Roots and Roofs
Fortified Roof Program Builds Workforce and Safe Housing in Arkansas Linda Madkin had lived in her Pine Bluff, Arkansas home long enough to watch it start to show its age. Most of the wear she could handle. The roof was…
Key Change
How a Mississippi Music Studio Grew from a Home Entryway to 6,500 Square Feet Four years after teaching piano lessons out of her home entryway, Emily Brandon has moved her music studio into a 6,500-square-foot building in…
Smoke Rising
A Tulsa Pitmaster Gets His Restaurant on Route 66 A new barbecue restaurant is about to open on Route 66. Behind it will be a Michigan-born, Texas-trained pitmaster who spent years cooking for crowds from state fairs to…
Get Unstuck
A Texarkana Life Coach Rebuilds Her Marketing and Sharpens Her Pitch Cynthia Brown has been coaching people through hard moments for years, but for a long time her own business sat on the back burner. That changed after…
A Chair of His Own
East Texas Barber Opens His Own Shop in Lufkin with Small Business Lending Edwin “Yogi” Cruz has cut hair since he was 19. For the first time since 2020, he’s doing it in a shop he owns. Yogi’s…
Betting Big
How a Bentonville, AR Entrepreneur Built a Premium Beverage Brand Anthony Broady wasn’t looking to start a beverage company. He was just looking for something to drink at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It was…
From Map to Mandate
How Rural Code Enforcement Took Root in Dumas, Arkansas Alvin Smith starts his mornings before city hall even opens. He drives the neighborhoods of Dumas, Arkansas, checking rooflines, watching for contractors, noting…
On His Own Terms
Leland Wear knew exactly what kind of chiropractor he wanted to be. He’d built his own practice from the ground up in Cleveland, Tennessee, and learned firsthand what it looked like to run a clinic the right way.…
Open Space
On a Saturday morning in late May, a room full of aspiring business owners gathered at the Economic Research and Development Center at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), notebooks open, computers out, ready to…
Buried Lines
In July 2024, 75 people showed up to a meeting in Gore Springs, Mississippi, an unincorporated Delta community in Grenada County. That kind of turnout reflects what months of showing up before any grant or fiber deployment…
Economic Tiger
Noxubee County, Mississippi has everything. A river winding through some of the most fertile soil in the country. Miles of pineywoods and marshland. Historic downtowns with buildings that still carry the bones of something…
Chain Reaction
How a Small Farm Loan Helped a Tyler, TX Farm Expand Fresh Produce Delivery Grace Brown started growing vegetables in her backyard in 2018. Today, she runs Uncle Paul’s Agritourism & Educational Corporation…
Roots and Roofs
Fortified Roof Program Builds Workforce and Safe Housing in Arkansas Linda Madkin had lived in her Pine Bluff, Arkansas home long enough to watch it start to show its age. Most of the wear she could handle. The roof was…
Key Change
How a Mississippi Music Studio Grew from a Home Entryway to 6,500 Square Feet Four years after teaching piano lessons out of her home entryway, Emily Brandon has moved her music studio into a 6,500-square-foot building in…
Smoke Rising
A Tulsa Pitmaster Gets His Restaurant on Route 66 A new barbecue restaurant is about to open on Route 66. Behind it will be a Michigan-born, Texas-trained pitmaster who spent years cooking for crowds from state fairs to…
Get Unstuck
A Texarkana Life Coach Rebuilds Her Marketing and Sharpens Her Pitch Cynthia Brown has been coaching people through hard moments for years, but for a long time her own business sat on the back burner. That changed after…
A Chair of His Own
East Texas Barber Opens His Own Shop in Lufkin with Small Business Lending Edwin “Yogi” Cruz has cut hair since he was 19. For the first time since 2020, he’s doing it in a shop he owns. Yogi’s…
Betting Big
How a Bentonville, AR Entrepreneur Built a Premium Beverage Brand Anthony Broady wasn’t looking to start a beverage company. He was just looking for something to drink at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It was…
From Map to Mandate
How Rural Code Enforcement Took Root in Dumas, Arkansas Alvin Smith starts his mornings before city hall even opens. He drives the neighborhoods of Dumas, Arkansas, checking rooflines, watching for contractors, noting…
On His Own Terms
Leland Wear knew exactly what kind of chiropractor he wanted to be. He’d built his own practice from the ground up in Cleveland, Tennessee, and learned firsthand what it looked like to run a clinic the right way.…
Open Space
On a Saturday morning in late May, a room full of aspiring business owners gathered at the Economic Research and Development Center at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), notebooks open, computers out, ready to…
Buried Lines
In July 2024, 75 people showed up to a meeting in Gore Springs, Mississippi, an unincorporated Delta community in Grenada County. That kind of turnout reflects what months of showing up before any grant or fiber deployment…
