In September 2010, Congress created the Small Business Jobs Act which included a program called Small Business Lending Fund.  Administered by the Treasury Department, the program authorized $30 billion to be available to community banks as capital for lending to small businesses.  As of late July, 900 banks have applied for $11.6 billion from this fund, but only $337 million has been disbursed.  Check with your community banks to see if they plan to apply for this funding or have received funding already. To read more about this program, read "Community Banks Finally Receive SBLF Funds" and "Small-Biz Loan Money Finally Trickles to Community Banks."

 A NEW SOURCE FOR LOANS

Innovation seems to be all the rage these days, as both start-ups and established businesses strive to find new products and services to put their growth rate on the fast track. But the truth is that the majority of successful businesses weren't started by geniuses like Thomas Edison, and "first to market" does not always mean market leadership.  Think about a couple of recent examples: Facebook wasn't the first social networking site, just as Google  was far from the first search engine.　 The advantage that both Facebook and Google leveraged was that they were late-movers, says Navdeep Mundi,  a professor of management at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.  When you set about finding the next great new idea, remember the old quotation "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery."  You might want to examine  "Nine Reasons Why It Pays to Imitate" for tips from business leaders and thinkers about why imitation can often be better than innovation as a business strategy.

We all know about IPOD and IPAD products, but have you heard about UPOD? It isn't a new Apple product, but a tactic you can use to create more customers and turn your current ones into loyal, long term customers. Learn how to use UPOD in your business in "How To Turn Customers into Fans."

One of the most common ways to start a business is to begin selling a product that you've either made or designed through local markets and fairs, small local retailers, or even on line. But at some point, you've also thought about how to take your product line to the big-box big leagues.

That's a tough leap to make for many retailers. Not only is it tough to attract the attention of the Targets, Walmarts, and Costcos of the world, but supplying the big-boxes comes with additional costs and time pressures that can crimp your bottom line. That said, getting your product onto the shelves of a big-box retailer can help catapult your company's growth onto the fast track. "How To Get Your Product into the Big Box Big Leagues" details how five individuals surmounted these obstacles and got their products into big box stores.

Anderson County Chamber of Commerce   www.andersoncountychamber.org

Blount County Chamber of Commerce   www.blountchamber.org

Claiborne County Chamber of Commerce   www.claibornecounty.com

Cocke County Partnership Chamber of Commerce   www.cockecounty.org

Farragut/West Knox Chamber of Commerce   www.farragutchamber.com

Loudon County Chamber of Commerce   www.loudoncountychamber.com

Monroe County Chamber of Commerce   www.monroecountychamber.org

Roane County Chamber of Commerce   www.roanealliance.org