Agriculture- House Small Business & Economic Dev. Subcom.
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- October 6, 2026
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
6:00
we'd like to call the meeting to order like to welcome everybody today to the house
small business and economic development subcommittee glad everybody could be here today co-chair mcgee you
Speaker 24
6:21
got have any comments well this is better than than my other op obligation this one was putting up Halloween decorations, so I got out of doing that in the rain.
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
6:34
Well, again, we're glad everybody's here. We'll get right to the agenda. Representative Vaught, would you like to approach the table and present for us? Please identify yourself for the record, and
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
6:51
you're welcome to begin. Representative Dan Vaught, District 87. I
want to thank everybody for being here today to focus on an issue that matters deeply to our state's future, the growth, resilience, and potential of businesses owned by women
and minorities here in Arkansas. When we invest in all of our entrepreneurs, we strengthen our communities, we broaden our opportunities, and we build a more dynamic and thriving economy. across the United States entrepreneurship is increasingly diverse yet barriers still remain in Arkansas we both have encouraging progress and clear gaps and recognizing both is the first step toward uh toward change here's some of the important facts about Arkansas that
helps us ground this conversation in reality according to the U.S. Small Business Administration administration's 2022 profile of Arkansas racial minorities made up 20.6 percent of the workers but owned only 13 percent of their own businesses in our state when it comes to women-owned businesses more generally a recent article noted that Arkansas ranks very poorly were 47th out of 50 for women-owned businesses according to Clarity Capital. In a report from the Women's
Foundation of Arkansas on women of color business owners for black-owned businesses in Arkansas women account for 60 percent of the ownership compared to 40 percent by men. The SBA's profile for 2021 in Arkansas, there were 258,552 small businesses. Small businesses comprise 99.3% of all businesses in our state. These numbers tell us several things. On the positive side,
minority businesses ownership is growing and minority women are a substantial part of that growth. On the flip side, though minorities represent 20% of our workforce, their ownership share is much smaller. The gap signals possibility barriers to ownership, resources, access to growth. The statistics that Arkansas is ranked 47th for women-owned businesses shows that women
entrepreneurs face a more uphill climb here in our state despite their energy their ambition and increasingly visible presence women of color in particular are pushing through despite difficulties the women foundation report emphasizes that the fact that small businesses which include many minority and women-owned businesses make up virtually all businesses in the state of Arkansas underscore how critical and it underscores how critical these entrepreneurs
are in the state of Arkansas. Why should all Arkansans not just minorities and women business owners care about these numbers? Here's a few things that will help connect it. Economic growth and business creation. Small businesses are the engine of job growth. When more entrepreneurs succeed, more job creations, more tax bases built, and more local economies thrive. We should have opportunity for all. If ownership is equal, that means opportunity is equal. Ensuring women and
minority entrepreneurs have access to ownership means more of our population can achieve economic security, generational wealth, and empowerment. Innovations and diversity of ideas. This is where entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas, new products, services tailored to underserved markets, and often fill community niches that others might miss. We also have
resilience. Local businesses rooted in their communities help buffer against economic shock. Supporting minority and women-owned businesses means strengthening the entire ecosystem. Of course, we can't speak of the potential without acknowledging some of our obstacles. Some of the barriers that show up in Arkansas and beyond include access to capital and financing. Access to capital is essential for entrepreneurs to start, sustain, and grow their businesses.
Yet many women and minority-owned businesses face added challenges in securing loans, equity investment, or favorable financing terms. By expanding access to capital and financial resources, we can help more business owners bring their ideas to life, create new jobs, and strengthen communities across our state. Networks and mentoring is something else we could look into.
Having more businesses, having more mentors, business networking and supplier connections and formal certification programs could help a lot. Where these are weak, growth can still stall. Regional disparities, while certain parts of Arkansas are booming entrepreneurial hubs, for example, northwest Arkansas, other regions may be lagging, leaving uneven opportunities.
Now, the good news, there are promising efforts already underway. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission reports that in 2023, Arkansas certified 50 businesses as minority and women-owned business enterprise, bringing the total certified to 335 businesses. The Women Foundation report highlights the growth of women of color business owners as a significant trend.
