COLUMBIA, S.C. — A Beaufort County lawmaker of Gullah descent had described his microenterprises bill as “almost tailor-made” for the Gullah people, and now the law it became is offering opportunities to Gullah residents and all others.
Calling it $200,000 in “seed funding,” the S.C. Association for Community Economic Development announced Friday that microenterprises are now eligible for $10,000 loans, provided they have five or fewer employees. Rep. Kenneth Hodges’ bill, H. 3125, became the Microenterprise Development Act last year, and directed the S.C. Department of Commerce to create a partnership program. It includes a competitive grant program.
The program is designed to foster tiny startups in South Carolina so they can create jobs, enhance entrepreneurial skills and abilities, and help low-income households to become self-sufficient. The new law also targets the self-employed through mom-and-pop businesses and those with home enterprises who make their own fishing nets, artists, food vendors, childcare providers, landscapers or others.
A competitive grant process last year made $200,000 in grant capital available. Two applicants, Charleston Citywide Local Development Corp. and CommunityWorks Inc., each won $100,000 to support their respective microlending programs and can now offer loans up to $10,000 to entrepreneurs in their service area.
Collectively, the two organizations can facilitate a microloan in all 46 counties of South Carolina and both can service a borrower in any region of the state, although the Charleston-based organization is for Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton and Dorchester counties.
The CommunityWorks Business Builder Loan Program supports small businesses through lending, business training and coaching, with loans of up to $10,000 and 60 months. Equipment, inventory, lease improvements and/or working capital are the intended uses of the loans.
“It’s really almost tailor-made for the Gullah community, because they have a history of begin self sufficient and entrepreneurial, but don’t always have the financial and technical assistance,” said Hodges, a Green Pond Democrat, in November, a few months after Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill into law.
Central to his law, Hodges said, is the potential for self-sufficiency.
In South Carolina, 33 percent of jobs are low-wage jobs, according to SCACED, while the nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development says 47 percent of South Carolina households live in liquid asset poverty and cannot live at the poverty level for three months without income.
