Smart Capital funds still available to local businesses

Businesses that are in need of working capital to get started or expand but are having a hard time mustering the collateral for a loan can still take advantage of a program that Sundance helped pioneer almost a decade ago. Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz offered a reminder last week that the Wyoming Smart Capital Network (WSCN) is still going strong.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for folks who are looking to start businesses,” she said as she described the history of the program. Sundance was one of the 17 municipalities that originally signed up to help disperse $13 million.

This was soon achieved and the U.S. Treasury provided an additional $4.3 million to the fund, allowing the WSCN to continue assisting businesses. The current list of projects includes two our community is part of, Lenz added.

The pot of money is described as “evergreen”: it never runs out because it is offered in the form of loans, so it is all eventually paid back to the organization and can be reinvested. The funds available have, in fact, grown, said Lenz, because the Northeast Wyoming Economic Development group recently dissolved and donated $700,000 to WSCN.

WSCN has now provided collateral support to more than 90 small businesses across Wyoming and claims to have created over 500 part- and full-time jobs, generating an estimated $12.5 million in annual wages for Wyoming citizens. It does this through two financial tools, one that provides additional capital by purchasing up to 25% of an eligible small business loan and another that invests in Wyoming-based early stage and growing companies to support local business.

In Crook County, eligible lenders include Sundance State Bank and Pinnacle Bank.