REAP is a full-service microenterprise program that delivers small business training, networking, one-on-one technical assistance, and micro lending to businesses that are members of a REAP "association" or members of the REAP Individual Program. The Rural Enterprise Assistance Project was started in January 1990 to fill these gaps.

• Small Business Training: REAP offers group-based training in an efficient four-session (12 hours) training format. REAP signed a cooperative agreement with Nebraska EDGE in 2001 to enhance REAP's Business Training Curriculum and to offer microbusinesses across Nebraska more business plan basic training workshops. This arrangement also helped REAP update its training materials. REAP now utilizes the NxLevel Guide for Micro-entrepreneurs as our training curriculum. The participant produces a basic business plan for their business at the end of the four sessions.
   
  REAP also offers group-based eCommerce training in a four-session training format. REAP entered into a cooperative agreement in 2001 with the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension to utilize their existing "Access Minnesota Main Street" curriculum. The REAP Women's Business Center (WBC) project sponsors the eCommerce training workshops across Nebraska.
    
• Networking: Association members meet monthly for training, repayment of loans, reviewing loan applications, etc. REAP staff attend these meetings quarterly to assist with any questions, serve on the loan review committee, and bring new information to members. REAP began hiring field staff positions in 1993 to make it possible to reach more distant areas of the state. Association members welcome staff visits with ready access to technical assistance and training. This association (peer-group) model provides an excellent, confidential environment through which members can network with each other. As a REAP member, they also gain access to networking opportunities with staff as well as members of other REAP associations.
  
  Advisory committee meetings are held throughout the state to educate and act as "sounding board" meetings for REAP. Members are linked to other organizations, programs and business people through REAP's statewide connections. REAP also produces a statewide member directory for linking with business people across the state.
   
• One-on-one Technical Assistance: REAP staff have provided one-on-one technical assistance to over 2,000 startup and existing businesses at association meetings, at the business site, over the phone, and at REAP offices. Staff review loan applications with members prior to their presentations at association meetings. This provides them the opportunity to fine tune any questions and gather valuable input. REAP staff keep files of technical information to share with businesses
   
• Micro Lending: REAP provides peer and individual lending services. REAP utilizes a unique "peer-group/step-up lending" model. In the "step-up" model, REAP members are able to borrow at various loan levels with the first being $1,000 followed by levels of $2,000, $4,000, $8,000, and ultimately $10,000. (A borrower may begin at the $2,000 level if they have a completed business plan.) A borrower can only "step-up" to the next level if they have successfully paid back their previous loan. Interest rates are prime plus 1% on the first two loans and prime plus 4% or SBA maximum allowable rate (whichever is lower) for all subsequent loans.
  
  REAP has learned that businesses sometimes need financing beyond that which the REAP peer-group/step-up lending model can serve, yet they are not established enough in equity or experience to access traditional lending sources to fully meet their debt financing needs. REAP added the REAP Direct Loan Program in 1999 which offers loans in the $5,000 to $25,000 range to address this need.
  
  Unlike the peer-group/step-up lending model, the REAP Direct Loan Program does not run through the association, it is not subject to step-up loan levels, nor is the association's Local Loan Loss Reserve at risk in the event of a loan loss. Borrowers utilizing this lending product work directly with a REAP Business Specialist. REAP feels it has "hit the mark" with this size of loan. In its one-year pilot phase, REAP placed twenty loans totaling $256,000. A majority of this loan capital also comes from the SBA Micro-loan Program.
  

REAP associations (peer groups) consist of small businesses from a rural community or communities that formally organize to receive the services that REAP delivers. Most associations consist of eight to ten member-businesses. They typically meet once a month to network, receive business training, and address loan requests in an atmosphere where confidentiality is of the highest priority. They are self-driven based on their specific business and community development needs and goals. These associations are the vehicles through which internal and external networking opportunities are accessed. Currently, there are forty-six active REAP associations in Nebraska serving over 400 member-businesses with small business assistance.

REAP services are delivered through REAP Business Specialists that work full-time from home-office locations and serve territories in southeast, southwest central, northeast central, and Panhandle (west) areas of Nebraska. Business Specialists are available for face-to-face consultation at the client's place of business and at association meetings. They provide business training, create networking opportunities, and deliver critical one-on-one technical assistance to the member-businesses in their territories. They also facilitate the delivery of micro lending that includes loan preparation, application, approval, pre-loan/post-loan technical assistance, loan packaging, and loan tracking.

REAP implemented an individual program in 2002 to compliment our Peer-Group Program. The individual program addresses these needs: 1) there are areas of Nebraska that do not yet have a REAP association geographically accessible, 2) the peer-group model may not fit the schedule of the small business owner, and 3) Peer-Group Program members will graduate from the association. Regionally based trainings are given for the benefit of both Individual and Peer-Group members.

An individual can be an Individual REAP Program member without first going through the Peer Program. This option is especially useful when a local REAP association does not exist. Members who graduate from an association may join as individual REAP members.

Members who choose to join the Individual Program would receive some benefits similar to Peer Program members, but would not be required to attend meetings. Individual members cannot receive Peer Loans (from $100 - $10,000 loans), they would not have the regular support that a local small business group could provide and some face-to-face networking opportunities would be given up.

Individual Program members would have the option of attending regionally held events.

Individual Program members will pay an annual fee to REAP of $30. As long as an individual has a loan with REAP, they will be required to pay the annual $30 fee. The annual fee will be due on the individual member's anniversary date when they first joined. If the annual fee is unpaid upon their membership anniversary date, membership will discontinue.

Anyone wishing to receive technical assistance must join the Individual Program if they are not a member of a local REAP Association.