Upcoming rural business webinars

Attendees will learn about guaranteed government loans

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Two federal departments are helping host online events for rural entrepreneurs, business owners and lending institutions.

The Springfield, Mo. branch of the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are putting on Rural Strong Small Business Webinars along with the Kansas Small Business Development Center at Pittsburg State University.

The free online events are designed to help attendees improve access to lending for rural businesses, increase investment opportunities in rural areas and provide contracting opportunities to those businesses.

Representatives from the SBA, USDA and Kansas Small Business Development Center will each discuss specific topics, said Ram Basnet, branch manager with the SBA office in Springfield, Mo.

“SBA will give a very high-level overview of the programs and services we have,” he told Farms.com. “The USDA is going to talk about some of the programs it has that are geared towards rural and ag businesses and guaranteed loans. The Small Business Development Center will talk about its programs, small business loans, international trade and things like that.”

The webinars are accessible by anyone in the United States.

The events are scheduled for June 17 and July 15 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CST.

The number of people who can attend the webinars is limited. Anyone interested must register beforehand.