The SBA ARC loans of up to $35,000 are created to help businesses in immediate, dire financial hardship. Reasons for receiving a loan include customer loss, increased business costs, working capital issues, working capital financing issues, inability to restructure extant debt, loss of employees, supplier issues, etc. The only explicit purpose for the loan can be to service existing small business obligations such as conventional loans, capital leases, notes payable, business credit card obligations. ARC loans aren't for new businesses and you must show that your business was profitable in 1 of the last 2 years. You need to demonstrate that your business is still viable and the loan is likely to be paid back. If you are are already severely in default or your future projections are poor, you probably won't qualify for a loan.

If you own a small business you should talk to your current lender about getting an ARC loan (like all sba loans it is not made by the sba itself). You should know that banks and credit unions that are not SBA lenders can still make the ARC loans. The loans will be available as long as funding is available or until September 30, 2010.

If you don't have a current commercial lender, here is a link to the institutions that have already made ARC loans (by state). Could be a good first call to make.

http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/sba_recovery_arc_lenders.pdf