The Arkansas Capital Corporation was pleased to host the USDA Small Business Round Table today. The event drew 22 guests to hear guest Lillian Salerno, Administrator for the Rural Business and Cooperative Services Agency, lead a discussion focused on the needs of small business in Arkansas, and how USDA’s Rural Business Program can better assist these small businesses. [Read more…]

Good news for the state’s small business environment: The number of loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration is increasing nationwide, and Arkansas is no exception. In Arkansas, for the SBA’s fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 237 loans worth a total of $116 million were approved. Compare that to 2012, when it approved 194 loans for a total of $93.9 million. Linda Nelson, director of SBA’s Arkansas district, said the state’s business environment is improving and its “startup ecosystem” is developing, particularly in northwest Arkansas. Nationwide, the SBA showed similar improvement, announcing that it supported loans worth $29 billion, or 54,106 loans. SBA Administrator Jeanne Hulit credited the Obama administration for its support of small business programs. With SBA loans, the administration acts as a sort of mediator between the bank and the entrepreneur. [Read more…]

In the business technology business since 1975 and in its current location since 2000, the Rogers family, owners of Capital Business Machines, Inc., realized they needed more space to expand their operations. Through the use of VetLoan Advantage, an option utilized with the SBA 504 product, and offered by Six Bridges Capital Corporation, Capital Business Machines was able to obtain ownership of a new facility that’s both bigger and more flexible for their long-term growth. VetLoan Advantage allows veterans to receive a one-third reduction in the SBA 504 loan processing fee, making it easier for veterans to expand their businesses. VetLoan Advantage offers qualifying veterans and their families a lower cost option to raise capital for fixed-asset needs.

“I would recommend that veterans check out the VetLoan product,” said Brett Rogers, president of Capital Business Machines. “We were able to stop leasing a building and get into a place of our own with very little pain. And overall, businesses can gain access to money at better rates than what they can get elsewhere, which makes it easier for them to take that next step.” [Read more…]

On an uncommonly pleasant August afternoon, two workers labored to perfect the stain on a handsome wood bar facing the entrance of Bruno’s Little Italy, while others painted a few yards away. Gio Bruno excitedly noted that a metal railing separating the restaurant from the pavement on Main Street had been erected in the few hours since he had last visited the site the day before. His brother Vince toured what will be the kitchen as Gio pointed to the locations for the steam table, dishwashing station, refrigerator. In about six weeks — the earliest that they can open the restaurant is Sept. 17, Gio says — Bruno’s will again operate under the ownership and authority of the family that founded it in 1948 (or thereabouts; signs and collective memories vary). This iteration of the beloved restaurant, on the ground floor of the Mann Lofts at 310 Main, will help anchor the redevelopment taking place along Main Street in downtown Little Rock. The Mann Lofts occupy a 30,000-SF annex to the building that once housed Blass Department Store. That 112,000-SF building, at 322 Main, is being transformed into Mann on Main, a $22 million joint venture by Moses Tucker Real Estate and the Doyle Rogers Co. [Read more…]