Arvest Leads State in Small-Business Lending

Lycia Shrum went all in when she opened Blackboard Grocery & Eatery on Dickson Street in Fayetteville.

Fresh off a move from Austin, Texas, she did not own a home or other property to put up as collateral and did not “come from money,” she said. She had no Northwest Arkansas connections and no experience as an entrepreneur.

What she did have was a business concept that, after months of research, she determined was a good fit for the city.

She also had some well-honed skills, earned through years of working in the customer service and food industry, and about $30,000 — all of which went into securing a location in the UARK Bowl building.

Without a $150,000 U.S. Small Business Administration loan through Fayetteville-chartered Arvest Bank, Shrum would not have been able to open her specialty convenience store.

Arvest was the leading SBA lender for Arkansas in 2014, said Carol Silverstrom, public information officer for the Little Rock-based state district office of the SBA.

Arvest made 145 government-backed SBA loans, a record high for the bank, totaling more than $32 million in loan volume, and representing a 22 percent rise from its previous high tally of 112 loans in 2012, according to a press release from the bank. 

Shrum’s experience is a testament to the accessibility of these loans, and she also credits the bank and its partner, the Small Business & Technology Development Center at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, for helping her through the process.

“It was not as scary as I thought it would be,” she said. “I’m glad they saw the vision as I did and saw the potential.”

But Shrum did not come to the table without first dotting her I’s and crossing her T’s. She spent months crunching the numbers before she approached the bank.

Coming from Austin, a market that was saturated with stores similar to Blackboard — including Royal Blue Grocery, Shrum’s previous employer — she spent a good deal of time researching Northwest Arkansas, and found that the concept of a bodega, sort of an urban market, seemed new to the area.

Blackboard, open since December, is a place where customers can find all the usual, varied staples of a convenience store (Coke, Doritos, cigarettes, beer, allergy medicine), along with those of a small grocery, including a plethora of local and regional products, plenty of natural foods products, some fresh produce and grab-and-go products like salads and sandwiches.

The staff can whip up a cappuccino made with product from Onyx Coffee Lab, and the store’s other fresh-made offerings include breakfast tacos, fresh soup on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, as well as curry du jour on Thursdays. 

Paninis and sandwiches are available daily, and Arvest vice president and commercial banker Eileen Jennings recommends the grilled pimento cheese sandwich.

Jennings was Shrum’s point person at Arvest. She said SBA-backed loans give Arvest flexiblity to take on riskier clients, often those who are just starting out and lack cash flow or collateral for a commercial loan.

“We really have a team approach to lending,” Jennings said. That includes making sure business owners have the right resources to help fine-tune their business plans.

That also includes providing equipment leasing, payroll and human resources solutions — for which Arvest partners with Employer Advantage of Joplin, Missouri — and helping with international business transactions. The bank helps smooth out any wrinkles which develop in changing currencies.

Arvest is an SBA-preferred lender, which makes the lending process more streamlined, she said.

Fitness 4 Less co-owner DeWayne Benson said, “Eileen and everybody at Arvest made the whole thing easy on us.”

He and business partner Mike Maynard used SBA loans to help open their first location on Citizens Drive in Fayetteville and last August opened a branch on Southeast Walton Boulevard in Bentonville.

Fitness 4 Less is unique in its approach to membership, and both Maynard and Benson have compared the business model to others during their years of extensive experience running fitness centers throughout the country.

“Most gyms charge a flat fee, and you’re paying for access to equipment whether you use it or not,” Maynard said. “Then there are low-cost gyms, but they are very plain Jane. They’ll have some weights, cardio and maybe tanning.”

Fitness 4 Less is a full-service gym that builds membership around an individual, Maynard said, taking into account the equipment they will be using and not requiring a contract.

“[The SBA-backed loan] gave us financial flexibility to provide the services we wanted, to buy equipment and offer programs, while also paying our people well. You can have all the best equipment in the world, it’s the people who make us what we are,” Maynard said.

Benson is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, which allows for more advantageous SBA loan opportunities, Jennings said, but there are opportunities for entrepreneurs from all walks of life.

“We have a lot of really great success stories,” she said. “We don’t tell the story a lot about Arvest as a commercial bank, but it’s the best bank for commercial clients.”