A blog piece from AEDC indicated that women-owned smaller businesses are actually rising in Arkansas. These developments show momentum, and momentum is everything in entrepreneurship. When we build infrastructure, networking, certification, access to contracts and capital, that signals clearly that minority and women entrepreneurs are valued here in our state.
In closing, I want to emphasize that when we talk about minority and women-owned businesses, we're not talking about charity. We're talking about smart economic strategies. We're talking about fairness. We're talking about unlocking human potential. Arkansas has the talent and the grit and the entrepreneurial spirit. The statistics show both the progress and the gaps, but together we can close all these gaps.
Let us commit today to lift up our entrepreneurs, ensure that ownership in Arkansas looks like Arkansas and builds a future in which every person with ambition has a fair shot at ownership, prosperity, and to have an impact in their communities. Thank you, Representative Vaught. That was a
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
14:45
great presentation. Do we have any questions for Representative Vaught? Reverend Steele.
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
14:56
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, Mr. Chairman, while I have the cue, let me also thank you for putting together this meeting. Really appreciate your leadership. Representative Vaught want to certainly thank you. That's why you're my shero. Thank you for all you do and your leadership. You mentioned 20%. What was that alluding to? I missed the part. Okay.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
15:27
Let me go back up here. So I was talking about the owners. On the positive side, minority business ownership is growing, and minority women are a substantial impact in that growth. But on the other side of that, like opposite side of the coin, minorities only represent 20% of that workforce. That's it. Thank you so much. Yes, sir.
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
15:57
Any other questions for Representative Vaught? Seeing none, thank you for being here. Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have Esperanza Masana Crane. She's with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. She is the Director of Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Development. Please identify yourselves, and you're welcome to begin.
Esperanza Massana
Unverified
16:27
Good morning. My name is Esperanza Massana Crane, Director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development at the Arkansas Economic Development
Speaker 54
16:38
Commission. Good morning. Allison Hatfield, Chief of Staff at Commerce. Thank you
Speaker 51
16:47
for having us. So I am here to present and talk about some of the programs that AEDC has been working on the last few years to enhance small business and entrepreneurship development in the state. I have been with AEDC for 12 years now, and when I started my role in the small business side, I can tell you that it's significantly different than traditional economic development.
It's a very complex world, but a beautiful one, and one that is filled with resources and great partnerships across the state. In the last two years, AEDC has launched a number of initiatives with the objective and the goal to promote small business and entrepreneurship from the ground up. One of our most impactful programs is the 75 Strong program, which we officially launched earlier this year. And we have recruited about six, well, initially 70 leaders that are community developers, economic developers around the state.
all corners of the state so that they can build capacity and go through a certification program so that in two years well the certification program lasts two years and ultimately the goal is that they will be graduating as entrepreneurial developers and they can facilitate the strategic planning around small business within their communities it's a very impactful program and it's through the Economic Development Institute, which is a nationally recognized organization
in economic development. They graduate about 100 professionals nationwide. Arkansas will be having 63, and I think that speaks volumes of the investment the state is putting into these type of programs. And again, the goal of this program is to go into all corners of the state, particularly rural areas. Another initiative that we, it was existing, but we have revamped it is, and we actually are working under budget on this one, is ARISE, and if you're not familiar with it, and this
is on our side of science and technology programs, we have a strong focus on growing the technology sector and technology-based businesses in the state, and ARISE stands for the Arkansas innovators, startups, and entrepreneurs. And it is a program that provides mentorship, coaching, training, access to capital, completely free to tech and tech-enabled startups all over the state. They have actually hired outreach leads that focus on the northeast corner of the state,
south corner of the state, as well as northwest and central Arkansas. Again, it's an initiative that is completely free for entrepreneurs that they have access to, and they have done a really good job trying to grow the awareness around that program. Within the technology side, we have some incentives, but I will speak particularly about the Accelerator Program, which is a program that, and a lot of these programs, some people might not be familiar with them, but we have even more than these.
I'm just on the surface speaking about some of the key ones. But this, the accelerator program is meant to promote and grow technology and technology-based startups and put them into this 12-week, 8-week, 12-week, 14-week program where they can scale their business rapidly. And AEDC every year funds 2 million, puts $2 million into this program, And we fund a variety of accelerators that range from agriculture technology to AI, machine learning, health tech.
