Kathleen Kelly brings her work home with her.
The vice-president of Small Business Administration (SBA) lending at First Trade Union Bank in Boston says she is motivated to work so hard because it’s important for small businesses to succeed.
“I remember her telling me that she couldn’t sleep one night. There was a problem in the [loan] process. She said she was sitting in bed and she figured it out. She came up with a way to get around it,” said Michael Niall, owner of My Mobile Mechanic, a six-year-old company in Leominster that sends mechanics to people’s homes or workplaces to repair their cars.
Last year the U.S. Army veteran said he was looking for an $80,000 loan to buy two new trucks and some equipment.
“Compared to her many accounts, I’m just a drop in the bucket. She really gave me the time she would have given a multi-million dollar loan; that really made a good impression on me,” Niall said.
The 44-year-old Quincy resident has been working in banking and with SBA loans for 12 years, joining First Trade Union Bank last June. She said she loves her job because of the personal connections that make a real difference in people’s lives.
“With small businesses you’re dealing with the owner themselves. You’re not going through a CPA so there’s great loyalty when you help somebody,” Kelly said. “It’s not just giving them the loan. You’re a consultant for them: you’re helping to advise them on how to be successful and you become really connected to them.”
Kelly, whose father and grandfather were in the service, has a personal interest in helping veteran business owners get loans. She noted that the Massachusetts SBA recognized First Trade Union Bank in 2012 as being the number one lender to veterans, having approved the highest percentage of total loans to veteran owned businesses.
An important part of her job, she says, is attending or speaking at events designed to let people know about loan programs that can help them. She has given talks on financing at veteran administration centers, the Center for Women & Enterprise in Boston and the Quincy Chamber of Commerce. She has also participated in panel discussions at the Harvard Innovation Lab in Allston and at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston.
“The SBA does a really good job executing but they don’t do a good job getting the word out about all of these programs,” Kelly said.
Niall said he first met Kelly a few years ago at an SBA event where she spoke about loan programs for veterans and that’s why he called her last year. He said there’s “something about her that inspires confidence.”
“I’m a little bit of a high risk loan. I had a personal bankruptcy five or six years ago and I’m a small business. She was able to work with me in spite of that. I am a veteran but she believed in the [business],” Niall said.
