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So-called “microloans” — those under $35,000 — can have a giant impact on the success or failure of a small business or an entrepreneur’s idea. And just as critical as the loan itself is the technical assistance, mentoring, and help in developing financial literacy that can often hold the key to making a good idea turn into a profitable one. But all across the globe, small start-ups — especially those launched by women — face an array of hurdles that block them from both the microloans and the training. As part of its Banking on Women program, GE Capital has been tackling that issue, helping over 32,000 women in nine countries get the business expertise and resources they need to create business opportunities for themselves and their families. Now, the program is being launched in the U.S. for the first time in Salt Lake City in partnership with the Utah Microenterprise Loan Fund (UMLF) and the Women’s Business Institute. The video below was taken during the recent Banking on Women conference and launch event held at Salt Lake Community College.

Our story this week about the BI-LO grocery chain threw the spotlight on the way in which GE Capital is helping businesses buffeted by the recession weather the storm and bounce back from bankruptcy. The other side of that financing equation is helping rock solid businesses expand their already winning formulas. That behinds-the-scenes work is currently playing out with Taylor Guitars, which makes nearly 80,000 high-end instruments per year across a range of nearly 100 models for stars such as Dave Matthews, Taylor Swift, and Jason Mraz. As you can see in the video below, despite its success, Taylor faced an inventory finance challenge. For Taylor’s more than 800 retailers in over 60 countries, it can take up to 6 months from the time a guitar arrives at a dealer until the time it’s sold — and the dealers are known for offering a “full Taylor experience” by stocking the full line. Conversely, manufacturer’s terms typically require dealers to pay within 30 days. Compounding the cash challenge — guitar buyers often ask for extended financing for such a big personal investment.

In the last three months alone — April, May and June — GE Capital has made $2.7 billion in loans in the U.S. market, up 135 percent when compared to the first quarter of this year. The funding has gone to a wide-ranging group of U.S. businesses working hard to power out of the recession. Some recent examples include global packaging company Smurfit-Stone Container and steel maker Insteel; middle market companies like Neff Rental, an equipment renter with a long-standing GE financing relationship; and rapidly growing regional restaurant franchisee, MarLu. Part of that funding — $150 million — went to the BI-LO chain of grocery stores, which was able to tap into GE’s deep sector expertise when it ran into hard times. Just as we described in our story about Boscov’s department stores — a business with deep community roots — bouncing back from bankruptcy with financing from GE Capital, so too, has BI-LO. GE Capital was there when BI-LO needed $125 million in bankruptcy financing, and with that money paid back, GE Capital was there with a new $150 million loan to help the now-healthy business drive forward.

As part of the $6 billion launch of GE’s healthymagination initiative last year, the $250 million Healthymagination Fund was also created to invest in highly promising healthcare technology companies. The new equity fund has now made its first investment in the form of a $5 million strategic alliance with CardioDx , a cardiovascular genomic diagnostics company. The goal is to advance and co-develop genomic tests that are used in diagnosing heart disease. As Mike Jones, Executive Vice President of Business Development at GE Healthcare and Director of GE’s Healthymagination Fund, explains in the video clip below, “We’re not just looking to make investments in companies like traditional venture capital companies might. We are looking for financial returns. And we really source our transactions by first starting to try and find companies that we can develop a strategic business relationship with — and that can include product development, distribution, and co-marketing of products.”

Underscoring the safety and soundness of GE’s business model through the worst economic downturn in decades, GE Vice Chairman and GE Capital Chairman and CEO Michael Neal and Deputy Treasurer Mark Barber appeared today before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC). Their testimony outlined how GE Capital operates, provided details on its funding operations and offered insight into how the company navigated through the financial crisis.