watch his comments online at the c-span video library. the head of the small business administration told business owners this week that they're crucial to expanding the economy. karen mills spoke at a conference focusing on the role of entrepreneurs. this is 1:15. good morning again. i am delighted to be here, as you know, as i said earlier breakfast, national small business week is maybe my favorite part of the year. i want to start out, though, by, again, for those who missed breakfast, i know you were all there, by giving my thanks and asking you to join me to give a warm set of thanks to my colleague, my partner in this, our deputy administrator marie johns. thank you.

[ applause ] >> if you think i travel a lot to your regions, marie is out every single week and really doing the work of this agency. this is a ground game, we call it. we have, i think, really enjoyed meeting all of you out in your respective areas and regions and businesses. and today it's even more of a pleasure to have you here with us. this is my chance to talk to you about everything that has been going on in the world of small business. and i think the first place to start is that we're honoring businesses today who really embody the entrepreneurial spirit of america.

we have this ability in this country to create cutting-edge products, to create services on main street that are new, that are innovative, that are special, that customers want. and there are companies here that really exemplify this. i have to start with my personal favorite, even though i love all of them. the reason is because i had it for breakfast. chobani is a great yogurt. how many of you have tried it? it's just delicious. i'm a particular fan of strawberry and blueberry, but they are all good. this is a company that took an old kraft yogurt plant in new york and made it a dominant player in the greek yogurt business. it employs now more than 1,200 workers. so that's what we're talking about with job creation. and actually, you can innovate in yogurt.

this is a high-tech business, in fact. and now another favorite of mine in boise, idaho. reklus, an innovative motorcycle clutch that is sold to professional racers and weekend enthusiasts around the globe. i would like to be a weekend enthusiast, but maybe not so much. how about an entrepreneur like sarah callahan from montana who saw that the companies weren't making the right clothing for women who were doing ranch work and farm work and other heavy labor. so she started her own line. who knows what it's called? red ants pants. and it is heavy duty work attire for women. so i could go on all day. i met a few more of you last night that i wanted to add to

this. they said i only had a limited amount of time. so let me just say this to all of you. each and every one of you is a testament to the enduring drive of america's entrepreneurs and to the power of small business to change lives and to transform communities. at the sba, and all across this administration, we're focused on our job, which is to make sure that you have the tools that you need to grow and to create jobs. people ask me what the sba does, and i like to say that we are the agency that helps you, the small businesses, create two out of every three of the net new jobs in this country. you all probably know the facts, but half the people who work in this country, half of the people, own or work for a small

business. that's half the jobs. and as i just said, the entrepreneurs in this country are really the life blood of our economy. so what do we do at the sba to support your business? we focus on what we call the three cs and a "d." and i say, no, that's not the grades. actually it's one of the first grades my son got in college, but that was awhile ago. it's the three cs and a d. but it's capital, counselling, contracting, and disaster relief. i know that many of you have worked with us in one of these areas, but the reason i'm taking this moment to talk to all of you and those who are listening is that you might only be getting one part of our services and you're missing out on the rest of the c's and the d's. so we want to make sure that you know about them.

access to capital. how many of you have had an sba loan? well, i'm very pleased to tell you that 2011 was a record year for the sba. we did $30 billion in loan guarantees through our great partners, banking institution, and cdcs and others. $30 billion, that's more money into the hands of small businesses through sba loan guarantees than ever before in the history of this agency. [ applause ] and each one of these loans is a story like one of yours. i was out in michigan, which you know is this terribly hard hit, and i met tom johnson who was a chrysler employee for 15 years. and he had a dream though.

he wanted to run his own business. so he looked around and he decided he wanted to become a culvers franchisee. have you ever been to culvers? the frozen yogurt is great. we always need another franch e franchisee. but he didn't have experience. so with our help he was able to get an sba loan. he opened -- he was very successful and is now looking for a second location. access to capital, providing that opportunity to grow and start a business is a critical piece of what we do. but we know we can be more streamlined. and that's one of the things that our whole team around capital access has been working on lead by jeanne hulit. is she here? jean has, and the entire team, have been talking to you. and one of the results was cap

lines, a program that we have for small businesses who maybe want to win a big order, but they need to have enough cash and resources on hand to finance the inventory. and we had a program, but it was too cumbersome so we reengineered the program. we implemented it last fall. i'm happy to say we have a 220% increase in the usage of this program, which provides working capital financing. something that you all asked us for since the time i arrived here. so cap lines. if you haven't looked into that, do. and we not only do our regular 504 program. last year was a record year for our small business investment company program. $2.6 billion went from those small business investment companies into the hands of small business, and we had record amounts that we put out

in newly licensed sbcs. so i want to thank shonn greene and that program. we just honored the sbic winner, and i was with him last week in nashville. it's amazing how many small businesses and entrepreneurs are getting their starts with this sbic program. and you probably know some of our brand name successes that started with sbic. that would be apple, fedex, costco, intel, pretty good track record. i know there are some more successes on the way. we also took our sbic program and we launched something called the early stage program because, you know, there's a real valley of death, an absence of capital

