There’s one big problem.
Cambria, 38, has spent about six months visiting a dozen banks and so far nobody has been willing to loan him the $1.5 million he needs to qualify for a federal Small Business Administration program.
“You turn on the ‘Today Show’ and you see the big dilemma in this country is that small businesses are not being able to expand,” said Cambria. “Every so often, you’re the case in point. Until that happens, you don’t pay much attention.”
Cambria is the case in point. The Centerville school he and his wife own already serves 200 children in preschool and after-school programs and has 34 employees. But without the loan, he can’t expand his business and put another 30 people to work.
Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher’s U.S. Senate campaign recently issued a study showing that statewide Small Business Administration loans from 2006-2009 decreased from $604 million to $400 million, a drop of about 34 percent.
In Dayton, loans to small businesses dropped 28 percent.
“There are a lot of businesses that have difficulty when it comes to growing,” said Caitlin Bortolotto Krebs, business development officer for Dayton’s CityWide Development Corporation.
The SBA program the Cambrias want to use for a $3 million expansion requires getting a loan for half the money from a bank or other lender. CityWide Development Corporation would lend another $1.2 million, guaranteed by the SBA, and Cambria would come up with $300,000.
Cambria now is talking with the Dayton Firefighters Federal Credit Union about a loan. Credit union CEO Charlie Plassenthal said the group hasn’t done a business loan like this before, but he’s hopeful.
“This is a totally different animal,” said Cambria. “And I am definitely a guinea pig.”
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