MARQUETTE -- It's tough to get a loan.  Most big banks aren't lending money, and community banks don't have the money to loan.

"I'm sure it will all come around at some point; it's just a question of when and under what circumstances it begins to come about," said Dennis West, President of Northern Initiatives.  "And certainly pressure from Washington is probably the right thing."

In a statement Tuesday, Senator Carl Levin said there's an estimate that overall bank loan volume in Michigan declined by 74 percent from 2007 to 2009.

The Senator told a Subcommittee of the Senate Banking Committee that community banks need money to loan to start-up small businesses.  Locally, there's a lending program for such entrepreneurs that avoids the banks.

Northern Initiatives is a private, non-profit community development corporation in Marquette that has loaned Michigan small businesses $28 million since 1994.

"The idea of our fund is to be able to provide access to capital for people who may have credit blemishes, who may have need for an alternative lending fund.  So we do loans that banks can't do or shouldn't do," West said.

Marquette Meats is one of the 500 or so businesses that benefitted from a Northern Initiative loan.  It's a carnivore's haven, and for owners, Adam Lacy and Dan Meadows, it's a very meaty dream come true.

"Initially we couldn't get a loan with the bank, so we went to Northern Initiatives and we laid out our thorough business plan," said Meadows.

Northern Initiative's hope is that companies like Marquette Meats can be working with conventional banks in two to three years.  And for Lacy and Meadows, that's a very realistic timeline. 

According to Meadows, "I guess in the meat shop, everybody needs to eat!  So they're going to come and buy steaks even in a bad economy, as long as you give them a quality product and give them a fresh product.  I don't think it's a terrible time to start a business if you do it right and you work hard at it."