5-Star Productions Gains Success with Market Change

Mike Hart has plenty of reasons to smile. His company, Fort Smith-based 5-Star Productions Inc., is having its best year ever. In July, sales reached $100,000, one of its best months ever, Hart said.

Hart’s video and film production company is averaging $60,000 in revenue a month in 2005, up from $45,000 a month in 2004. 5-Star is on track for a $700,000 year in sales for 2005, which isn’t bad for a small company, Hart said. Last year, sales reached $540,000.

But in 2001, things didn’t look so positive for the company.

“2001 came around and we took a pretty hard hit,” Hart said. “We actually dropped down to just three people.”

Hart, who bought the company in 1996, had 10 employees before the struggling economy hit him after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 5-Star did a lot of industrial production for companies such as ABF Freight System Inc., Whirlpool Corp. and Rheem Air Conditioning. However, when the economy went into recession, Hart found himself looking for a different game plan. That’s when he decided to hit the Northwest Arkansas market and expand his knowledge into producing commercials.

Now he’s back up to nine employees, including four contractors he hires out for certain projects. His client base in the Fayetteville area grew, and now 60 to 70 percent of his business comes from Northwest Arkansas.

Hart’s out-of-state business has also grown, recently getting new clients in Atlanta, Washington D.C., Florida and Texas. Hart said about 20 percent of his business has come from out of Arkansas.

Some of the company’s clients include The McIntosh Group, New Creature, Advertising Plus and Williams Crawford Agency.