Longtime NWA banker launches consulting business

Longtime Northwest Arkansas banker Ron Branscum has made a career change.

Branscum resigned from Arvest Bank in December and launched Strategic Business Consulting Inc. (SBC) with a focus on helping businesses develop financial strategies to increase profits and grow. He said SBC has picked up several clients in the first half of the year purely by word of mouth.

“I’ve been very pleased with the start of this year,” Branscum said.

Branscum started his second stint at Arvest Bank in the spring of 2019 as a senior vice president and commercial banker, overseeing Arvest’s commercial lenders in Rogers, where it has eight branch locations.

Branscum was previously the first Northwest Arkansas market president for Batesville-chartered The Citizens Bank, which entered the market in 2015 and has three offices in the region. Branscum joined the bank as city president of the Rogers market in June 2017 and was promoted in September 2018.

A Jacksonville native, Branscum previously worked for Arvest Bank in Benton County from 1998 to 2010, beginning as a senior credit analyst and then working his way up the commercial lending ladder.

Branscum left the banking industry for private business from 2010 to 2017, working as president of a speech therapy company in Rogers called Regional Therapy Services, running the day-to-day operations of a business he owns with his wife, Deedra, who launched the company in 2001.

Branscum said SBC offers various finance and banking services drawing on his years of industry experience, which includes working for the Arkansas State Bank Department.

“For many years, I’ve noticed a large number of business owners and entrepreneurs that are in the same situation,” he said. “Many times, there are too many hats and responsibilities that take them away from focusing on the shape of their financials. That is a critical issue for a business.”