Fund your business in North Carolina

When your own money isn’t enough, North Carolina’s options work like the federal ones: a lender makes the loan, and a government program buys part of it or backs it. The state’s grant programs are job-creation incentives for companies that locate or expand here, not startup money. Free advisors at two statewide networks help you get ready to ask.

What’s different in North Carolina

• One SBA district, two offices, in Charlotte and Wilmington.
• State loan programs sit behind the lender. North Carolina has up to $201.9 million in federal SSBCI money for the Loan Participation Program, the Capital Access Program and the NC Venture Capital Program, run by the NC Rural Center, on behalf of the Department of Commerce. The Loan Participation Program buys $30,000 to $450,000 of a lender’s loan. You never apply to the Rural Center for a loan; you ask your lender to use the programs. The equity program works through its venture funds instead.
• Free help is everywhere. The Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) works from 16 University of North Carolina System campuses, and the Small Business Center Network (SBCN) has a center at each of the state’s 58 community colleges.

Do this

1. Write down what you need and what it’s for. Equipment, inventory and rent are different asks, and programs are sorted by use.
2. Talk to a free advisor first. The Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) counsels at no cost, and your community college’s Small Business Center offers free, confidential one-on-one business counseling. The SBA’s North Carolina District Office offers counseling too and connects you to partner organizations that help with loan applications.
3. Understand who lends. SBA loans come from participating lenders, not the SBA. The SBA loans guide explains who makes each kind.
4. Ask your lender about North Carolina’s loan programs by name: the Loan Participation Program and the Capital Access Program, run by the NC Rural Center under SSBCI. Access is not available directly: the loan programs work through a participating lender and the venture program through its venture funds, so for a loan the lender applies, not you.
5. Raising equity instead? The Rural Center’s NC Venture Capital Program, branded NCInvest, invests in early-stage, high-growth companies through the venture funds listed on its page. You don’t go through a lender: the page lists the funds and links a founder interest form for companies that want to be seen by them.
6. Get free help with the application from the SBTDC's SSBCI Technical Assistance Program at sbtdc.org/ssbci, which helps with loan and grant applications up to $150,000, at no cost.
7. After a disaster, the SBA lends directly. SBA disaster assistance is the one SBA loan you apply for from the SBA itself.

What you get back

A loan offer from a lender, with rate, term and collateral. Any Rural Center participation or Capital Access reserve is between the lender and the Rural Center; your paperwork is with the lender.