The Virginia Business Incubation Association (VBIA) promotes, encourages, and supports the successful establishment and operation of small business incubation programs to stimulate economic development activity in Virginia through the creation of new jobs, new investment and new business formation.
Congratulations to our 2009 Donna Noble Winner
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Highground Services is an engineering company that specializes in process control and instrumentation projects in industrial and municipal markets. It targets small-to-medium sized engineering projects, providing a turn-key solution. It provides project scope and design, equipment specifications and procurement, installation and start-up, or any combination.
Their engineers excel in designing systems, programming, installation, training, and continued support.
Highground Services entered the Franklin Business Incubator program in 2007 with 6 employees and revenue of $171,736. Revenue at the end of 2008 was $1,052,189, with a staff of 10 people. Even with the economic downturn in 2009, the company continued to hire 5 part-time staff and another full-time employee. In recognition of this solid record of business success, the Virginia Business Incubation Association presents the 2009 Donna Noble Outstanding Business Incubator Client Award to Highground Services, Inc.
Not only has Highground Services been an exemplary client within the Franklin Business Incubator, they have also been one who has shown much compassion and concern for other clients within the incubator. They are very willing to assist other companies by providing business advice and expertise to help the companies achieve their goals and objectives. Highground Services credits the Franklin Business Incubator for the invaluable assistance it provided to the company for the past two years. The incubator’s guidance has contributed to Highground Services’ steady growth and overall success.
Stimulus Money for Small Business
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act makes SBA part of the solution, providing it with specific tools to make it easier and less expensive for small businesses to get loans, give lenders new incentives to make more small business loans, and help unfreeze the secondary markets to boost liquidity in the credit markets.
More details on implementation will be coming over the next few weeks.
The bill provides $730 million to SBA and makes changes to the agency’s lending and investment programs so that they can reach more small businesses that need help.
The funding includes:
$375 million for temporarily eliminating fees on SBA-backed loans and raising SBA's guarantee percentage on some loans to 90 percent. The elimination of fees, announced on March 16, will remain in effect until the end of the calendar year or until the funding is exhausted. The elimination of fees is retroactive to the day the Recovery Act was signed into law.
$255 million for a new loan program to help small businesses meet existing debt payments.
$30 million for expanding SBA’s Microloan program, enough to finance up to $50 million in new lending and $24 million in technical assistance grants to microlenders.
$20 million for technology systems to streamline SBA’s lending and oversight processes.
$15 million for expanding SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee program.
$25 million for staffing up to meet demands for new programs.
$10 million for the Office of Inspector General
09-17 SBA Statement on Loan Fee, Gtee Changes
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