A flood of calls from local entrepreneurs has spurred the U.S. Small Business Administration and its partners to launch a hotline “to address the Rhode Island small business community’s concerns during the current economic climate and credit crunch,” the SBA’s Rhode Island district office said.

“Many small business owners are worried about the rising cost of doing business, [or about] decreasing consumer confidence and tightening credit markets,” said Mark S. Hayward, the SBA’s Rhode Island district director.

“The hotline is dedicated to providing expedited business counseling from SBA and our resource-partner experts, including SCORE: Counselors to America’s Small Business, the R.I. Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Johnson & Wales University and the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE).”

Full Story: SBA launches credit-crisis hotline in R.I. Source: Providence Business News, October 10th, 2008 Author: PBN Staff Added on October 14th, 2008 at 10:48 am, by Matt Mikula