Fund your Nebraska business

When your own money is not enough, start with an advisor, then read which program actually pays the business. The Nebraska Business Development Center advises. The Growth Loan Fund can put state money into a second loan. Prototype grants reimburse product work. Regular SBA loans come from a lender.

What’s different in Nebraska

• Advising is described as no or low cost, and mostly at no charge. The pages do not print one price for every session.
• The state can be a lender on the Growth Loan Fund. It is a second loan, beside a lender’s senior loan, and the application period is listed as open.
• The equity fund’s eligibility sentence does not name an LLC. It names corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships.
• One SBA office covers the state. Omaha serves all 93 counties³.

Do this

1. Write down what you need and what it is for. A prototype grant pays product development, not a store’s opening inventory. The Growth Loan Fund is for a business a lender will consider, including one that is close to bankable.
2. Book advising. The Nebraska SBDC says the consulting is confidential consulting at no or low cost, for people who want to run a for-profit business in Nebraska². The center’s about page says the services are mostly at no charge. There are 8¹ offices. Those two sentences do not price a class or a session that is not free.* Ask the office before you register for one.
3. Use the SBA office. The Nebraska District Office in Omaha offers funding programs, counseling, federal contracting certifications, and disaster recovery for the entire state. The page says it is all 93 counties³.
4. Understand who lends the regular SBA loans. 7(a) and the other ordinary SBA loans come from participating lenders, not the SBA. The SBA loans guide explains who makes each kind.
5. Read the Growth Loan Fund if you want state money beside a bank loan. The SSBCI page describes the model: The lender makes the senior loan. The Department of Economic Development makes a second loan to a community development lender or to the business. Each loan has a maximum of $5,000,000 and at least a 1:1 match from a qualified lender, and most loans are expected at or below 25% participation. The application period is Open Cycle. It is administered by Nebraska Enterprise Fund and Omaha 100⁴. The page describes that second loan. It does not describe a grant to every new business.
6. Read the Seed and Development Fund only if you are raising equity. It is equity investments in qualified Nebraska small businesses, through a venture fund and the Department of Economic Development. Eligible businesses on that page are business corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships with no more than 750 employees, with headquarters and a physical location in Nebraska. The eligibility sentence does not name a limited liability company.* If the business is an LLC, ask Invest Nebraska whether it can apply before you spend time on a pitch. The maximum participation is $5,000,000. You need a 1:1 private investment match. The application period is Open Cycle. It is administered by Invest Nebraska Corporation⁴. The page describes an equity investment with a required match. It is not startup cash for every new business.
7. Read the microenterprise page as money for lenders, not a check to you. The microenterprise page says the applicants are IRS-designated 501(c)(3) nonprofits located in Nebraska that can show statewide coverage of services, not the new business itself. The lending program is up to $1,477,000 a year, awarded in the fall for the next calendar year, for micro lending in distressed areas. The page lists the nonprofits under contract, and several of them lend. One is Nebraska Enterprise Fund, which provides training and mentoring, direct micro-lending, and loan guarantees⁶. A business talks to one of those providers. The department’s grant does not go straight to the new company.
8. Read a prototype grant only if you are building a product. The prototype page says grants are highly competitive and awarded at up to $150,000 per project. You provide at least 50% of the grant request, or 25% for a value-added agriculture project. Funds are reimbursement at 66%, or 80% for value-added agriculture. An eligible recipient is a Nebraska business with fewer than 500 employees, in a non-retail primary industry, adding value to products or processes in Nebraska. The money is for development of a product, such as wages, prototype materials, and limited preapproved tooling or equipment. Applications are rolling, until the funds are gone. Contact the department to see whether money is left. If approved, you have 24 months to finish and draw the funds⁵. A shop, a restaurant, or another retail primary industry is outside that eligibility sentence.
9. Keep your paperwork ready. Lenders and advisors ask for your formation documents and EIN. Register your business and Get your tax IDs.
10. After a declared disaster, the SBA can lend directly. Disaster assistance covers physical damage loans, economic injury disaster loans, and military reservist economic injury loans. Economic injury loans are available only when the SBA decides the business cannot get credit elsewhere⁷. A disaster by itself does not qualify you. Check the declaration and the loan type before you apply.

What you get back

An appointment with an advisor, and help preparing what a lender asks for. A loan decision on the Growth Loan Fund comes from the lender and, for the second loan, from the program. An equity decision comes from Invest Nebraska only if it chooses to invest. A prototype decision comes from the department only if it awards the grant. These pages do not promise a finished plan or an approval.