Anna and Chris Brozek opened Slowtrain Music four years ago on Salt Lake City's 300 South, doing it the hard way, by racking up high-interest credit card loans to get it off the ground.

They got the doors open at 221 East and started to sell hard-to-find records, CDs and music by local artists, but lacked the funds to hire employees. Efforts at traditional financing failed when two banks turned down their applications for Small Business Administration-backed loans.

Then Anna got an e-mail that mentioned low-interest, small-business loans were available from the Utah Microenterprise Loan Fund (UMLF). The couple applied and received $25,000, which they used to hire two employees and pay off those high-interest credit cards.

"It's incredibly easy to do — if you're willing to put in the effort," said Anna of their experience at UMLF.

Now the nonprofit agency, which has granted 618 small-business loans since 1993, is expanding its reach to the disabled community. In conjunction with the Logan-based Utah Assistive Technology Foundation, it is willing to loan up to $25,000 each to disabled Utahns who want to start their own businesses.

Applicants must have a strong business plan, a lot of desire and a willingness to meet face-to-face with UMLF's loan committee to plead their case.

Often, that meeting may be what turns a no into a yes, said UMLF CEO and Executive Director Kathy Ricci.

"You must not be able to access traditional bank or credit union funding," she said. "Some people get turned down because they don't have enough collateral, or perhaps something happened in their lives — a divorce, a medical problem, a layoff, a car accident — that hurt their credit score."

Ricci said her loan committee goes beyond that to make its decisions. "If they have good reasons behind it, we will overlook that."

About two-thirds of loan applicants fall into the low- and moderate-income category. Generally, this refers to a four-person household income of less than $40,000 a year.

So far, no one who is disabled has applied for the UMLF loans, but Marilyn Hammond, executive director of the Utah Assistive Technology Foundation, says she believes some applications and business plans are in the development stage.

"We had a webinar … and 15 people signed up for it," she said. "From that, I know there are some people out there working on their plans."

Disabled applicants are referred to Hammond's foundation to have their disability certified. Then their applications will be forwarded on to the Microenterprise Loan Fund.

As that initiative waits to gain traction, organizers hope it becomes as successful as the fund's broader program that helped Maggie Pugh become her own boss.

She had worked six years in a hair-products salon at 2696 S. 500 East in South Salt Lake that came up for sale. The owner offered her the business for $75,000 and was willing to carry a contract. But Pugh needed a down payment. A customer told her about the UMLF.

"They loaned me $25,000. I am paying off the former owner, and I only owe $10,000 on my [UMLF] loan," Pugh said. "Right now, we are doing very well" in the business she named Diva Beauty Supply, which targets the Latina and African-American community.

Ricci said the bottom line for her organization is to use the loans "as tools for community development. We help people go through the process and help them develop their business plans. Sometimes they need just a little bit of money, other times they need more. We fill that need."

And there's a bit of irony in the program.

In addition to Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, which have kicked in some funds, UMLF is primarily funded by 25 different financial institutions — the same kind of institutions that turned down the applicants when they tried to go through the traditional-loan route.

jkeahey@sltrib.com —

Facts about microenterprise

Fiscal year 2010

Total loaned

$570,791

Avg. loan size

$17,297

FY '09

Total loaned

$788,860

Avg. loan size

$19,240

FY '08

Total loaned

$1,211,243

Avg. Loan size

$20,884

FY '07

Total loaned

$604,207

Avg. loan size

$15,900

Source: Utah Microenterprise Loan Fund —

Microenterprise Loan Fund mission statement

"The UMLF is a private, nonprofit, multibank community-development financial institution whose mission is to provide financing and management support to entrepreneurs in startup and existing firms that do not have access to traditional sources of capital; especially those who are socially and economically disadvantaged. The philosophy of microenterprise recognizes the fundamental ability of people to apply their individual talents, creativity and hard work to better their lives. [It is] one of several thousand microenterprise development programs across the world that are empowering people to move from dependency to self-sufficiency and self respect through small-business ownership." —

Where to go

I For the Utah Microenterprise Loan Fund, go to 154 Ford Ave. (3415 South), Suite A, in South Salt Lake; call 801-746-1180; or go to www.umlf.com.

If applying for a disabilities loan, the disability must be certified by the Utah Assistive Technology Foundation by calling 800-524-5152 or visiting www.uatf.org. UATF will then forward the certification and application for review.