Study: Small Business Center Helps Businesses Grow

BusinessCentral ArkansasNortheast ArkansasNorthwest Arkansas

by Steve Brawner ([email protected]) October 22, 2014 5:49 pm 107 views 

Businesses that received five or more hours of help in 2012 from the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center created more jobs and increased their sales more than other Arkansas businesses.

The center on Oct. 14 released the results of a study conducted by Dr. James J. Chrisman of Mississippi State University. The study compared employment and sales data from the year the clients received help to the year afterwards. Those numbers then were compared to the average changes for all Arkansas businesses.

According to the ASBTDC’s website, the study found that those clients:

  • Increased employment 27.1%, compared to an average of .1% for other Arkansas businesses;
  • Added 1,256 jobs while retaining 520 existing jobs;
  • Increased sales more than $62.7 million, which equaled a 12.4% increase, versus a 5.1% increase for other businesses; and
  • Generated $3.7 million in state tax revenues and $3 million in federal taxes paid.

Chrisman said in an interview that he used numbers from sources including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the ASBTDC’s own survey.

The center assists new and experienced entrepreneurs in business creation, management and operation in seven offices across the state. It offers confidential consulting and market research at no charge along with paid training. The Little Rock-based Lead Center is located on the second floor of UALR’s Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business and Economic Development.

Chrisman, head of Mississippi State’s Department of Management and Information Systems, serves as a consultant studying Small Business and Technology Development Centers at the state and national levels. There are 63 of the centers in the 50 states, territories, and Washington, D.C., all funded partly by the federal Small Business Administration. Typically, clients are seeking help because they are growing and want to do better, or because they are struggling. He said that, nationwide, he does see a consistent correlation between involvement with the centers and business success.

“Arkansas tends to be a strong performer just looking at it individually in comparison to other states. You know, they tend to do pretty well,” he said.