There are no headlines when a restaurant cuts ten people or the local print shop cuts five. If fees fall at a doctor's office, the receptionist may have to leave.

By most estimates, small businesses, those with under 100 workers, employ 50% of the American workforce. While the announcements of banks and car companies cutting tens of thousand of employees make the front page, the economy may be hurting more by the declining revenue and credit crisis at firms no one has ever heard of.

According to Reuters, "Wall Street's pain is rippling through U.S. small businesses, as bankers who once pulled in million-dollar bonuses lose their jobs and cut back spending on everything from parties to home improvements."

This may point to the fact that the bailout is being aimed in the wrong direction. While $700 billion may help large financial firms and may even be used to save tens of thousands of people from home foreclosures, there is nothing concrete being done by the federal government to help the small business owner.

What could be done? For starters, The Small Business Administration, a federal agency, should be assigned some of the $700 billion Paulson package. Credit-worthy companies should have access to that in the form of loans. Doing this would require far more people than the SBA has, so it would need to be done through the banking system. Banks should be given financial incentives to lend money provided by the fund.

The government is overlooking one of the most critical parts of the economy. In doing so, it is almost certainly helping unemployment push above 7%.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Starting a business can take months -- and can be expensive. Also, it's tough to anticipate some of the problems you'll run into. That's why buying a business can be a good alternative.

So where do you get financing? One approach is to get a Small Business Administration loan.

Basically, this is like any other business loan. However, the main difference is that the loan is guaranteed up to 85% from the SBA, which is a federal program. Because of this, there are usually advantages versus conventional loans, such as:

• Longer terms (10 years for the business, and 25 years if there is real estate involved).
• Lower interest rates (prime rate plus 2.25% to 2.75%)
• Lower down payments (20% to 30% or so). In fact, the down payment also includes seller financing.

OK, what does it take to get such a loan? Let's take a look.