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FEBRUARY 2017
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Denton Record-Chronicle
Enterprising Voices
SBA loves Denton County’s small businesses t is exciting when a new business opens in Denton County, and we love it because it strengthens both the community and the economy. The latest U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy stats show small firm openings have accounted for 40 percent of the “new” American jobs over the last two decades. During the first quarter of fiscal 2017, the SBA approved 64 loans for $30 million to Denton County small businesses. Twenty-nine loans for $11 million went to startup firms, creating 177 jobs and retaining 89 jobs. The loans funded a startup car wash, a brand-new sub sandwich franchise, a popular new restaurant that serves delicious pastries, a brewery and a day care center, to name a few. Loans to these startups ranged from $5,000 to $3.4 million during the first quarter, with an average loan size of $386,062. Entrepreneurs are an exciting and inspiring population, and it’s hard not to love them. They demonstrate courage, creativity, resilience and stubborn optimism.
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Herbert AUSTIN | COMMENTARY
Think about it. When men and women light up the “open for business” sign, they already have conquered the first major obstacle to success — getting started. Startup entrepreneurs exude a sense of pride and accomplishment; however, these same characteristics also are true of those who continue to survive in business after a few years. About 80 percent of establishments started in 2014 survived until 2015 — the highest share since 2005, according to SBA stats. About half of all establishments survive five years or longer. These numbers are important because at SBA we love it when businesses get started and we love it when businesses grow. Ensuring success is our goal.
So far this fiscal year, the SBA has approved $18 million in loans to 35 established and growing small businesses in Denton County to help them expand. These loans range from $25,000 to $3.8 million, with an average loan size of $537,806, and helped create 76 jobs and retain 172 jobs. The SBA loans were approved for firms including a landscape business, local pharmacies, a furniture store, an auto shop, a physical therapy business and a manufacturing company. Although the SBA has grown and evolved in the years since it was established in 1953, the bottom-line mission remains the same — to help Americans start, build and grow businesses. If you’re ready to launch a startup or expand, visit www.sba.gov for information and resources, including online classes. Connect with local resource partners by visiting www.sba.gov/tools/localassistance. Simply plug in your ZIP code for a list of nearby counselors and workshops. If you’re ready to apply for small business capital, you can start at www.sba.gov/tools/
Tomas Gonzalez/DRC
Customers watch the Super Bowl at Dan’s Silverleaf on Feb. 5 in Denton. linc. The LINC (Leveraging Information and Networks to access Capital) program is an online referral tool to connect small business borrowers with participating SBA lenders. Prospective LINC borrowers complete a short questionnaire. The responses are forwarded to participating SBA lenders that operate within
the small business’s county. If lenders are interested in the referral, the lender’s and prospective borrower’s contact information is exchanged. You also can call the Dallas-Fort Worth District office at 817684-5000 for assistance. Visit, support, tweet and post on Facebook or Instagram about your favorite
Denton County small business. HERBERT AUSTIN serves as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Dallas-Fort Worth District director and oversees the agency’s programs and services in 72 Texas counties, including Denton, Tarrant and Dallas.
Bush speech to highlight Denton County Days exas Land Commissioner George P. Bush will be the featured speaker during the Denton County Days luncheon March 1 in Austin. The luncheon is the final component of several events associated with Denton County Days in Austin, which has been coordinated by the Denton Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with every regular session of the Legislature since 1987. All elected members of
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Chuck CARPENTER | COMMENTARY
both legislative houses, as well as key state officials, will be invited to a special reception
the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 28. Denton County Days participants will have an opportunity to meet and discuss pertinent issues with the state’s top leadership. The six-person Denton County legislative delegation will give a brief update and be honored at breakfast March 1. Denton County is represented by two state Senate districts and four state House districts. We’ll have multiple teams making visits with pertinent legislative offices to personally
deliver joint position statements. Although they will be advocating different topics, each of these teams will be made up of representatives from the chamber, city of Denton, Denton school district, United Way, the University of North Texas, Texas Woman’s University and North Central Texas College. We’ve got additional briefings scheduled with the Texas Education Agency, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Film Commission and
governor’s office of economic development. Bush is the grandson of President George H.W. Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and nephew of President George W. Bush. George P. Bush earned his Juris Doctor at the University of Texas. He practiced with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Bush co-founded St. Augustine Partners LLC, a Fort Worth-based investment firm focused on oil and gas transactions and consulting
for private businesses. There are obviously many moving parts to Denton County Days, but ultimately it is designed to acquaint the state’s top elected decision makers and key agency officials with the many assets of the county, and heighten the overall image and visibility of North Texas. CHUCK CARPENTER is president of the Denton Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at dcoc@ denton-chamber.org.
