By Denise Perreault
Perreault@pbn.com
The Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) has become an increasingly important resource for many businesses struggling to obtain capital. President Bob Baker recently spoke with Providence Business News about the association’s mission and the economic climate in the region.
PBN: Tell us what SBANE is.
BAKER: The Smaller Business Association of New England is a trade association that was established in 1938. Basically, trade associations have traditionally done advocacy and education for small businesses. I think we’ve changed that paradigm where we do a lot more business-to-business. We cover probably from Portsmouth, N.H., to Providence. We have a couple of members in Connecticut; we have a couple of members, machine shops, in Maine. I would say the bulk of our membership is from the southern New Hampshire border to Rhode Island, which has our second most-populated group of members [after Massachusetts]. We have about 600 to 700 members, [in such fields as] high-tech, manufacturing, banks, accounting firms, service firms and law firms; it runs the gamut.
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PBN: How is SBANE different from other small-business groups? PBN: Can a business in Rhode Island work through SBANE to set up financing with lending entities in Massachusetts? PBN: What else makes SBANE unique? PBN: We’ve heard that SBANE is a strong supporter of innovative companies. Can you tell us about that? PBN: How does the business climate vary among the New England states?
BAKER: Since my background is small-business finance, that is one of the key competencies we have. I’ve worked in banking, I’ve run [an entity similar to] the EDC [R.I. Economic Development Corporation] so I am familiar with high-risk lending.
One of the things that we do for our members or people that call in, particularly today, is we help them identify nonbank solutions to help them with credit, either to sustain themselves or to help them grow. There are a lot of nonbank lenders and a lot more choices here in Massachusetts than Rhode Island. It’s either growth capital [we help provide] or some companies can’t find money anywhere, or their bank is having trouble with them, and we try to find alternative sources. I sit on a couple of loan boards in the state, so I try to source that capital through the organizations that I’m involved with because working capital these days is very hard to get. We try to customize solutions for our members and, at any one time, I’m working on six to 10 transactions with companies in various stages of either distress or growth.
BAKER: Oh, absolutely. We have private-equity sources, we have Business Development Capital of New England, which goes across the six states. We offer a customized solution to a business situation. It’s not a homogenous sort of environment out there, so everybody has a different idiosyncrasy in their financing and you’ve got to be smart enough to figure out what’s a win-win solution for the bank, the company and the source of capital. … In any one year, we are able to help at least a dozen companies to succeed in finding solutions to their financial issues.
BAKER: We’re probably a favorite venue of choice for Raytheon Company Integrated Defense Systems. In the last couple of years, we’ve run two symposiums in Rhode Island, three in Massachusetts and a couple in New Hampshire, to basically match up companies that have technology capabilities that can work with Raytheon as a supplier or partner.
According to Raytheon’s metrics, we’ve got significant penetration in or worked with about 90-some-odd companies. Raytheon changed its business model three or four years ago and, instead of doing everything themselves, they go through us to identify companies that may meet their needs where they need additional capabilities or where they are looking for new technologies to integrate into their platform. … This is a multistate effort, involving Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and it’s been an extraordinary relationship.
BAKER: This is something that we haven’t gotten much activity from in Rhode Island. We have a competition for the New England Innovation Awards that comes in May and we’re looking for fast-growing or nascent technology companies that are percolating but haven’t been showcased yet and we try to get them to our “Evening of Innovation” nominations program, and that will start in January. It doesn’t have to be a high-tech company. It could be a company that employs innovative practices. Last year, we had about 182 companies that competed for the awards.
BAKER: I think it’s probably the best in New Hampshire. I think the economy is probably better there than in all of the New England states. Massachusetts, because it has a big cluster of high-tech and life sciences companies, is probably holding its own.
[In Rhode Island], I was down there listening to [House] Speaker [William J.] Murphy [at the Dec. 2 meeting of the Rhode Island chapter of SBANE]. I talked to House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox about other finance tools you can establish that may be helpful, that you could replicate, that may or may not be within the EDC, to give people more choices in Rhode Island to get capital. He [Fox] was very open about inviting us down to talk to him about other ideas. Rhode Island probably could use the boost the most right now, and I don’t think that’s any secret. So I have a standing invitation to go meet with him [Fox] and I plan to follow up. •INTERVIEW
Bob Baker
POSITION: President since 2003 of the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE), based in Waltham, Mass.
BACKGROUND: Baker most recently served as vice president of Commonwealth Corporation and senior lender for the Economic Stabilization Trust, in Boston. He previously worked for the Massachusetts Government Land Bank, Eastern Bank, Essexbank, the office of economic development in Lynn, Mass., the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and the Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce.
EDUCATION: B.A. in journalism, 1970, University of South Carolina, School of Journalism; management certification, 1971-76, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute of Organizational Management
FIRST JOB: As a teenager, Baker was a color sports announcer for college basketball games at a New Bedford radio station.
RESIDENCE: Hamilton, Mass.
AGE: 62
