Firm Handles Conflict Management

Clover Mediation & Conflict Management

Owner: J. Paul Batson

Address: 2928 McKee Circle,

Fayetteville 72703

Phone/Fax: (479) 251-7752/

(479) 521-5453

Hours: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday

or by appointment

Startup date: Jan. 1

J. Paul Batson decided to open a new mediation and conflict management business after watching a documentary featuring the positive results of victim-offender mediation programs. Batson already had 20 years of experience in family counseling and a doctorate in education, but he opted to pursue more education in the mediation and conflict resolution field.

He trained at Washington University in St. Louis under Robert D. Benjamin, who is a well-known instructor in mediation training.

Batson explained that his philosophy on mediation is similar to the tune that goes “I’m looking over a four-leaf clover that I overlooked before.”

In trying to get a situation resolved, Batson said those involved “may be overlooking something they maybe overlooked before,” and he helps sort through it. That idea helped in the naming of Clover Mediation & Conflict Management, he said. Batson would like the name to be recognized as a leader in the field and hopes to begin considering opening offices in other cities within a few years.

“We help resolve conflict whether it’s conflict in court cases, conflict in marriages and families, workplace disputes, property disputes, labor relation conflicts, insurance claim disputes, contract disputes and dependency neglect cases between families and DHS,” Batson said.

There are disputes that come up in all sorts of organizations and relationships, including churches, he said.

Clover Mediation & Conflict Management tries to identify the conflict, staying clear of personalities, and guide those involved through the process, Batson said. Mediation works because of the outside objective perspective, and Batson said it works best if both sides feel they’ve contributed to the resolution.

“We try to focus on the problem, not on the personalities,” he said. “Problems are attacked, and people are not.”

Batson spent about $4,000 to open the business and hopes to earn it back in the first six months.

White Sand Weddings

Owners: Nathan and Tiffany Strayhorn

Address: 265 N. Platinum Drive,

No. 2, Fayetteville 72701

Phone: (479) 442-4131

Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday

or by appointment

Startup date: Dec. 13

Nathan and Tiffany Strayhorn had worked in the wedding design business while she was finishing medical technician school in Florida, but Nathan Strayhorn decided he wanted to do it full time when the couple moved back to Arkansas.

Tiffany Strayhorn accepted a job as an ultrasound technician at Washington Regional Medical Center, and Nathan Strayhorn invested an estimated $5,000 to start White Sand Weddings, a full-service wedding-design company.

“It’s built off the basis of a wedding planner, but we’re a lot more detailed,” he said.

He uses his artistic skills to create color story boards for each scene in the wedding so that the couple can better visualize their plans and make creative additions to them, he said. It works much like the planning of a commercial or television script.

White Sand Weddings meets regularly with the couple and the vendors chosen for the wedding throughout what is typically a nine-month planning process, Strayhorn explained.

“A lot of wedding planners do the same wedding over and over with different colors; we don’t do that,” he said.

White Sand Weddings regularly charges $1,000 for wedding design but is currently offering a $400 discount in an effort to get established in Northwest Arkansas.