Small Business Advocate Says Climate Improving

Look where you want for an indication of the small business environment in Arkansas and you can pretty much find any scenario.

Janet Roderick, state director of the Arkansas Small Business Technology and Development Center (ASBTDC), says she’s seeing job growth and branching out.

“We are seeing a kind of improving small business climate,” said Roderick in a recent Talk Business Arkansas interview. “When I say that, the last year we’ve seen more small businesses begin to do a little more expansion.”

The ASBTDC is housed at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. It has satellite centers at various college campuses throughout the state.

It provides management and technical assistance to small businesses. From seminars and workshops to free individual consulting, low-cost training, and market research, the center helps business owners identify where their markets are and where they can grow.

“The area where we see the greatest need for small businesses is in that market identification,” Roderick said. “Where can they expand to? Where can they maintain their market? And probably the area they make the most errors in early on is not getting good market research to help them make those decisions.”

The ASBTDC has a deep reservoir of consumer market data. Through the center, a business owner in a certain location can identify consumer buying habits within a targeted region and overlay that information with demographic data, such as what a consumer reads, how large their families are, how much they spend, and what they eat when they dine out.

In 2012, the ASBTDC helped small businesses in Arkansas create or retain 1,447 jobs, increase the sales for businesses they worked with by $50.4 million, and assisted in obtaining nearly $55.5 million in total capital.

Roderick says the two major areas she sees small businesses struggle with the most are “access to good trained employees” and “access to capital.”

“You’ve got to have the financing to take care of that market you’re wanting to go after,” she said.

You can learn more about the services of the ASBTDC at this link. And you can watch Roderick’s full interview below.