SomerCor's Mission to Positively Impact Chicago Communities

Earlier this year, SomerCor was featured on the ChiBizHub blog as a spotlighted resource for small business owners. You can find a portion of the conversation transcript below:

1. In brief, describe SomerCor and your mission. 

The SomerCor mission is to be a go-to community, financing resource for small businesses and entrepreneurs especially for those unable to access traditional, conventional financing. As part of our mission, we seek to raise awareness about Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and make them more readily accessible to businesses to catalyze business growth, job creation, increased local investment, and to achieve more inclusive and equitable business lending, especially in our neighborhoods of greatest need.    

2. How do you think SomerCor’s mission to help businesses grow and also positively impact the owners, employees and communities, has helped to improve Chicago?

We value the partnership and collaboration with other local, non-profit small business lenders. All non-profit, small business lenders play a vital role in providing access to capital for the local entrepreneurial ecosystem through a variety of financing products and services. For our part, SomerCor is a leading SBA lender; our small business loans may be complementary with the loans offered by other non-profit lenders or may offer borrowers an alternative when other lending products do not meet their capital/financing needs. Moreover, SomerCor’s loan products provide financing opportunities for a broad range of business sizes from startups to more mature, middle-market businesses.

SomerCor has enabled thousands of businesses buy more land, build new facilities, and invest in new equipment since 1992. This has resulted in more business growth, job creation, increased local investment, growth in tax revenue for Chicago and stronger overall economic activity throughout the City. And although, we take pride in our work and successes, we strongly feel there is much more to do – we know there remains a significant need for more inclusive and equitable neighborhood investment. SomerCor is dedicated to its continued work with other stake holders to enhance access to capital to ensure business growth and job creation for ALL of Chicago.   

3. Why Chicago? Can you expand on why Chicago is a great city to support small businesses?

Chicago is a city founded by bold, visionary entrepreneurs seeking opportunity and wealth – entrepreneurship, commerce, and industry is part of Chicago’s DNA. Our foreparents created a vibrant city of neighborhoods that has weathered many challenges through ingenuity, flinty resolve, and strong civic engagement. We are known as the “city of big shoulders”, where we “make no little plans”.

Throughout its history to the present, Chicago has been, and proudly remains, a destination for people from all corners of the world seeking a better way of life. Chicago also holds a notable place in American history as an oasis of opportunity for African Americans during the years of the Great Migration to northern cities from the rural Southern Unites States. Chicago has benefited immensely from the constant waves of newcomers, as many of these individuals have become entrepreneurs who in turn have created a rich and vibrant small business ecosystem that has helped power Chicago’s economy.   

Chicago’s collection of neighborhoods, diverse population, advanced transportation systems, world class universities, strong downtown central district, leading financial-derivatives market, diverse industrial and commercial base, and rich entrepreneurial spirit are all key drivers for the continued proliferation of small businesses in Chicago.

We must, however, acknowledge there are Chicago neighborhoods that have suffered (and continue to suffer) chronic disinvestment. Although this long-term disinvestment poses a significant challenge, it is an opportunity for government and business leaders (including non-profit lenders), working collaboratively, to grow a stronger small business environment in these neighborhoods as part of the solution to promote more local and native investment and enhance local job creation. Increasing access to capital to entrepreneurs and small businesses in a strategic and more coordinated fashion will have a greater likelihood of positive, transformational change in our disadvantaged communities. 

4. Why do you think it is important to expand your reach to more businesses owned by women, veterans, and minorities? 

Research shows minority/women/veteran entrepreneurs continue to have a harder time finding capital and accessing financing to start and/or grow a business, and yet these three population segments represent a substantial (and growing) overall group. A more focused (and coordinated) effort is needed by conventional and non-profit lenders to better serve the financing needs of minority/women/veteran-owned businesses. SomerCor is one financing solution that, working in partnership with other lenders, can make it easier for minority/women/veteran entrepreneurs to secure needed financing. Increased financing for minority/women/veteran-owned businesses provides more inclusive and equitable business support, and may also lead to increased investment, business growth and job creation in communities which have historically been left behind. 

5. What are the three most important things that a small business and entrepreneur need to know before asking for a loan?

• Know why you are asking for a loan. Before applying for a business loan, the entrepreneur should articulate a clear reason for and amount of the loan she/he will be requesting. The “reason” should be connected to advancing the business plan.  The “reason and amount” will help guide the entrepreneur develop an effective business plan and/or loan request presentation. Lenders (whether profit or non-profit) will want specificity and a clear understanding of how the loan funds will be spent. If the reason (and/or amount request) is unclear or is not well thought out (not connected to advancing the business plan), it is likely the lender will decline the loan request.      
• Know your prospective lender. Business lenders are not all the same – there are conventional lenders (i.e. banks and credit unions), nonprofit lenders, for-profit non-bank or noncredit union lenders (i.e. online business lenders). Each may have different types of business loans, cost of loans, credit/underwriting standards and policies on how they work with businesses when they experience problems in repaying the business loan. Lenders may also have differing preferences in lending to certain types of businesses. Knowing the available lender options enables the entrepreneur to be a more informed and discerning borrower, while also increasing the likelihood of securing the needed business financing.
• Know your personal credit history and credit score. Most business lending decisions will be based in part on the entrepreneur’s (borrower’s) personal (and business) credit history and credit score. Lenders rely on these reports and scores because it provides them with a financial track record of how past credit has been managed over a period of time – the amount of credit taken and payment history.

ChiBizHub is a one-stop, collaborative platform to help new and existing Chicago businesses accelerate their growth. It connects a large network of primarily nonprofit service providers offering a wide variety of business-building services for small businesses. ChiBizHub facilitates the linking of these resource organizations to one another and to established, emerging and startup small businesses throughout the region.