Business Spotlight
Gun industry seeks to ease restrictions on silencers By Lisa Marie Pane | AP ATLANTA — They are the stuff of legend, wielded by hit men and by James Bond. For decades, buying a silencer for a firearm has been as difficult as buying a machine gun, requiring a background check that can take close to a year. Now, emboldened by the election of Donald Trump as president, the industry has renewed a push in Congress to ease those restrictions, arguing that it’ll help preserve the hearing of gun users. “We look at this as a Second Amendment issue. We look at it as a health issue,” said Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America. “The decibel level of a fired gun, even the lowly .22-caliber, can cause hearing damage.” Since the 1930s, silencers have been regulated under the National Firearms Act, facing the same paperwork, $200 tax and background checks required to buy a machine gun. A background check to buy most firearms must be completed within three days, or the sale automatically goes through. But the process for a silencer and weapons regulated under the NFA can take eight months or more. Each silencer carries a serial number that can be tracked. Eight states outlaw the sale or possession of silencers. Despite the barriers, silencers have gained in popularity. In 2008, when West Valley City, Utah, based SilencerCo was formed, about 18,000 silencers were being sold each year by the entire industry. These days the company, which has 70 percent of the
Ed Turner, owner of Ed’s Public Safety, has scaled back the number of silencers he carries because of the hassle of buying one.
Photos by Lisa Marie Pane/AP
A silencer is displayed Jan. 31 at Ed’s Public Safety gun shop in Stockbridge, Ga. For decades, buying a silencer has been as difficult as buying a machine gun, requiring a background check that can take close to a year. market, sells that many each month. One of its founders, CEO Josh Waldron, said he suffers hearing loss and still deals with a ringing in his ears from when he went hunting for mule deer as a teen with his father’s .243 rifle. Waldron and other advocates say one of the biggest benefits is for hunters who need to be able to hear what’s around them and detect the movements of prey — something made more difficult if they’re wearing ear protection. “You need your senses when you’re hunting,” Waldron said while attending this year’s gun industry SHOT Show convention in Las Vegas. “What this is doing is taking the hearing protection that one would wear off your
head and putting it on your gun.” Silencers, more technically called suppressors and nicknamed “cans,” were invented in the early 1900s by MITeducated Hiram Percy Maxim, who also invented a muffler for gasoline engines. They were brought under NFA regulations after Depressionera game wardens were concerned hunters would use them to poach. Advocates say it’s misleading to call them silencers because they don’t mute the noise a gunshot makes so much as muffle it. They cringe at the images fed by Hollywood that show them as a tool of assassins and others looking to kill people without detection. “It’s only in the movies
where you put on a suppressor — or as they call them in the movies, a silencer — and all you hear is ‘pfff.’ That’s not real life,” Pratt said. U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, a Republican from South Carolina, is a sponsor of the Hearing Protection Act, the latest attempt to pass such legislation. It’s previously been met with resistance, especially under President Barack Obama and among Democratic Party lawmakers who view it as a gun-promotion issue. It doesn’t hurt now that Trump’s son Donald met with SilencerCo and was videoed trying out its products. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” Duncan said. “Don Jr., who is an avid hunter himself, has come out in favor of this particular legislation. And so he
gets it. That gives us a little bit of juice within the White House and the executive branch. And hopefully we can tap that energy and have it transfer over to the legislative branch.” Suppressors generally lower the sound level by 20 to 35 decibels, leaving most guns still louder than your average ambulance siren. Critics say efforts to ease the restrictions will allow more criminals to use them and will make it difficult to detect when and where a shooting is taking place. There aren’t many cases to point to in which a silencer was used during a crime. Gun-control advocates say that shows that tightly regulating them is working, while the gun industry says it’s more an indication that criminals aren’t apt to use them even if restrictions are eased. Lindsay Nichols, senior attorney with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,
scoffs at the idea that making it easier to buy a suppressor is motivated by protecting someone’s hearing. “They’re not about protecting people’s ears. In fact a good pair of ear plugs and ear muffs work just as well as a silencer — and they don’t pose a risk that a criminal is going to use them in a violent crime,” she said, adding: “This is clearly something that I think that a lot of people can see through. They can see this is really about profits for the gun industry.” Ed Turner, a former police officer and the owner of Ed’s Public Safety, a gun shop in Stockbridge, Georgia, said he’s scaled back the number of silencers he carries because of the hassle of buying one. “To say that it’s going to enhance a criminal element, I think that’s kind of ludicrous,” Turner said. “Criminals don’t abide by laws anyway. ... They’re getting them off the street. They’re stolen.”