We have one in maternal health, global cycling, and more. Another program that we have that we're working in partnership with the University of Arkansas Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation is called the Arkansas Business Resource Hub. And this is one that was birthed as a necessity of connecting entrepreneurs. with resources. A lot of times, you know, they go into Google and they don't know where to go or who do I ask if I want to start a business. This is a platform that puts all these resources
together in an online format and they're accessible to entrepreneurs. But it's basically a database of resources where they can find events around the state happening, you know, and they can actually search for specific resources. So if they want to look for, you know, funding for a woman-owned business or for a tech startup, you know, all the resources that are around that topic will come forward. Again, that's another program that we're investing in, in partnership with the
University of Arkansas. And happening this week is a new initiative that we're partnering with, the Northwest Arkansas Council called Onward FX, and this is a program that brings venture capitalists into the state. So Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we will be having 25 or so venture capitalists coming to meet with entrepreneurs in the state, and that will happen all day Thursday. It's almost as, it operates as a matchmaking event, but this is with the objective
to bring this investment to the state and give our entrepreneurs the opportunity to meet with VCs from other parts of the country. In addition, of course, for them to meet with industry leaders in the state and have an idea of the ecosystem that we're trying to build in the state. So that said, those are some of our programs. And the picture that I want to paint is that we're trying to build entrepreneurship and small business from the ground up. When you think about 75 Strong, that is one that wants to equip leadership so that whenever there is someone in Camden, Arkansas,
I want to start a business, but I don't know where to start, you know, there is a strategy behind it, and it's left at the local level where they're empowered to help these entrepreneurs. And then, of course, from a higher perspective, we have events and, like, onward effects that are trying to bring capital into the state. And our role at AEDC is to be a connector and a resource provider for small businesses and entrepreneurs so that we can facilitate, educate, and especially connect our entrepreneur support organizations that we have so many of.
Another event that we have going on, or not event, initiative is we have a monthly call that happens the first Wednesday of every month where a number of entrepreneur support organizations come together. The call is led by AEDC, and the objective of the call is to bring all these partners that work with small businesses and entrepreneurs together to facilitate, communicate, so that they know what is happening, what events are happening around the state, how can they help better promote events or support one another. So those are just a few of the initiatives that we have at AEDC.
Speaker 55
24:01
We are extremely busy, but it's good work and very rewarding. Thank
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
24:11
you for that presentation. Very good. Do we have any questions for Ms. Green?
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
24:18
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very good presentation. What is your, I know the definition of small business has been changed a few times. What is the, as far as the employment number, what's the number of employees that you have to have to be considered a small business?
Speaker 51
24:36
Yeah, that's a really good question. So the Small Business Administration classifies as small business as any business under 500 employees or less, which honestly puts the majority of businesses in Arkansas under the consideration of small business. And follow
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
24:54
up, if I could, Mr. Chairman. Your technology initiative, how many
employees, the minimum number of employees that you can have to be involved with that particular initiative?
Esperanza Massana
Unverified
25:08
So, you know, startups really range. They can be as few as one employee, and startups, for
Speaker 51
25:13
the most part, have very few employees. Typically, you know, I would say, I mean, less than five. So for the Arise programming, there's not a limit. it's it's primarily that they a have to be arkansas based um b they have to be highly scalable so they have to show um you know scalability um but it in terms of how many
Speaker 68
25:32
people they are that that's not a necessarily a criteria next we have representative moore thank you mr chairman
Speaker 70
25:46
thank you for coming thank you for
your information how are most arkansas made aware of these programs that you speak
Speaker 51
25:54
of so our arise program is subcontracted with startup junkie consulting which is an entrepreneur support organization and they have been working very diligently to expand the their communication and they have hired outreach leads which their local community leaders in northeast arkansas and also in South Arkansas. And then, of course, they have a presence in Northwest Arkansas,
and then they also have presence in Central Arkansas. So they're operating, because that was one of our asks, was we really need to expand the coverage and create awareness around that. So they go around the state and they do training sessions
Speaker 72
26:34
and grade visibility in that way. Representative Shepard. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Tara Shephard
Unverified
26:45
Chair, and thank you for your presentation. That was wonderful. And my question is along the lines of Representative Moore.
