This program consists of eight online self-paced courses and two webinars.
Students independently work on the self-paced courses, then meet and discuss key concepts during the webinar training sessions.
Small Business Lending Training Program - Part 1
Webinar Date: October 7, 2025 | 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm EST
Self-Paced Courses:> Understanding Your Small Business Customer:
- Explain the characteristics of manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and service companies
- Identify the advantages and disadvantages of firms in different stages of the industry life cycle, including emerging, growth, mature, and decline stages
- Describe specific types of industry risk, including buyer/seller concentration, cyclicality, international, technology, and government regulation
- Evaluate business risk factors, including operating leverage, competition, concentrations, distribution, products and services, and production
- Discuss management success criteria such as experience, integrity, philosophy, and style
- Evaluate the interrelationship between business, industry and management risk factors, as well as their impact on the credit decision-making process
> Accounting Basics:
- Describe the basics of financial reporting for financial statement and tax return purposes
- Explain the basics of financial statement construction and how the income statement and balance sheet are linked through retained earnings
- Describe how basic accounting concepts such as conservatism, revenue, and expense recognition policies affect financial statements
- Explain the difference between cash and accrual statement
- Read and understand notes to financial statements
- Explain compilations, reviews, and audited statements
> Tax Returns and Legal Structure:
- Explain the form 1040 and related schedules
- Explain the advantages and disadvantages of sole proprietorships, C Corporations, S Corporations, Partnerships, Sole Proprietorships, and Limited
- Liability entities
- Explain the advantages and disadvantages of holding and operating companies
> The Balance Sheet:
- Describe the history and purpose of the balance sheet
- Define, classify and interpret balance sheet accounts, including assets, liabilities, and net worth
- Perform trend analysis on the major balance sheet accounts
- Evaluate each asset's liquidity and its availability for loan repayment.
- Identify the terms and conditions of liabilities
- Calculate and analyze liquidity and leverage ratios
Small Business Lending Training Program - Part 2
Webinar Date: October 7, 2025 | 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm EST
Self-Paced Courses:> The Income Statement:
- Describe the importance of the income statement
- Analyze revenues to determine if they are real and sustainable
- Analyze the trend in expenses to determine if they are well controlled
- Calculate and evaluate key profitability measures, including the gross profit margin, operating profit margin, and net profit margin
- Explain the significance of EBITDA
- Calculate profit to payment obligations by calculating debt coverage ratios
> Combining the Balance Sheet and Income Statement:
- Analyze the relationship between the balance sheet and income statement and explain key ratios that connect the two statements
- Explain the concept of the cash cycle
- Calculate and evaluate receivable turnover ratios
- Calculate and evaluate inventory turnover ratios
- Calculate and evaluate payable turnover ratios
- Calculate the cash cycle and evaluate the results
- Explain the concept of working capital
- Calculate and evaluate the sales to working capital ratio
> Understanding Small Business Borrowing Needs:
- Explain how the operating cycle can vary from business to business.
- Match the needs of the customer to the appropriate loan product and explain the differences between seasonal and non-seasonal financing needs.
- Explain the concept of the capital investment cycle and determine the appropriate loan structure based upon the nature of the capital investment
> Personal Financial Statements:
- Describe the purpose of a personal financial statement
- Explain why borrowers are asked to personally guarantee a loan
- Explain the information one expects to find on a personal financial statement
- Define a guarantor, his/her obligations, and the process to assess the strength of a guarantor
- Explain a third-party guarantee and when one is needed
- Explain how a guarantor is used in structuring a loan
- Describe how personal financial statements are used to determine the guarantor's ability to make interest and principal payments
- Analyze personal financial statements to help determine sources of cash that can be used for loan repayment
- Evaluate the borrower's willingness to repay the loan
