Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick, powered by CBT News

Kelly Loeffler on Supporting America's 34 Million Small Businesses

• CBT News • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Kelly Loeffler, SBA Administrator and former US Senator from Georgia, shares insights on how the administration is supporting America's 34 million small businesses and creating an environment for economic growth and innovation.

• SBA supports small businesses through access to capital, business counseling, government contracting opportunities, and disaster relief
• The agency provides loans up to $500,000 for homeowners affected by disasters like the recent Texas floods
• Recent tax legislation makes permanent the 20% pass-through deduction and 100% expensing of capital purchases
• Working families will take home approximately $10,000 more annually thanks to the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime
• New SBA onshoring portal at sba.gov lists over one million domestic suppliers to help businesses source American-made products
• Current priorities include deregulation and pushing for lower interest rates to further support small business growth
• SBA's 504 loan program funds over 100 factory loans weekly, supporting American manufacturing resurgence

Visit sba.gov to explore resources including our onshoring portal, loan programs, and business counseling services to help start or grow your small business.


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Jim Fitzpatrick:

Welcome to Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick. Hey everyone, jim Fitzpatrick, with a new administration comes new priorities, so today we are taking a closer look at how the SBA is evolving under President Donald Trump's leadership, joining us to talk about the current state of small business and key legislative changes and what lies ahead for the business community. Sba Administrator, kelly Loeffler. Administrator Loeffler is an entrepreneur, executive, philanthropist and former US Senator from the great state of Georgia, which is where we are sitting right now, so she really knows what business is all about. So, kelly Leffler, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.

Kelly Loeffler:

Great to be with you, Jim. It's truly an honor. I love speaking to America's small business leaders, because that's really what makes this country run.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. That's right, and you have got a background in running small businesses. Talk to us for a second about that.

Kelly Loeffler:

Well, background in running small businesses, talk to us for a second about that. Well, I sure do, and first I grew up in a small family business, fourth generation family farm. My father started a small trucking company the year I was born. So I grew up doing everything from sweeping floors in shops, went on to waitress in small businesses for many years putting myself through school and then started small businesses. Many of them took some of them into large public companies and then others just stayed small businesses, which was great. I mean, that's equally important. So I have a firsthand knowledge of the challenges, the struggles, what you learn from failure, how to bounce back from failure, the resilience and, most of all, the importance the sheer importance of America's 34 million small businesses across this country.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

It really is the backbone of the country, right? I mean, that's what it's all about is small businesses. We hear a lot about, sometimes some of the bigger companies out there, but 90% of the businesses or greater right, 99%, 99% right Are really made up of small business owners.

Kelly Loeffler:

Yeah, and, as President Trump says, Kelly, small business is big business. That's right, because he knows it makes this economy's engine hum, but more than that, it creates communities. It gives people former waitresses like me their first jobs yeah, and really creates that talent and innovation pipeline that this country is going to really boom from now thanks to this administration's agenda.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, no question about it. Give us an overview of the SBA. What does it do and how can small businesses take advantage of just the breadth of opportunities that it offers?

Kelly Loeffler:

Yeah, the SBA was really formed in a post-World War II America when millions of capable veterans were returning to this country and saying I'm going to start a business. And so it was really built to create that infrastructure of access to capital, of business counseling and then also access to government contracting. And then a fourth thing, which is little known but vitally important, is our disaster relief efforts, our recovery efforts. After the relief efforts take place, we provide federal lending. For that we're the largest guarantor of government guaranteed business loans in the federal government. So we're vitally important, providing thousands of loans every week to Main Street job creators.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Oh my gosh, that's fantastic, and I know there have been some small business owners that have been on our show that went through some of these terrible disasters that said they wouldn't be in business today if it hadn't been for the SBA.

Kelly Loeffler:

Well, that's right, jim. I think most people first heard of the SBA because of the pandemic, so the Paycheck Protection Program, better known as PPP.

Kelly Loeffler:

But really the SBA has been doing that for decades. Really the SBA has been doing that for decades. And we know the tragedy that happened in Texas with the flooding Terrible situation. Just heartbroken, Continue to pray for the families and communities? Sure, but the SBA has been on the ground. We will be there through recovery, providing support for those communities to come back in the form of those small business and homeowners loans. Most of those loans are for homeowners that had damage.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Really so. The SBA will also extend to homeownerships.