I really like what you stated about the Arkansas Business Resource Hub. What's the exact website I can send
Speaker 55
26:58
individuals to? Oh, yes, perfect. It's ArkansasBusinessResourceHub.com. Oh, okay, very simple. Yes, and you can
Speaker 51
27:04
also go to our website, ArkansasEDC.com, which might be easier, and there is a tab for small business and entrepreneurship, And all these resources are listed there, and because many of them are partnerships, the links are there
Speaker 55
27:17
for all the programs. So that may be easier. Okay.
Representative Tara Shephard
Unverified
27:21
And the information listed will educate an individual on how to go from startup in regards to their
Speaker 55
27:29
businesses. Yes. Okay. And we always encourage them, you know,
Speaker 51
27:33
if you have questions, call us. We don't provide technical assistance, but we typically refer small businesses and entrepreneurs to the Small Business Technology Development Center, which is a very long acronym but it's sbtdc and they are in the state they have different centers all over the state and their goal is to provide technical assistance to businesses so say
Speaker 55
27:54
i have an idea how do i go about it they help them or i already have a business but i am stuck like how can i increase my profits and so they sit down i can help you look at your profit margins balance sheets and so forth
Speaker 51
28:11
or they can help develop business plans marketing plans um they it's completely free and they assign a consultant to the business owner so that they can work with them together they do an exceptional job
Speaker 55
28:20
and so we always try to promote them because they are really the first line of of support for entrepreneurs what one last question Mr. Chair
Representative Tara Shephard
Unverified
28:30
now I'll stop um so do you all host community events on how to start businesses
Speaker 51
28:38
that would be SBTDC because that's their niche and their focus and in the Arkansas Business Resource Hub for instance you will find if if you take the time to go there you will see how many events you have you know just last week there was an event in Northwest Arkansas called Right to Start and just talked about it but SBTDC hosts numerous trainings and workshops and a lot of times some
in some organizations they are recorded so it's it's usually just getting to a place of support and then they hand you off somewhere else but there's so many free resources available okay thank
Speaker 55
29:15
you thank you for that you're welcome next in the queue we have
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
29:23
representative dalby thank you mr. chair thank you
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
29:26
for allowing me to ask a question i'm not a member of the committee so thank you uh and thank you for your presentation i learned a lot just listening you're really busy and you're really doing a lot
of things how many folks or do you keep up with how many do you reach on a monthly basis like you have your your round table that meets on wednesday i think you said um you know how how many are you reaching or not reaching out to but participating i'm just kind of curious because there's a lot of programs going on and and particularly I'm from the southern part of the state and I'm interested in you know the outreach there but just in round numbers because you're doing an awful lot and I
Esperanza Massana
Unverified
30:12
hope you're reaching a lot of folks yeah thank you um so on the ESO
Speaker 51
30:19
call we have on average 63 individuals that join the call and they typically represent entrepreneur support organizations so you know would be say venture center startup junkie conductor um and various other organizations that maybe, you know, there's an organization called Granted in Northwest Arkansas that helps individuals write grants. And so their background vary. And you can register on our website to join the call.
And I find it very helpful because, yes, we do a lot of work, but so do a lot of our partners. So I would say for the call we have about 63, on average 60 or so every month. and then in terms of the other events you know since our goal is mainly to be the connectors and so many of those are subcontracted it like arise for instance had in their first year which we're already a year and a half into the program they have worked officially with 140 companies in
the state so they enrolled 140 that were
Speaker 72
31:21
eligible that they've worked with and I think I had let Let me
Speaker 51
31:28
see if I have some numbers there. They delivered 715 individualized consulting sessions with entrepreneurs across the state. The meeting supported a total of 139 startups, with services ranging from initial onboarding calls and assessments to capital readiness, planning, and market development. And that's just on year one. Well, thank you.
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
31:47
And thank you for your efforts, because it is vitally
important to all of us, whether in the northwest part of the state particularly I think there's a real gold mine in the south part of the state for entrepreneurship and small businesses so thank you and thank you for your presentation thank
Speaker 51
32:04
you and I will you know emphasize that it's 100% a team effort I have a great team but also have support great support from from my leadership and you know they really significantly have believed and invested in small business and entrepreneurship the last couple years And, I mean, I am a witness of
Speaker 84
32:20
that, so I will say it comes from the top down.
