UW and Wyoming SBDC Network to Host Business Loan Workshop in Laramie May 2

Small-business owners will have the opportunity to learn how to get a first small-business loan request approved Thursday, May 2.

Jim Drever, Drew Dietrich and Amy Lea will lead a Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network workshop titled “The Inside Scoop: How to Get Your First Small Business Loan Request Approved” from 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m. at the Albany County Public Library, located at 310 S. Eighth St. in Laramie. To register, go here. Registration is free, and attendees are encouraged to bring a lunch.

The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by the University of Wyoming with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

The workshop, co-sponsored by the U.S. SBA, will take small-business owners behind the scenes and share what it will take to get ready to approach a lender and how small-business owners can increase their chances of getting an approval for their loan requests.

The workshop will cover preparing a personal financial statement; checking your credit score; what your safety net looks like if it takes longer than you expect to achieve the revenues you’re projecting; and a hands-on case study to review cash flow projections for a loan application to better understand how to evaluate a potential deal from a lender’s perspective.

Drever is the Wyoming SBDC Network regional director for Albany and Carbon counties. Previously, he was a marketing director and project manager at a software company, had a small consulting business and co-founded CyberWyoming with the Made Safe in Wyoming program.

Drever has been a source for cybersecurity for small businesses in The Wall Street Journal and has presented on the topic at national conferences. Beyond general business assistance, Drever specializes in e-marketing, e-commerce and risk management, especially cybersecurity. He is a certified ethical hacker and has a chief information security officer specialist certification with a background in vulnerability assessment, ethical hacking and cybersecurity risk assessment and management. He assists and advises clients about cybersecurity statewide.

Dietrich is the east central regional director for the Wyoming Business Council. Lea is the district director of the Wyoming district office of the U.S. SBA.

Workshop attendees also will have an opportunity to schedule a free one-on-one appointment with Drever to assist with developing cash flow projections for their businesses to help explain to their lenders where the money to repay their loans will come from -- in a format they will understand.

For more information, call Maureen Johnson, marketing, communication and database manager for the Wyoming SBDC Network, at (307) 343-0925 or email mjohn125@uwyo.edu.