504 loan leads to smoother sailing.

Any business owner can tell you a story of how he climbed the ladder or made the leap from employee to employer. Few of those stories can compare to that of John Le, owner of seafood importer Seafood Connection Inc. in San Jose, Calif.

In 1979 at age 17, Le and his father boarded a boat with nearly 3,000 other people to flee their native Vietnam. Refused by Indonesia, the boat traveled on to another island ("I don't know how to translate the name of it into English," Le said.) and was refused again when it tried to land.

Le and his father jumped into the harbor and tried to swim for shore. Police scooped them up and put them back on the boat, which then traveled to the Philippines. While the Philippine government refused to let the passengers disembark, it did allow the boat to stay in the harbor and provided passengers with food.

Nine months later, they were allowed off the boat. A year later, by the time Le made it to California, where his mother, sister and brother had emigrated, he was too old to go to high school and knew no English.

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Now, 28 years later, after he went to community college, learned English, trained as a welder, washed dishes, hustled boxes in warehouses and drove delivery trucks, Le's greatest concern is finding salespeople to help him grow Seafood Connection, the import business he founded in 2001.

He's still shy about his English, which while accented is nearly perfect. Le, who has symbols of his heritage all over his office, is philosophical about his chances of growing revenue from $43 million to $100 million.

"In this business, if you work hard and keep growing, it will only grow, unless you destroy it yourself," he said.

The last company Le worked for imported meat and veal from Australia. Le started as a driver and eventually worked his way into sales and purchasing. The company wanted to enter the seafood arena and asked Le to find suppliers in Thailand, Vietnam and China, and manage the unit with the understanding he needed to reach a 10 percent net profit.

"The third year the economy was down and I only made a 7 percent net profit," Le said. "So while that businesses ended, my suppliers said, 'We will support you.' I had a lot of connections and I started thinking about doing it on my own."

When he started Seafood Connection, Le rented freezer space from a customer. He outgrew the 500 square feet within six months and had to rent 9,000 square feet. When that freezer space ran out within two years, he moved to 18,000 square feet but he was soon running short on freezers again.

"An agent brought me to look for space and said, 'You should buy, not lease.' I said, 'I have no money, how can I buy?' and he told me to find people to invest," Le said.

He secured $600,000 from investors--some were businesspeople and some family members--and in 2003, he worked with Bay Area Development Co. and Comerica Bank to secure $1 million through the Small Business Administration's 504 loan program. The bank financed another $2.2 million and Le purchased a 30,000-square-foot building in south San Jose.

The SBA's 504 program provides longterm, fixed-rate financing for land and buildings through a certified development corporation. It also requires related job creation.

"Basically on a 504 transaction, there are three pieces" explained Fernando Alvarez, Le's loan officer with BADC, the certified development corporation. 'The bank provides 50 percent of the financing in first position, we provide 40 percent in second position, and the buyer comes in with 10 percent.

"The advantage for the small business is that without our participation, they would have to come in with 20 to 30 percent. Plus from the bank side, instead of the bank having 80 percent exposure, they have a 50 percent exposure."

BADC's 504 financing in mid-February was at 6.13 percent for 20 years.

"By shifting cash flow by adding back the rent he was paying, he was able to substitute the 504 loan," said Alvarez. "And his old building was just like a storage locker."

Le's sales in his first month in operation were $75,000. They reached more than $3.5 million a month in 2006. Within two years, he had paid his private investors back.

"If you grow bigger, you need more support from the bank ... that's why the bank is very important" Le said. "If you don't have the bank support, you can't do it"

About half Le's customers are in the United States. His next step is to work on getting more domestic customers--and hire the right salespeople to bring them in.

"Experience is not that important, because I learned from nothing. If you're a hard worker and I can train you, if you are willing to work hard, then you can be one of those salespeople" Le said.

Jonathan Ranard, a Cincinnati seafood importer, has worked with Le for a few years. In a business where your word means everything, Ranard said Le's word is golden.

"When he says something is going to get done, it happens, and in this business that's not always the case," Ranard said. "He's a self-made guy for sure."

LE'S BIGGEST CHALLENGE?

"I always make growth. The next step is how much.... The next 10 to 15 years, I'm looking for $11 million a month in sales."

A GROWING PAIN?

"The hardest thing is control. The overall control of the company and finance and workers. If you grow bigger, you need more support from the bank and more workers."

Seafood Connection Inc. * 1979 Monterey Road, #110, San Jose, Calif. 95112 * (408) 286-1388 www.seafoodconnect.com * Founded 2001 * 30 employees * 2007 revenue: $43 million