Karen Mills Quotes

As you probably know, half of the people who work in this country work for small businesses. And it's more than that, because two out of every three net new jobs come from small business. So we mean it when we talk about small business being the engine for the economy.

Among our responsibilities is to make sure that 23 percent of all government contracts go to small businesses. That's about $150 billion annually, from all the government agencies.

The morale when I came in was not the best. It was because the agency had not been valued.

We see entrepreneurship and small businesses and supply chains as a critical part of the economic growth and competitiveness agenda.

We've gotten tremendous support. Everybody now understands how critical it is to help small businesses get out of this recession and into recovery.

One of the most important things we hear is the S.B.A. needs to be ubiquitous. We do all these things, but people still don't know.

Small businesses, you can give them capital, but what they often need as much is mentoring, advice and help with their business plan.

One of the most important tools we have at the Small Business Administration (SBA) to reach high growth entrepreneurs is the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program.

My family was in two businesses - they were in the textile business, and they were in the candy business. The conversations around the dinner table were all about the factory floor and how many machines were running and what was happening in the business. I grew up very engaged in manufacturing and as part of a family business.

It's not government that creates jobs; it's small business. Our job is to make sure they have the access to capital, the access to contracting opportunities, and the help, advice and mentoring that they need to go out and be successful.

Health care is the No. 1 concern of small businesses and the status quo is untenable.

Small businesses pay 18 percent more than big businesses for health care, the same health care, just because they're small and they have too small a pool of risk.

We don't want to give a business that is not going to come through the troubled waters a loan that they can't pay back.

We spend a great deal of our energy making sure that small businesses have help in navigating to the outcomes that they want.

In October 2008, when the credit crunch hit, small businesses were really crushed by the lack of capital.

Small businesses are really the engine in the economy.

I recently had the opportunity to participate in Inc.'s first-ever 'Hire Power Awards' event in Washington, D.C. The event was a testament to the power of American entrepreneurship and the role that it plays in driving job creation and innovation in a wide array of industries.

I haven't checked this out yet, but one of our guys told me we have a counselor within 45 minutes to an hour of most small businesses in this country. That's really powerful. I call it our bone structure.

Our economy creates and loses jobs every quarter in the millions. But of the net new jobs, the jobs come from small businesses: both small businesses on Main Street and many of the net new jobs come from high growth, high impact businesses that are located all across the country.

This is not a zero-sum game. We know that if we provide access and education, particularly where there are gaps in the market, we will create more jobs, we will create more growth, and we will create more activity in the U.S. market, which will be good for our economy.

If you want to have prosperity here, we really have to see our small businesses able to grow and compete around the world.

I think we've learned that the S.B.A. plays a critical role in providing access and opportunity when the market is not providing that access. We help banks get that money out into the hands of important and viable businesses, particularly those owned by minorities, women, immigrants and veterans.

As I've traveled around the country, it has surprised me how many times I've heard people in small businesses use that word 'saved.' I believe many small businesses would not have had access to credit and would not have survived without the $50 billion that we were able to put into the market.

The S.B.A. does not lend directly to businesses, but instead backs loans to encourage banks to invest in small businesses as part of a nearly $90 billion portfolio.

Small businesses want things streamlined, and one of the great successes we're having is less paperwork, faster turnaround times.