have already been issued in Vermont.
NEHP is still waiting to see if its loan has been approved.
Without it, the company might have to make some tough choices.
"You have to have capital to meet your expansion and without the SBA loan we wouldn't be able to expand in fact we'd probably have to contract," Morris said.
Morris hopes that doesn't happen.
