REAP
Products and Services
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 Association
Membership
(Peer Delivery)
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
Individual Membership
(in the absence of a
local association)
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.
|