SBA 504 Loan Program Featured on Fox Business News

January 31, 2013

Secrets to Creating Wealth for Entrepreneurs
With Chris Hurn
The Willis Report/Fox Business
January 30, 2013

Gerry Willis: Well the secret to creating wealth is not so secret anymore. According to my next guest there are billions of dollars in newly available government money just waiting to be claimed by entrepreneurs or small business that can launch you on the path to success. Here to explain, Chris Hurn, founder and CEO of Mercantile Capital Corporation. He is the author of “The Entrepreneur’s Secret to Creating Wealth.” Alright, Chris, some scammers say this, but you actually know how to do it. You say there are billions of dollars. Where is this money?

Chris Hurn: Well, every year the Congress actually allocates money for the SBA 504 program, among other SBA programs, and literally every year for as long as I’ve been in Small Business Lending, almost 15 years now, there is money left on the table every single year; billions of dollars, in fact, and it really comes from the fact that small business owners just aren’t aware of this tremendous, smarter financing vehicle.

Gerry: So what people are skipping over is cheap money that they can use to build their business, right?

Chris: That’s exactly it. Well, it’s not so much their business as it is to create wealth for themselves. One of the huge advantages small business owners have, Gerry, is that they can actually pay themselves rent as opposed to getting their landlord wealthy, and I talk about that extensively in the book, exactly the strategy; sort of from A to Z on how to do this.

Gerry: So you’re saying own your own commercial real estate where your business sits because that’s; how does that make you rich?

Chris: Well, it makes you wealthy over time because number one, if you have a brick and mortar business you have to have a facility; it’s better to pay yourself that rent money than to pay your landlord. Number two, it’s an appreciable asset, and right now we have probably a once in a generation, maybe even a lifetime opportunity, for business owners to buy their own commercial property at discounted rates; getting interest rates that are at historical lows; it’s just a phenomenal opportunity for the typical small business owner.

Gerry: Chris, one of my favorite things that you say is work on your business more than you work in your business. What does that mean? Work on your business more than you work in your business?

Chris: Well, this is a good example of it. I mean a lot of business owners don’t step away from their business long enough to understand that; sometimes they get so caught up with the blinders on, they’re so focused dealing with customer problems and things of that nature; but they wake up 7 years later and they’ve wasted all this money on rent, for instance, when they could have actually taken up this great wealth creation strategy early on in the process.

Gerry: You’ve got to look at the whole thing, right? You can’t just focus on your little part of it.

Chris: And that’s one of the things I talk about when I say about working on the business not just in it.

Gerry: I like that. Here’s something I like too. You say you can easily qualify as being a green project. Now we make fun of the Federal Government giving out green dollars all the time, that it’s a waste of money and never works. However, if you could take advantage of this program, you might want to do it. How do you qualify?

Chris: Well one of the ways you qualify is you’ve got to actually demonstrate that the projects saves energy and can be deemed green. Now, environmental engineering firms can certify this process; oftentimes it’s nothing more than having some solar panels, having some extra insulated glass windows; things like that. But here’s the huge benefit, Gerry. When you do that, normally you’re capped out at about 5 million dollars of eligible SBA dollars. If you are a green project, there’s no cap on it, so theoretically you can continue to buy wealth producing real estate for your small business.

Gerry: Well that’s very, very interesting, Chris. Thanks for coming on tonight. The book sounds like it’s fascinating; good luck with it. Thanks for your help tonight; I appreciate it.

Chris: Thanks so much, Gerry. Take care.