Billionaire Business Expert: How Small Businesses Can Get Money - SBA Head, Kelly Loeffler

Kelly Loeffler says she faced repeated moments of doubt and setback, and she credits her farm upbringing with teaching her to “dig in,” keep learning, and not accept the first “no.” She describes rejection as something she’s encountered throughout her career and says tenacity is what carried her through.

Asked about building large companies, Loeffler rejects the idea of a “four-hour workweek” for creating multi-billion-dollar outcomes, saying that the early grind—weekends, canceled vacations, and long stretches of intense effort—was what built the trajectory for success.

Loeffler describes meeting her husband as pivotal and says shared values, competitiveness, and mutual interest in business helped them work together. She also points to her parents’ example of building a farm and trucking business together and says the ability to work through challenges as a family is rewarding.

Reflecting on owning a WNBA team, Loeffler says sports forced her to make decisions because results are visible immediately via the scoreboard and ticket sales. She says she brought that decisiveness into business, becoming more effective and less fearful of decisions.

Loeffler says one of the SBA’s most misunderstood roles is that it provides government-backed guarantees to private-sector loans, enabling credit that might not otherwise be extended. She emphasizes these programs are intended to be self-funding when run properly with sound underwriting.