Lending Roundtable....

Let's face it, these days everyone wants to have a meeting. When in doubt, call a meeting. And we can very easily get burnout from running from meeting to meeting. But there are exceptions where you need to take the time to attend, and recently I took the time to be a part of one of those meetings.

Yesterday I sat on a great panel full of lenders down in White River Junction for a Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation Financing Solutions Roundtable. That panel included Sandy from VEDA, Josh from Community Capital, Sam from VCLF, Kevin from the SBA and David from USDA. There were also other bankers in the room, a rep from the VTSBDC and a rep from the VT Women's Business Center. Attendees included several local business owners and they had some great questions for the group.

First off I suggest if you haven't had the chance to attend a meeting like this, with a mixed group of financers talking about how their programs work and interconnect, do it! I say this to all you existing and aspiring business owners, as well as all you bankers in the room. I know I learned quite a bit from each of these agencies, and I consider myself well versed in who they are and what they do.

As a banker its nice to stay up to date on what each of these agencies have to offer, and its also great to hear what their recent experiences have been within the marketplace. The opportunity to give real life examples of how these agencies can and do work together is invaluable. There are a great deal of misperceptions on how these entities work, and this roundtable helped to eliminate those misunderstandings, again for the business owner and the other partners.

I know there are more of these roundtables being scheduled, I believe the next will be in the Rutland area. Keep your eyes and ears open for when the next one is coming to your area and make an effort to get to it. I guarantee you will learn something new and useful, connect or reconnect with other partners, and will have a great opportunity to have direct access to these great partners all in one place.

Here is a direct link to the SBA Vermont field office's schedule of events. Check in with it periodically to see what is being offered in your area! http://www.sba.gov/events