After completing the new SmartGrowth Accelerator, Northeast Arkansas businesses are ready to grow.
The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center at A-State launched SmartGrowth this summer to assist early-stage companies in Craighead, Mississippi, and Crittenden counties. Participating businesses developed high-quality growth plans and goals.
Pinnacle Marketing & Advertising, LLC took part in the accelerator’s first cycle for Craighead County businesses. Donna Wheeler, CEO and founder, said that Pinnacle has already benefited from the program.
“Not only have we gained qualified assistance in several different crucial areas like marketing and finance, but we have also uncovered new avenues and new opportunities that we didn’t think or know of before,” she said. “We also now have a tangible growth plan in place. Before, we didn’t.”
The multi-week program includes four group sessions led by Laura Miller, director of the A-State center, with business consultants Robert Bahn and Brittany Roe teaching segments on cash flow and marketing.
“The accelerator is designed to look at multiple aspects of the business – planning, marketing, and financial – in order to be purposeful and strategic with a small business’s growth,” Miller said.
Due to COVID-19, the accelerator sessions were moved to Zoom. Following the highly interactive group meetings, each company partners with a consultant to assist with developing a strategic growth plan.
Kimbelee Mathis said SmartGrowth helped her Mississippi County business “to have a clear vision and time frame to expand.” Mathis, owner of Mathis Rentals property management company, plans to build new apartments in Blytheville.
A valuable lesson she learned is to “have a back-up person to run the business just in case I get ill,” she said. Mathis included hiring additional staff as one of the goals in her growth plan.
“I’ll take away the resources and follow the strategic growth plan,” she says of her first experience with the ASBTDC.
Wheeler originally heard about the program from Bahn at a local business expo. She said she had known that the ASBTDC existed but was unfamiliar with the assistance available.
She feels confident that her business will thrive with the knowledge acquired in the SmartGrowth Accelerator.
“We now know how to approach the acquisition of government loans, fill out USA Reference Documents for finding new customers, and generate marketing ideas beyond what we originally thought possible,” she said.