After nearly nine years as a laser printer repairman, Ron Hoff decided to go into business for himself. But, like many budding black entrepreneurs, he ran up against the money wall.

"I had been running my own business part time after my regular job, but it was too much. I had to make a decision, to either give up my business or run it full time. But I couldn't get a loan to get started and was ready to give it up," Mr. Hoff said.

Unlike many black entrepreneurs, who fail for lack of financing, -- Mr. Hoff was able to take advantage of an innovative funding program. Working with the Council for Economic and Business Opportunity, Mr. Hoff devised a business plan and was given a $20,000 "micro-loan" -- the sort of small loan that many banks don't bother giving businesses, especially minority-owned enterprises.

The result: Mr. Hoff's business, A Better Laser Cartridge, is flourishing. The firm's revenues increased last year to $28,000, from $5,000 in 1992. This year, it is on track for $100,000 in revenues and the company's first annual profit.

The return to society has also been dramatic. Mr. Hoff is paying off his loan ahead of time and plans to hire a full-time employee to help him in his shop on Key Highway. The 33-year-old's long-term goal: $1 million in revenues by 1998 with some of the profits going to help young men who lack fathers.

As leaders of black businesses and government gather in Baltimore this Wednesday for the third annual Black Entrepreneurship in America conference, stories such as Mr. Hoff's are bound to be at the center of discussion. Black entrepreneurs are racking up impressive successes, but still are having to fight an uphill battle to do so.

Despite improvements in many banks' lending practices, for example, studies still show that blacks are excluded from mainstream sources of financing. The challenge to policy- makers meeting this week may well be to find a way to open up private financing, while implementing the sort of public programs that helped Mr. Hoff to bridge the gap.

"Whether it's making the transition to new technologies or becoming integrated into the world economy, the single key issue for black business is capital. The challenge is to use the smaller amount of wealth to form companies that are competitive with companies that started with more wealth," said Bill Bradford, a professor at the University of Maryland College Park who specializes in black businesses.

Black business people agree that capital is their No. 1 problem. According to a poll by the Roper Organization last year of black entrepreneurs, 83 percent said raising capital was a "very serious problem." The reason, they said, is that investors and banks see black businesses as high risk and have a negative view of blacks' business skills.

The most comprehensive study on bank lending practices showed that black businesses were one third less likely than comparable white firms to be approved for a business loan. That study, done in 1987 by the U.S. Commerce Department's Minority Business Development Agency, is probably not dated, experts say, because the recent recession caused banks to cut loans even more -- with minorities the first to feel the "credit crunch."

Many banks, however, point to new programs to lend to minorities, programs that analysts of black businesses say have helped make capital available.

NationsBank Corp., for example, runs a national resource center in Nashville, Tenn., that tries to increase the success rate of minority businesses through education and technical assistance. Locally, the bank has also continued programs originated by Maryland National Bank, which NationsBank recently acquired. Last weekend, NationsBank sponsored a workshop at Coppin State College aimed at black entrepreneurs and has dedicated part of its $10 billion community lending program to minority businesses.

Another source of money could come from the $4 trillion that pension funds control. Pension funds have been wary of investing in new businesses because the funds' mandate usually involves making cautious investments, but a few venture capital funds that invest in black businesses have scored some successes in prying loose some of the funds' capital.

Besides discrimination, other forces make black businesses' progress a hard slog.

One disadvantage crops up even before the first business plan is jotted down. Many blacks are at a financial disadvantage because black families have, on average, one quarter the wealth white families, according to Professor Bradford. That gives them less collateral when negotiating with a bank. Or, if they're thinking of taking out a second mortgage on their house to pay for their business, that lack of wealth means they probably have a smaller house and so can't get as much money on the mortgage.

Because of the lack of bank and venture capital financing, personal wealth plays a crucial role for black businesses. A recent poll showed that 83 percent of black businesses relied entirely on personal savings to start up vs. 70 percent for other small businesses. Banks contributed just 6 percent to black businesses' initial financing -- the same proportion as family and friends.

Another often cited factor is the type of businesses favored by blacks. Banks and venture capital funds tend to favor biotech or hi-tech firms, but black businesses tend to be slower-growth community service businesses, such as restaurants, stores or small shops.

"It's not just one factor, it's many. And they all help to hold back black business," said Levi Truehart Lipscomb Jr., acting director of Howard University's Small Business Development Center.

Even if many black businesses are in slower-growth fields, many viable businesses are being founded. In the Brooklyn Homes housing project, for example, Rosalie Pack has established a small grocery store that defied the experts' predictions.