in the very earliest stages for high-growth entrepreneurs. and we're very pleased we put $200 million a year for the next five years into that program in a competitive process so sbics are applying as we speak. the second "c." federal contracting. i spoke a little bit about it this morning with the administrator for nasa, who has been a great partner, but i don't know if you knew, $100 billion annually is what the sba monitors across all federal agencies that goes in the hands of small business. and we think of this as a win-win. it's good for the federal government, it's good for taxpayer dollars, it's good for the agencies because they get all of you, the most innovative companies, the most innovative ideas and, very often, they help get the attention of the ceo, himself or herself,

and small businesses get what is one of the most important things, revenue. $100 billion. maybe the biggest program for small business across the federal government. last week i was in nashville, i mentioned that. it's a little theme here. and i spoke to about 700 of the department of defense contract buyers and people who help small businesses. and they were there to make sure that they make their goals for this year. so all of you, we have a whole day tomorrow with some match making and some other activities, real opportunity in our government contracting activity. third "c" is counseling. i always ask this. how many of you have a counselor

or long-term mentor that helps you with your business? raise your hands. i always get this. i get like one or two little hands up. every single one of you should have one. because we have data that shows that it makes a difference. more sales, more longevity, more success, hiring more people, and the best news is it's free. we have a network, an extraordinary network, many of whom were honored this morning at breakfast and are here with us from small business development centers from our all of our clusters all around the country. we reached a million entrepreneurs last year. we counselor counseled a million

entrepreneurs. every year. and as i said, with good results. and if you don't have time for this, but you do, go online. 2.5 million entrepreneurs have taken advantage of our online training since 2009. so we have some terrific programs out there. and i want to make sure that you take that access and opportunity. the "d" is disaster relief. i'm back to nashville again. the last time i was in nashville was two years ago, and it was six days after that horrible flood that flooded grand old opry, including a lot of small businesses. now two years later, i was very happy to walk main street with the mayor and say we put $124 million into homeowners and small business owners to help them get back on their feet. and we do this in smithville

where the tornadoes came, floods, hurricanes. we have an unbelievable team of -- and you're going to hear more about that at our phoenix award-winning lunch. can i do something about this buzz? so this is the core of what we have -- this is the core of what we have been able to do at the sba. better? i want to make sure you can hear me. and i want all of the sba staff to stand for a minute. i'd like to give them all a round of applause for all they've accomplished. [ applause ] i see my technical assistance people.

so let's just walk back about three years ago. you know, when i first took this job, the economy was in terrible, terrible shape. and all of you remember this because you were running your businesses at the time. the banking market just froze. america's small businesses took it really hard. and we were able to step in and give access to the capital markets with our loan guarantee programs through the recovery act. and we made helping small business a top priority. what have we done? i want to make sure one point is clear. small businesses like tax cuts. right? well this administration has put through 18 tax cuts for small businesses. and if you don't know what they are, come to our website and we'll walk you through them.

we want to make sure you have taken advantage of all the potential tax cut opportunities. tax cuts for hiring unemployed workers, veterans, allowing small businesses to write off the full cost of new investments, things like new machines against last year's taxes, and the president recently called on congress in the to do list to pass another tax cut for small business as one of his top five priorities. gave him a short to do list. number three on that list is a small business tax credit of 10% tax credit to firms that create new jobs or increase wages in 2012. and we want to extend the 100% expensing. that's the accelerated depreciation for all businesses in 2012. we also passed the recovery act, we passed the small business jobs act. that was the most important piece of small business legislation in ten years.

and this legislation gave us the flexibility to do more to help you grow your businesses. we have supported $79 billion since 2009 in access to capital. 150,000 small businesses. and then we brought a thousand community banks back to sba lending that hadn't made a loan since 2007. then we turned our attention to the big banks and we got our top 13 lenders to commit $20 billion of incremental small business lending. so we have the small community banks back and we have the big banks back. but there's still work to do on filling the gaps for small loans in an underserved community. and we have been focused on that for the last year, and we're going to continue to work on that with some new programs and

simplifications, more doors, more dollars so we can make sure we have all of our entrepreneurs able to get access to the capital that they need. so now we are beginning to see the economy improve. when i sit down with a small business today, it's a different conversation. three years ago, it was i need a loan to save my business. now you're telling me i need a loan to buy that next piece of equipment. i need a loan to take that next order to hire more people, grow my business. in the past 26 months, our economy has created more than 4.2 million private-sector jobs, many of them at small businesses. and it's more than triple the number of jobs that were created in the recovery of 2002 to 2004. but if you -- and if you look at the economy today, we have put

in place for small businesses and across the economy some of the structure that we need to do what the president calls build an economy that's built to last. that means an economy that's not built on a bubble. right? it's built on small business growth. it's built on investments and entrepreneurship. it's built on advanced manufacturing. it's built on increased exporting. and as we go forward, we want to make sure this foundation is inclusive that there's access and opportunity for all our entrepreneurs in this country because that's what makes our country strong and successful. what are we doing? well, now we are turning our attention to the skills issue. many of you have told me when i come out that your number one problem is finding skilled workers. especially in manufacturing. and darlene miller, who will be

