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WY Entrepreneurs Bring In $22.6 In Loans For Their Businesses

Small businesses that received help from the University of Wyoming-based Small Business Development Center brought $22.6 million into the state in 2013.The SBDC provides small business owners and people wanting to start a business with free services, including planning expansions, putting together loan requests, and marketing. State Director of the SBDC, Jill Kline, says 2013 was a good year.

“It does vary from year to year, [2013] is a little bit of an exception. We did have some larger loans that individuals received, but they all are from small businesses,” says Kline. 

She says the millions of dollars that the SBDC generated doesn’t include salaries from created jobs or other capital.  

“That capital is, we call it capital infusion, is strictly the loan amounts that they received to build their business,” she says. 

Ultimately, the goal is to create and sustain jobs in the state. Kline says that in 2013 businesses that have worked with SBDC and its partner programs created or sustained close to 1,200 jobs.

SBDC is supported by state and federal funds and based at the University of Wyoming.

Irina Zhorov is a reporter for Wyoming Public Radio. She earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from the University of Wyoming. In between, she worked as a photographer and writer for Philadelphia-area and national publications. Her professional interests revolve around environmental and energy reporting and she's reported on mining issues from Wyoming, Mexico, and Bolivia. She's been supported by the Dick and Lynn Cheney Grant for International Study, the Eleanor K. Kambouris Grant, and the Social Justice Research Center Research Grant for her work on Bolivian mining and Uzbek alpinism. Her work has appeared on Voice of America, National Native News, and in Indian Country Today, among other publications.
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