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Small businesses are among the groups being hardest hit by the current credit crunch\u2014partly because so many small businesses depend on the owner\u2019s home equity as their collateral for their loans, and partly because lenders aren\u2019t yet prepared to change course and perform their analysis a different way. Instead of cutting off the flow of small business loans, it\u2019s time for lender to rethink their risk assessment criteria. Small business lending is far from dead\u2014instead, it could well be an effective newgrowth strategy to boost sales during a time of credit stress