KY SBA awards Neighborhood Ventures ‘Microlender Of The 12 months’

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Neighborhood Ventures’ (CV) long-running success serving to Kentucky entrepreneurs launch and develop small companies has netted them each the 2022 Kentucky Small Enterprise Affiliation Microlender of the 12 months award and the Veteran Lender of the 12 months award, bestowed for making essentially the most loans to veteran-run companies. As well as, Miller Slaughter, CV’s Western Kentucky Enterprise Improvement Specialist, was awarded the Heavy Hitter award for closing essentially the most microloans. Between October 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022, a complete of 163 loans had been sourced by Neighborhood Ventures. The awards got on the Kentucky SBA Lenders Convention held on October thirteenth in Lexington.

By SBA grants aimed toward educating new entrepreneurs and people rising and increasing their companies, Neighborhood Ventures’ microlending crew supplied 11,800+ hours of pre- and post-loan technical help to small enterprise homeowners over the previous yr. Along with instructing aspiring enterprise homeowners enterprise fundamentals, a big period of time is spent serving to purchasers entry federal Covid Reduction funding aimed toward serving to small companies mitigate the continuing results of the pandemic.

Lew Whalen, Vice President of Lending for Neighborhood Ventures, heads up the microlending crew. However Whalen insists that the success of the microlending program is as a result of dedication of his crew of enterprise growth specialists. The crew assists purchasers in Kentucky’s city and rural areas from places of work in Lexington, Louisville, Owensboro, Campbellsville and most just lately, Bowling Inexperienced.

“Technical help is the majority of the enterprise growth specialists’ jobs. They assist our purchasers navigate the challenges of beginning and working a small enterprise,” defined Whalen. “They train them methods to develop a marketing strategy. They assist them perceive authorized points and know-how and entry applications and sources.

“Most of the those that come to us are these that may’t get credit score by means of the banks, usually due to their credit score rating or lack of collateral. Our individuals assist with monetary literacy and credit score rebuilding, in brief, to make the consumer “bankable.” We companion with the Girls’s Enterprise Middle, SCORE, Small Enterprise Improvement Middle and others. My crew is superb at what they do, as evidenced by these awards. We need to thank the Kentucky SBA for his or her recognition and the funding that makes it attainable for us to serve Kentucky entrepreneurs.”

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