Content originally published by The Denver Business Journal on May 4th, 2016.

It was 1985 and Diana DeGette, then a Denver attorney, wanted to hang her own shingle by opening her own law firm.
She needed $5,000 to buy a computer and some office furniture.
The commercial bank she went to told her she could get that loan if she could open a $5,000 bank account.
“If I had $5,000 to put in the bank, I wouldn’t need the loan,” she said.
DeGette, now a U.S. congresswoman (D-Denver) in her 10th term, eventually got that loan from a credit union “secured by my 1975 VW rabbit.”
“There are so many women-owned businesses, all they need to buy is a computer or some equipment,” she said. “They just need that little boost.”
DeGette, along with U.S. Congressman Ed Perlmutter (D-Golden) and U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet were in Denver Wednesday to talk with women business leaders and entrepreneurs as part of National Small Business Week.
The day also included a luncheon with a long list of awards for lenders and small business owners, and Gov. John Hickenlooper was on hand to announce the five new inductees to the SBA Colorado district “Wall of Fame.” The day ended with a tour of Azucar Bakery, which Peruvian immigrant Marjorie Silva opened 16 years ago, has grown and now has plans for franchising. She is a client of Mi Casa Resource Center, where she wrote a business plan and got a small business loan.
“Marjorie returns all the time to Mi Casa to provide mentoring to other entrepreneurs,” said Monique Lovato, CEO and executive director of Mi Casa, which works with the Small Business Administration to provide loans. “Mentors are an important component in business people being successful – especially women.”
SBA hitting goals
Contreras-Sweet, who was one the first women to own and operate a community bank in California, made Denver one of a handful of stops this week to highlight small businesses. She called small businesses the heart of American Society.
“When the President boasts from the Department of Labor statistics that we are now at 73 months of consecutive job growth – a first in American history – I get the greatest joy to say, but Mr. President, the majority of those [are] coming from small businesses.”
The Small Business Administration hosted a Women in Small Business Forum Wednesday at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Denver Branch downtown.
As she addressed the women’s forum, Contreras-Sweet said, “I’m with kindred spirits.”
“There was a recent Wall Street Journal article that said there are more men named John that run Fortune 500 companies than women named anything,” she said. “So, we have a little work to do.”
There is progress, she said. Last year, Congress set a mandate of giving 23 percent of federal contracts to small businesses, she said.
“Last year we got to the 23 percent,” she said. “Just a few weeks ago, I was in the congressional building to thank them for that mandate, and we have now exceeded it to 25.75 percent.”
Of those small businesses that won federal contracts, 5 percent went to women-owned businesses.
“The government had never reached that goal,” she said.
DeGette said the U.S. and state have made progress in getting financial resources to small business owners. But more needs to be done, she said.
“We need to do outreach to the women in the community who are looking at starting [a] small business,” she said. “I still hear from people they don’t know where to go for capital even though there are sources available.”
“And the second thing we need to do is Congress needs to make a financial commitment to boosting up these loans.”
Wall of Fame
Governor Hickenlooper, who announced this year's inductees, was among the very first inductees to the SBA Colorado district office “Wall of Fame.” He he took out a SBA-backed loan to purchase a building so that he could double the size of the Wynkoop Brewing Co. and add a banquet facility.
All of the inductees have received SBA-backed loans to launch or expand their business:
• Heidi Ganahl, founder of Camp Bow Wow, which she opened in Denver in 2000 and now has about 200 franchisees.
• Ronna and Jim Rice, owners of Rice’s Lucky Clover Honey, which was started in 1924 by L.R. Rice.
• Chris Weems, owner of Rocky Mountain Excavating in Castle Rock.
• Trong Lam, owner of Pacific Ocean Marketplace, which he opened in 1991 in Denver and now has three stores in metro Denver.
• Kurt Richardson, owner of Otter Products, the smart phone-case maker that now has 900 employees.