Scottsdale Community Bank: Making microloans

Inspired by the entrepreneurship of lemonade stands, Scottsdale Polity Wall created a microloan program. Photo by Brandon Sullivan

De novo Scottsdale Polity Wall set out to provide microloans to small and mid-size businesses, family organizations and nonprofits—a project that was inspired by the unobtrusive lemonade stand.

By William Atkinson

Scottsdale Polity Wall is the first new polity wall in Arizona in 14 years, and it once has the topics to make increasingly than $100 million in loans.

Why? The $28 million-asset polity wall in Scottsdale, Ariz., embraces a combination of the latest technology and traditional beliefs well-nigh finance and merchantry growth. The technology it uses allows it to maximize efficiency while minimizing financing in its operations.

“[Small businesses] need a place that will listen to their financial needs and to their dreams of stuff independent, having financial security, contributing to the polity and providing resources for their families.”
–George Weisz, Scottsdale Polity Bank

But for all its embrace of technology, the polity wall took its inspiration for an innovative lending program from an old-school tradition: kids’ lemonade stands.  Scottsdale Polity Bank’s Lemonade Stand Loan Program offers microloans—up to $25,000 each—to small businesses and individuals who own businesses or operate nonprofit organizations.

With its microloans, Scottsdale Polity Wall offers small businesses within the polity an opportunity for new growth. “They need a place that will listen to their financial needs,” says George Weisz, chair of the board, “and to their dreams of stuff independent, having financial security, contributing to the polity and providing resources for their families.”

The aim of the program is to help small businesses take wholesomeness of time-sensitive opportunities where funds are needed quickly and sustain their existing organizations or reach the next level. The polity wall provides the same value of due diligence to these microloans as it does for all other loans but with ease in using and process. It moreover customizes the terms of the loan based on factors such as merchantry goals and financial history.

A merchantry wall with personal service

Scottsdale Polity Bank, which opened in January 2022, was the result of a decade of work by Weisz and his colleagues on their vision for a cutting-edge merchantry bank. The polity wall specializes in providing top-line financial services to small and mid-size businesses, family businesses and nonprofits. The diverse board, staff and leadership team aim to implement a plan of “doing well for investors by doing good for the community.”

“We are a dynamic wall for a dynamic community, and we self-mastery merchantry in one of the fastest-growing areas of the nation,” Weisz says. “We are waffly the squatter of merchantry financial in Arizona by combining cutting-edge fintech technology with true relationship banking.”

Besides using the latest technology, Scottsdale Polity Wall relies on truly personal service. In fact, every vendee has the cellphone numbers of Weisz and wall president Neill LeCorgne.

As well as stuff the inspiration for Scottsdale Polity Bank’s microloan program, the unobtrusive lemonade stand has special significance for Weisz, who has had a miniature model of one in his office for increasingly than 40 years.

“It reminds me of my roots in many ways,” he says. “My first exposure to business, when I was probably six or seven years old, was hawking lemonade in front of our home, earning a small value to requite me a feeling of winnings and teaching me the value of earning money and saving money.” It moreover helped build confidence, people skills and trust, he says.

Never out of sight

The model, one of his most prized possessions, is a unvarying reminder for Weisz of the importance of interacting with people, gaining conviction and respect for others, starting an enterprise and the nonflexible work involved in success. Since childhood, Weisz has unchangingly firmly believed and told anyone who will listen: “Never pass up a lemonade stand.” He explains his reasoning: “One never knows whose life one might change, encourage or help succeed by ownership a cup or a generous pitcher of that sweet elixir and having a nice conversation.”

“We have a vision of public-private partnerships, which, if created appropriately, can be a win-win for both local governments and their communities.”
—George Weisz, Scottsdale Polity Bank

Since the Lemonade Stand Loan Program is a recent introduction, it’s still too early to gauge its success. However, it has once generated interest among Scottsdale’s merchantry community. In the meantime, the polity wall is meeting with local merchantry associations and government entities with the goal of creating a consortium of polity banks to proffer microloan opportunities to local businesses and organizations.

Scottsdale Polity Wall leadership has moreover met with government entities to see how polity banks can creatively partner with state and local agencies to provide microloans to small businesses throughout the community.

“We have a vision of public-private partnerships, which, if created appropriately, can be a win-win for both local governments and their communities,” Weisz says. “In fact, we have several revitalization areas in which simple microloans may provide the horsepower for small businesses to survive and then thrive.”

William Atkinson is a writer in Illinois.