Ms. Pack had run a co-op between 1985 and 1990 but it failed because she says she ran it on little more than "common sense" and a conviction that people in the community shouldn't have to walk 10 blocks for a jug of milk. After her first store failed in 1990, she took a course on business management, wrote a business plan and then secured a $10,000 loan from the Council for Economic and Business Opportunity.

The financing wasn't her only hurdle. Her milk supplier initially balked at supplying the small store in the middle of a housing project, claiming the store would not order enough milk to make commercial milk deliveries worthwhile. To Ms. Pack, however, it was obvious that the store would sell gallons and gallons of milk -- most of the 500 families in Brooklyn Homes have children and few have cars. On top of that, she only marks up milk and other food basics marginally, so her goods are significantly cheaper than the closest grocery stores on Patapsco Avenue.

Just a few months after opening at the end of 1993, "Rosalie's" is ordering nine times the milk that the supplier projected and is on course to start loan repayments two months early.

"It's been an uphill struggle and it took a lot of convincing, but it's working," Ms. Pack said.

The Council for Economic and Business Opportunity's role in Ms. Pack's success is no coincidence. The program is part of a network of public, quasi-public and private organizations in Maryland that have helped make the state one of the most friendly for black businesses.

According to the Bureau of the Census, 8.9 percent of Maryland's businesses are black-owned -- the highest density in the country. And with 21,678 firms, Maryland ranks fifth in total number of firms. These figures stem from a 1987 survey released in 1991; the 1992 survey won't be released until next year.

One of Maryland's greatest assets is that it borders the District of Columbia. In Mr. Hoff's case, that means he's near "the largest number of laser printers in the world." Many other black businesses find the government more open in buying their products and that they can take advantage of minority set-aside programs.

For all of Maryland's success, the numbers could be higher, state officials say. Blacks make up 24 percent of the state's population, so they are still underrepresented among businesses. And even the state's goal of awarding 20 percent of state contracts to minorities has not been met.

To help improve the local situation, the legislature recently passed legislation that would allow the Maryland Small Business Development Financing Authority to be the first state organization in the country to invest in a private venture capital firm. The authority is to set up a "Specialized Small Business Investment Company," a private organization that would have more latitude in making investments than the authority. In addition, the legislation allowed for the privatization of the authority's management, which is supposed to become more efficient.

Even before the new legislation, the financing authority had been a model for other states' minority financing programs. While other states have typically invested in any needy company, Maryland has tried to pick promising companies for funding -- and just as important -- follow-up technical and managerial advice.

Although governments can help, their programs don't always work as intended, said Tyrone D. Taborn, chief executive of Career Communications Group Inc. As governments broaden the definition of minority businesses to included all "disadvantaged" businesses -- which include women and the physically challenged -- the usefulness of set-aside and investment programs to blacks is diminished, he said.

That's something that Mr. Hoff experienced last year. After gaining certification from the state and Howard County as a minority-owned business, he was then declared ineligible to bid on a county contract to rebuild their laser printer cartridges. The county said Mr. Hoff hadn't been in business long enough to bid -- although he had been in business long enough to be certified as a minority business. He only found out about the contract and was able to bid -- successfully -- because he had bought a small company that had been around long enough to be eligible to bid.

Despite the importance of government programs, many black businesses are succeeding without government help. When Mr. Taborn co-founded his company 10 years ago, for example, he was able to quickly establish a $100,000 line of credit with Maryland National Bank because he -- like the credit officer -- had an Ivy League education.

"It's often just a personal rapport that you have to develop," Mr. Taborn said.

The success, however, has not made Mr. Taborn immune to a typical problem that black businesses face, hyper-sensitivity to economic swings. His company, which publishes US Black Engineer magazine, produces the "Success Through Education" television show and organizes the annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference in Baltimore, had to cut back as advertisers cut their budget. His staff of 35 shrunk to 21 and annual revenues, which had hit $3.5 million two years ago, are now recovering but still only at $3 million.

"Black companies are typically first generational," said Mr. Taborn, 34, who started his company when he was a college student 10 years ago. "So they haven't had a chance to build up retained earnings. When a recession hits, it becomes a test of survival. You can't make a whole lot of mistakes or else you can find yourself out of business."

Another problem is the daily doses of racism that hold back business and wear people down. Mr. Taborn says he is constantly confronted with big businesses that want more minority hires, yet only advertise in big white publications and not his magazines, which are targeted at minority audiences.

"If I thought of all the racist things that happen to me in just one day, I couldn't go forward," Mr. Taborn said. "I'd be neurotic."