Kelly Loeffler:

That's correct. Up to a half million dollars.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's fantastic, that's great. So the one big, beautiful bill that we've heard so much about recently became law. Can you break down for us and share the benefits of small businesses in that bill?

Kelly Loeffler:

Well, the reason the bill is beautiful because it is a working family Main Street bill. This is pro-worker, pro-small business in that it's a tax cut for most Americans. It's not just making permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it also extends tax credits. The tax credit doubles it. It increases the standard deduction, which benefits 91% of taxpayers. But on the small business front, this is really think about it as a main street and manufacturing bill. It makes permanent the pass-through deduction, the 199A 20% pass-through deduction. It makes 100% expensing of capital purchases permanent, which is going to create really that's right a capital expenditure boom in this country, which means we're going to be building factories in America. We're going to be expanding factories.

Kelly Loeffler:

I've been in 23 states so far. Many of them twice walked the factory floors or small business floors restaurants and they've said they're going to buy a new oven to expedite their service in a restaurant. A manufacturer is going to build out a whole new side of his plant, buy new CNC machines. There's also no tax on tips and overtime. That incentivizes work, which is so critical for this country, because small businesses need those skilled workers but they've got to have the incentive that their income's not going to be taxed away, the average working family is going to take home $10,000 more each and every year thanks to this bill.

Kelly Loeffler:

That's right. So this is incredibly important to generating that golden era that we know is possible when we get government taxes, massive regulation, stabilize the fair trade playing field and bring back those jobs to America. We'd lost $5 million when our manufacturing sector got hollowed out and that impacted small businesses.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, yeah, there's no question about it. So talk to us a little bit about that. Because you brought up tariffs, it's another hot topic right now among small business owners. Why are they important and how are small businesses adjusting in this situation with tariffs?

Kelly Loeffler:

That's right. Well, they are adjusting and we see that in real time. And I talked to many small businesses that say please, thank President Trump for helping us level the playing field, because for decades we've been competing with one arm tied behind our back and that we've seen that the US trade rep put out a 400 page report showing the massive tariff and non-tariff trade barriers that were erected against America's small businesses so they cannot be exporters. I've talked to logistics folks that say they used to do 50% import-export. Now it's 90% import, 10% export, because everywhere is closed to America. President Trump's reopening that. But more than that, president Trump is fighting for American industry and workers because we no longer make the fundamental building blocks that we need for defense, aerospace, medicine, and we saw that supply chain disrupted during COVID, certainly, and we realized we don't make things in America.

Kelly Loeffler:

Now for small businesses, we have created an onshoring portal on our website, sbagov, to the extent that they're seeking American suppliers. Over one million suppliers are listed. We've made these three, we've merged them together, made them available for free, sbagov, if you want to source something domestically, check those resources online. And we've even had people say well, I run a tea shop. We don't grow green tea in America. Well, we found green tea in America, so a lot can be done when we think back to the ingenuity and I'm seeing it firsthand as I walk those factory floors- Sure, that's fantastic.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Wow, 23 states so far. You're going to make it around all 50 states.

Kelly Loeffler:

I sure plan to. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that in the first year, but I'm certainly going to continue to work hard every single day for small businesses to hear their stories, because there's nothing better than getting outside of Washington hearing those stories, taking them back, influencing our policy that way.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

No question, are you sorry that you're not a waitress today, because you could benefit from the taxes on tips.

Kelly Loeffler:

Well, I'm so grateful to all of our servers who are doing a great job. But I am humbled to have had that experience because it taught me so much that I've applied to my career just like working on the farm did. So, as much as I can walk around and say I've worked in venture capital, I've worked on Wall Street, I've started businesses, what I really learned from was working in those fields, alongside my family, working in those small town restaurants. That really formed my work ethic and my values.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's great. We recently spoke to Senator Bernie Moreno and he said and I'm paraphrasing here but basically he came out and said look, the tariff situation is basically a blip on the radar and we won't even be talking about this in business a year from now. Do you pretty much agree with him on that?

Kelly Loeffler:

Well, first of all, what a great senator. And he's absolutely right. I love that we have someone with private sector entrepreneurial experience in the car industry, no less, where I have experience as well. And another great place look, inflation is at four-year low. Core inflation is at four-year lows. If anything comes of it, it's a blip, but I think it's. I think it's more than a blip in that this is so positive for our nation. We just had the first budget surplus in something like 100 months We've never had. Thanks to the tariff benefits that we're getting back, we're going to see jobs created almost $17 trillion of investment in America thanks to President Trump's fair trade. These are going to be factories, jobs, industries in America that we would have never had without it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. That's right and, as you know, there's so many factories that already build cars here in the US. Why can't we have more right? I mean Toyota. You've got Toyota, nissan, hyundai, kia. So many car companies have come to the US soil to build their products.