up on stage with us shortly, has been instrumenting in leading -- i won't steal your thunder. she's got some great programs, skill building and precision manufacturing, which is her company's area. and we're working on supply chains. many of you are part of a supply chain serving america's largest companies or the federal government. we have just started with ibm working on a whole set of programs called supplier connection. part of our american supplier initiative to make sure that small companies can find those opportunities and that big companies can find the small companies. we have right now with ibm 16 major companies like citibank,

john deere, facebook, caterpillar. one of the things i'm going to ask everybody here is go take a look and see if your business works for this supplier portal because we're trying to get more small businesses into -- to be signed up. we have over 4,000 now. so supplier connection. we're going to be talking about this more over the next day and a half. this is what national small business week is all about. it's about opening the doors. it's about making sure entrepreneurs from all the communities across this country have access and opportunity to grow their businesses. you know, i was with the president last week and we kicked off national small business week. and we did it in the great tradition. we went out to a small business that served food. we went to a sub shop called

taylor gourmet, which is right here in town. and it was started up by two young men from philadelphia. they came to washington and they couldn't get a good hoagie. there's always a different impetus for starting a business. they claim, by the way, it's not cheese steak that philadelphia is known for. it's the hoage. so they truck the bread down every morning from philadelphia. and we had a terrific time talking to them. and here's what they told the president. they told the president that they started their first shop, they had some success, they started their second with input from friends and family and capital. they wanted to start their third, but they were tapped out. and one of our sba district directors was walking door to door, walked into their shop and

said i'm from the sba. i want to know what's going on in your business, how can i help? the owner said he grabbed for his business card and we were able to fund the third store and the fourth store and the fifth store, eagle bank said, you know what, we don't need the sba guarantee. that is the story -- and the president absolutely got this. that's the story. we don't create your business, but we can accelerate what you do. and until the marketplace recognizes and helps you grow the next level. so at that store were the two young men that ran that and two other entrepreneurs. kathy rachels was there and she owns an organic market. and she's a korean immigrant and had sba's support. she turned to the president and she said, i am living the

american dream. that's what she said. brian smith was there. he started a contracting and construction business after decades of working for other people. he's now a prime contractor for the federal government. he does the excavations. he's part of that win-win that we were talking about when we talk about federal contracting. these entrepreneurs and small business owners and all of you here today and all across the country are the reason that i believe in america's future. you are the foundation stone of an economy that's built to last. that's why the president, the sba, all across this administration, we are committed

to helping you grow and succeed. america's greatest strength has always been rooted in the ingenuity of you, our small business owners, and the imagination and in the diversity of our entrepreneurs. and in all of our productivity together, it's this powerful combination that built the greatest economy in the world and it's produced the greatest innovations in the world and it's helped lift generations of americans into the middle class and allowing them to do what kathy said, live the american dream. together we're going to make sure that this proud tradition continues, and together we will create an america that is built to last. thank you very much.

[ applause ] well, thank you, again, for being here. so i now have the great pleasure of bringing forth -- of sitting on a panel that we're going to have together. let me get my notes. but first, where's cathy? so i'm going to invite the other folks who are going to run the panel up to the podium to sit with us. and i'm going to also ask cathy martine from at&t to come up and say a few words to you.

cathy is the executive vice president for small business solutions and alternate channels at at&t, but she leads a $13 billion business which is responsible for the sale of at&t services to small business owners. so if any of you need some help, cathy is here. and she and at&t are really long-time sponsors of national small business week. i really want to thank them so much for their support. welcome cathy up to say a few words and my co-panelists for the rest of the town hall up to join me here. [ applause ] >> thank you, administrator mills, and good morning, everyone. it's such a pleasure to be here. i'm always inspired by administrator mills' comments and stories about all of you.

you truly are the american dream and you are fueling the american economy. like karen, small business week really is the highlight of my year. i do a lot of public speaking, but nothing makes it as enjoyable as being with all of you because you represent what america stands for in terms of entrepreneurialism and consistently percent persevering through adversity. and some of the sta tistics you heard about, many of you lived that and are here to tell that story. that's why it's so exciting to be here with you. running a business requires a will the of lot of dedication, persistence, and the art of the possible because you have to see opportunity when opportunity may not be there. and while the economy is slowly recovering, it's still not enough. and anyone who is committed to sustaining that american dream and building an economy to last must ensure that all of us large corporations as well, has to support small businesses as best we can. so to that point, at a large company, at&t, we

have turned to a couple key areas. first is convincing large companies about the importance of creating a more diverse supplier mix by hiring small businesses. we have a committed goal to hire small businesses as contractors, and we try to persuade other corporations that's really important and that's how we can help. second, the providing of financing. we heard how difficult it is. it's gotten better, but we have tried to support the availability of financing by the financing of some of our products and services. and third, is technology. to drive future growth. we're supporting initiatives that attract and provide financing and encouraging the use of powerful technologies and applications that help make companies like yours faster and more productive. i hope while you're here you'll stop at the at&t booth and talk to some of our great sales representatives. but take some of our brochures and see what technology can do for your business. in terms of supplier diversity,