SEASON 1, EPISODE 20

Building Businesses in the Heartland with Zola Finch

May 4, 2021

We are so excited to have a true loan expert on the show, Zola Finch! Although we like to imagine Scott was born managing 504 loans, we owe a lot of Scott’s loan expertise to Zola’s mentorship over the years. Zola is a former Chairman of the National Association of Development Companies (NADCO) and currently is the Director of NADCO Region 7 where she oversees Certified Development Companies (CDCs) in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Zola is a graduate of William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri where she obtained a BA in Accounting and an MBA. In addition, Zola is a Certified Economic Development Finance Professional through The National Development Council (NDC) and is a graduate of Leadership Missouri. Zola joined the staff at Rural Missouri Inc. (RMI) in 1983 when it became a CDC, and was recently promoted to Executive Director of the company. Although she keeps plenty busy, Zola still finds time to be with her family (even if they’re in different states) and serve her local church as the church organist!

Zola discussed the upcoming changes to loan programs across the country as a result of the COVID pandemic, the wide variety of loans she has been seeing in her region, and the increased 504 loan activity nationwide. Zola and the guys also talk about the future of office life, the evolution of small business lending over the years, and the importance of building a good relationship with the banks. It was so much fun to talk shop with Zola and we hope she stops by the show again soon to share more of her loan expertise!

For more information about Zola, NADCO, or Rural Missouri, Inc. check out the links below:

The NADCO Website: www.nadco.org

The RMI website: www.rmiinc.org

Or send Zola an email at [email protected]

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