Get realistic about your financing options and learn what lenders are looking for. Hear about traditional and alternative forms of financing. Find out where to go when the bank says “no.” Get tips on how to develop a strong loan proposal, the documentation required, questions to anticipate, and how banks analyze your proposal to make a final decision.

Roland Chaiton, Community Capital Development
Senior Loan Officer

Roland Chaiton has over 18 years of financial services experience. He has been a Sr. Loan Officer with Community Capital Development, (a large CDFI in WA State) since 2002. Community Capital’s loan portfolios now contains multiple loan funds, including fund sources originating from the USDA, the SBA, the Treasury Dept., Foundation Funds, and CCDs own funds, as well as many partner banks. Roland has worked with a number of textile related businesses ranging from specialized back-pack manufacturing, to dress design and production, to specialized sport apparel for police, hospital and military. His clients have included numerous startups. Many of Roland’s portfolio clients have been rather successful. A few have even won important industry and government awards. Included in those winners is Utilikilts—a kilt manufacturer, which won the Seattle Mayor’s Best Small Business in 2004. In 2011, Roland was named SBA’s Financial Service Champion for both WA State and SBA Region 10 (WA/ID/OR/AK).

Ruth Ann Halford, Fortune Bank
SBA Business Development Officer

Ruth Ann Halford has over 30 years of experience working with Puget Sound area businesses as a lender and a consultant, helping clients structure appropriate lending solutions to meet their financial needs. Before joining Fortune Bank, she was a Certified Business Advisor with the Washington Small Business Development Center, working with businesses that included importing and exporting, business and government service providers, manufacturing, medical services and technology.

She was Executive Director of the Kitsap County Community Development Corporation, a fund providing loans to entrepreneurs in Kitsap County, and managed the Olympic Microloan Fund for Enterprise Cascadia, which provided loans and technical assistance to entrepreneurs on the Olympic Peninsula. She founded and managed the SBA Women’s Business Center at Community Capital Development, for which she was awarded the SBA Region X Women’s Business Advocate Award in 2002. She worked as an independent consultant and as a commercial lender at Bank of America and US Bank.