The Virtual SBTA Finance Intensive Series is a 10-session, hands-on program for small business technical assistance (SBTA) providers. The content will provide you with the financial skills to work with clients from their raw records through to a clear analysis, projection and capital recommendation. 

The series opens with two Excel sessions, so everyone starts on the same footing. The eight finance sessions that follow start with how accounting works. They then cover diagnostic analysis, stabilization planning, financial projections and capital readiness. The series ends with a capstone where you work a full client engagement from start to finish. By the end of the series you'll have a complete engagement playbook to use with your clients. 

Who Should Attend:

This series is for small business technical assistance providers, business advisors and coaches, emerging analysts, lenders, and program and portfolio staff who work with small business financials. The only prerequisite is basic computer skills.  

Part 1: Excel Foundations:

Tuesday and Thursday, January 12 and 14, 2027   10:00–11:30 a.m. ET (90 Min each) 

Participants will learn how to move through large workbooks quickly and explore point-of-sale, QuickBooks and bank data, as well as how to build a small working projection, and trace and check formulas in someone else's file. You'll get the practice files, the completed model and a quick-reference guide to shortcuts and formulas. 

Part 2: Business Finance Intensive Series 

Tuesdays and Thursdays, January 19 – February 11, 2027,   10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. ET (2 hours each)

Instructors:

Christopher Hunter is Director of Advisory Services at the Local Enterprise Assistance Fund (LEAF), where he leads a team of analysts working one-on-one with 100–120 small businesses annually on cash flow, financial planning, and capital access, helping clients raise $3–4 million in financing each year. He oversees LEAF’s small business lending advisory function, including underwriting and portfolio review, and has helped raise more than $8.5 million in programmatic grants for small business support since 2019. 

Chris currently delivers the FP&A and accounting modules of the Mel King Institute’s SBTA Certificate Program, bringing hands-on lending and financial-counseling experience directly into the classroom. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Science from MIT and is fluent in Spanish, allowing him to serve a broader range of Massachusetts small business owners and practitioners. 

Amine Benali is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and brings with him vast experience in investment analysis and management. He is a seasoned veteran of the investment management industry, a business development and capital advisory professional, and an educator and mentor of future impact capital allocators. Amine's professional life has revolved around the capital markets as a manager of multi-billion-dollar global equity portfolios, and as an advisor to businesses, community development financial institutions (CDFIs), and impact funds 

Amine has dedicated his academic life to Development Economics and poverty alleviation. He is a former adjunct professor of Social Enterprise and Impact Investing at Northeastern University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Northeastern University and a master’s degree in economics from Boston University.