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
32:26
Thank you. Any further questions for Ms. Crane? Ms. Hatfield, do you have
anything you'd like to add? Thank you both for being here. We appreciate your presentation and
Speaker 87
32:41
answering questions. Thank you. Just help us promote the programs. Thank you. Appreciate
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
32:46
it. so i want to thank rep steel for uh initiating this meeting he he had a longer list of invitees but uh several of them couldn't be here today i think it would be prudent for us to hold a
another meeting in the future and try to get those individuals here so they can they
can share what they do uh any other questions or or any other comments or
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
33:16
any other business for this committee today. Representative Steele. Thank you for allowing me to assist with this critical meeting. You're absolutely right. Thank you. And of course, your wonderful staff did a great job of working to pull this together. But some of our invitees, SBA and others, are affected by the government
shut down and so hopefully they can be at the next meeting and appreciate the opportunity to have another meeting and keep this dialogue going. Let's make
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
33:43
sure to plan on that in the future and try to get
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
33:47
that done. Mr. Chairman we also have some people in the audience that may like I know the chamber of commerce is here representing I don't know if it's appropriate for them
Speaker 37
33:58
to maybe introduce themselves. Sure would you like to introduce yourself?
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
34:03
Sure, yes. I'm Tiana Smith. I'm the Director of Diversity Initiatives and Member Outreach for the Little Rock Regional Chamber. Would you approach the table so we can? You won't be on the live stream. They won't be able to hear
Speaker 95
34:23
you unless you sit at the mic. Identify yourself and feel free to begin. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tiana Smith. I am the Director of Diversity Initiatives and Member Outreach for the Little Rock Regional Chamber. what that means for this chamber is that means that i work with all of our minority women and
veteran-owned chamber members and non-profits i also work with all of our chamber members to contact them on a monthly basis about 50 to 100 members a month as well as 12 and a minimum of 12 visits one-on-one visits with small businesses to make sure we strategize with them share resources like adc asbtdc and 50 more eso's that are available in the state and also make sure they aware of other opportunities for them to network engage get mentorship and other and other things so i just want to offer the opportunity to also for everyone to reach out to me as well i have a
one pager with a lot of the resources that miss esperanza mentioned and um any other um option we have to help you all to spread awareness to help other small businesses in other parts of the state thank you do you have that
Speaker 96
35:23
one pager with you today i can email it okay
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
35:26
i can email Yes, yes, if you'll do that he'll pass it to the
members. Thank you Representative Garner did you You have some comments.
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
35:36
I do thank you First Esperanza and the and the whole team. Thank you so much for everything you've done
We've talked about this for a lot of years and it's exciting to see these programs come to be so thank you very much for that I'm the other thing mr. Chair I just would love to to state to the committee and ask actually for everyone to pay attention to what's going on right now in early childhood and the child care crisis. I do think that it's something as we start looking at the numbers just and obviously this isn't a any kind of anything but a survey
from Arkansas providers but we're looking at lots of closures We're looking at kids who don't have places to go and parents who won't be able to go back to work because of child care. So we've had the child care committee meeting. We've had several emergency commission meetings. We're still meeting. We're meeting tomorrow. So we're meeting all the time about these issues. But I just want you guys to be aware that it's a huge problem in the state, And we're looking at thousands of people that will be without child care, without jobs, and millions of dollars eventually, I think, in the economy that will be taken out of our budget.
So anyway, I just am asking you all to be aware of what's going on and check it out and ask me any questions, or I'll find out if I don't know. So thank you. I just want to make that comment. Thank
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
37:11
you, Representative Garner. any other discussion amongst the committee or any other business that we need to attend to today
thank you all for being here today and seeing no other business we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Comments by Co-Chairs
C. Discussion of Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions of Women and Minority-Owned Small Businesses
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — AGRICULTURE- HOUSE SMALL BUSINESS & ECONOMIC DEV. SUBCOM., Oct 27, 2025 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 1
Speaker 4
Speaker 9
Speaker 6
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
Speaker 24
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
Esperanza Massana
Unverified
Speaker 54
Speaker 51
Speaker 55
Speaker 68
Speaker 70
Speaker 72
Representative Tara Shephard
Unverified
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
Speaker 84
Speaker 87
Speaker 37
Speaker 95
Speaker 96
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified