But budget cuts facing a separate Small Business Administration program aimed at helping women will not affect Nevada as much as other states.

Anna Siefert, operations manager of the Nevada Microenterprise Initiative and the Nevada Women's Business Center, said the state's micro loan program at the Nevada Microenterprise Initiative may be in trouble.

The Nevada Microenterprise Initiative provides counseling services and micro loans, funded primarily through the SBA, to low- and moderate-income women and minority business owners, she said.

A bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives, and is awaiting Senate approval, would provide about $1 million to fund micro loans, which is down from past years.

The SBA did not request funding for the micro loan program because it is trying to expand the number of people who use its 7(a) loan program, but the House amended the SBA bill to include some funding, SBA spokesman Seth Becker said.

"We'll see what happens in the Senate," Becker said. "We are confident that either way, with or without micro loan funding, we are able to fund businesses in minority communities."

The SBA funds micro loans, whereas banks fund 7(a) loans and the SBA acts as the guarantor, he said. During fiscal year 2003, 23,335 business owners received 7(a) loans of less than $35,000 and many of them were minorities, Becker said.

During that same period, 2,443 business owners received micro loans, he added. Siefert disagrees that the 7(a) loan program will be able to assist some of her clients, which she says would not qualify for bank loans with SBA guarantees because they have bad credit or lack assets and already have been denied by a bank. The Nevada Microenterprise Initiative has provided $1.5 million to fund 180 micro loans in the past 10 years, she said.

Micro loans provide up to $35,000 for working capital to businesses that have operated for at least two years and up to $10,000 for new businesses. In return, loan recipients must take classes on how to operate a business.

"It's a hand-held (program)," Siefert said. "No bank or financial institution will hold the hand for every loan they make."

Siefert said she has met with senators and representatives from Nevada to ask that they consider continued funding for micro loans.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said "this administration has been a disaster for cuts to the SBA's budget."

"(Micro loans) make all the difference in the world," she said. "It not only helps women and minorities become business owners, but it also enables these small business owners to hire employess that would ordinarily be unemployable."

She said $1 million to fund micro loans is not enough, but she is hopeful that the Senate will approve additional funding.

Although Nevada's micro loan program could be in trouble, its sister program, the Nevada Women's Business Center, is financially secure despite federal budget cuts.

Congress rejected a bill that would have provided money to sustain nearly 50 existing women's business centers that have completed their initial five-year funding period and are seeking additional money to sustain themselves, Becker said.

"We're not in an ideal situation with this congressional inaction," Becker said. "(But,) not everything is going south."

The SBA plans to spend $3.15 million to open 21 women's business centers and $5.1 million for 34 centers that are less than five years old, which includes Nevada's center, Becker said.

Nevada's Women's Business Center opened Sept. 15 and is qualified for four more one-year grants from the SBA, Siefert said.

The Nevada office was awarded $95,000 per year by the Office of Women's Business Ownership, a division of the SBA. Siefert must match the grant money with private contributions from businesses and philanthropic groups.

The Nevada Women's Business Center counsels an average of 550 new and existing women business owners each quarter, Siefert said. They are assisted in the center's main office in Las Vegas and in satellite offices in Reno and Carson City.

Flo Gray, owner of Sky View Terrace banquet center and Unique Party Planning, said the women's business center has helped her understand budgeting and federal and local regulations.

"They helped me with support and resources," Gray said. "Whenever I don't understand something I can go to them. It saves you worries, time and money and it saves your business."

She said if the women's business center's funding were cut, "it would be suicide to close a resource like that."

Michelle Swafford covers health care and small business for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at by e-mail at swafford@ lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-2326.