Kelly Loeffler:

I was just in Detroit last week with Vice President Vance, and I will tell you, I think this country is spring-loaded to build more cars here and look. It's important that we take a look and learn the lessons of these last three to four decades where we allowed this country to be hollowed out, and what it did to the communities, what it did to the workers and the job opportunities, but also for innovation and for strengthening our supply chains. The fact that we don't make screws, nuts and bolts in this country anymore is a problem. And now you look at things like tariff on copper. We absolutely should protect our copper industry because it is a critical mineral in so much of our infrastructure and the innovation that we want to have.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right, you've mentioned a few of them, but what is next on the horizon for small businesses? What are some of the plans moving forward?

Kelly Loeffler:

Well, there's so much to do. One big thing is deregulation. So now that we've got the tax cuts done, we've got energy prices down, inflation under control, fair trade underway, I think deregulation is going to be huge. I mean, this is a tax on the American people, especially small businesses, disproportionately on Main Street and manufacturers. So once we can start deregulating the nearly $2 trillion of regulations that came in the last four years, we will have kind of an unbridled opportunity to capture the future. I also hope interest rates will come down. I think we're really in a great position to have that. Our inflation is lower than it was when the Fed started lowering rates last year.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right, so why not lower the rate? That's right.

Kelly Loeffler:

It's unfair to small businesses, it's hurting Main Street I hear that every day and it's hurting the consumer needlessly, because inflation is not a situation we're dealing with right now. Interest rates are just a constraint.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Sure, with all that we hear out there and obviously the media is all too happy to push out some of the negative stuff that business owners hear is now a good time to start a small business.

Kelly Loeffler:

It's an excellent time to start a small business. There's never a perfect time, because small businesses come with their own unique set of challenges and for each individual person it's a distinct decision based on the circumstances and the market opportunity. But look, the most important thing is to take that first step forward and what's great is, once you jump in the stream, the stream is going to take you somewhere the market is going to tell you where you need to be.

Kelly Loeffler:

your customers are going to tell you where you need to be. Starting a small business is probably the best, most important thing you can do for your family, generationally, for yourself, from an intellectual curiosity perspective, and then economically, having that ability to live the American dream on your own terms.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. And there's so many businesses out there that have turned to the SBA to grow their business. Not just start one, but also grow their business. Many friends of mine that wanted to build either a warehouse or factory or, to your point, buy more equipment. They go to the SBA for those loans as well, right.

Kelly Loeffler:

That's right. So our loan program is distributed through community lenders. It's not the government lending out money. In fact it's a zero subsidy, meaning the taxpayers aren't subsidizing this when the programs run properly. Under the last administration it lost hundreds of millions of dollars because they lowered the lending guardrails. We put those back up. We've made the program work and make sure it's sustainable for our small businesses. But that's absolutely right. You can grow through our 7A loan program, our 504 program. The 504 might be the best kept secret in industry, particularly as we're building factories In industry, particularly as we're building factories doing over 100 factory loans a week right now. And this is 100 a week. And so most factories, manufacturers in America are small businesses.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So that's what's exciting, that's pretty cool. Talk to us about having a pro-business president in the Oval Office, because everybody I think everybody you may agree with some of the things. You may disagree with some of the things that Trump does, but I think everybody agrees he's a business president, right. Talk to us about the importance of having somebody that's there in the Oval Office that is so pro-business.

Kelly Loeffler:

He's pro-business, he's pro-worker, he respects American free enterprise because he knows it's the only thing that works. And that's where he comes from, that's where he built his businesses and he respects the American worker. He wants everyone to have that shot. No-transcript pro worker, he gets it. His instincts are unparalleled. He's really set a new bar, I think, for the American presidency.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

No question about it. Administrator Kelly Leffler. SBA. Administrator Kelly Leffler, thank you so much for joining us on the show. We very much appreciate it. I know that our audience, made up of business owners, are going to really appreciate today's show. So thanks so much.

Kelly Loeffler:

I'm grateful to be with you. Thank you, Jim Thanks.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Thanks for watching Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.