(a) Services. The WBC must provide prospective entrepreneurs and existing small businesses, known as clients, with training, counseling, and specialized services. The services provided must relate to the formation, financing, management, and operation of small business enterprises. The WBC must create and update client records to document each time that services are provided to a client. The WBC must provide services that meet local needs as determined through periodic needs assessments; additionally, services must be adjusted over time to meet changing small business needs. Any changes to the scope of services must be in accordance with § 131.820.
(b) Access to capital. (1) WBCs must provide training and counseling services that enhance a small business concern's ability to access capital, such as business plan development, financial statement preparation/analysis, and cash flow preparation/analysis.
(2) WBCs may provide loan packaging services and other related services to WBC clients and may charge a fee for such assistance (see § 131.540). Any fees so generated will constitute program income. The WBC must ensure that these services are not credited to both the WBC program and any other Federally-funded program, thereby double counting the efforts.
(3) WBCs shall prepare their clients to represent themselves to lending institutions. WBC personnel may attend meetings with lenders to assist clients in preparing financial packages; however, neither WBC staff nor their agents may take a direct or indirect role in representing clients in any loan negotiations.
(4) WBCs shall disclose to their clients that financial counseling assistance, including loan packaging, will not guarantee receipt or imply approval of a loan or loan guarantee.
(5) WBCs must not intervene in loan decisions, service loans, make credit recommendations, or otherwise influence decisions regarding the award of any loans or lines of credit on behalf of the WBC's clients, unless the WBC operates as an SBA Microloan Intermediary and is awarding an individual or small business concern an SBA microloan.
(6) When the recipient organization operates both a WBC and a separate loan program, the WBC must disclose to the client other financing options that may be available besides the one offered by the recipient organization to ensure that the client has the opportunity to seek financing outside of the recipient organization. If the recipient organization operates an SBA loan program, it must comply with § 120.140 of this chapter.
(7) WBCs must disclose to loan packaging clients any financial relationships between the WBC and a lender or the sale of their credit products.
(8) With respect to loan programs, allowable activities include the following: assisting clients in formulating a business plan, preparing financial statements, completing forms that are part of a loan application, and accompanying an applicant appearing before the SBA or other lenders. See paragraph (b)(5) of this section for further limitations.
(9) WBCs are to collaborate with state, local, and Federal government agencies to identify other resources that may be available to its clients and to facilitate interactions deriving from these collaborations.
(c) Special emphasis initiatives. In addition to requiring WBCs to assist women entrepreneurs, including a representative number of women who are socially and economically disadvantaged, the SBA may identify and include in the cooperative agreement other portions of the general population that WBCs must target for assistance.