Rural entrepreneurs, resilient communities, sustainable prosperity
THESE ARE THEIR STORIES
Learning to Float
How Small Business Consulting Helped a Memphis Float Spa Expand When Antwanette Crutcher tried flotation therapy for the first time on a girls’ trip to California in 2021, she had been working in corporate finance…
From Pallets to Possibility
Small Business Loan in Fort Smith, Arkansas Keeps a Family Warehouse Moving Forward When Matt Merechka married his high school sweetheart, Brandy, he brought her into the family pallet business his father had started…
Square Roots
How a Main Street Grant Relocated a Hemphill Kayak Outfitter Toledo Bend Kayak Rental recently traded a dead-end dirt road in Milam, Texas, for a renovated 1903 storefront on the nearby downtown square in Hemphill, and…
Eyes Inside
Drone Inspection Startup Launches in Nederland, Texas Kaycie Gunn spent years working in the Ethylene Unit at Sabine River Operations, writing hundreds of confined space entry permits and watching crews prepare before…
Growing Fleet
How an Amarillo Trucking Business Loan Fueled a Second Truck In Amarillo, Texas, Javier Martinez turned 20 years of trucking experience into his own company, MTZ Ranch Trucking, in September 2025. Almost a year later, a…
Breaking Ground
Working Capital Loan Backs New Civil Construction Firm in Lufkin Zane Adams and Jeremy Dickerson spent years building other companies before they decided to bet on themselves and build their own. “We’ve both…
Park Reborn
Community Volunteers Revitalize Zavalla City Park in Rural East Texas Generations of Zavalla families have built birthdays, cookouts and long summer afternoons around this park and its pavilion. The playground itself,…
Seen, Not Scored
Small Business Loan Helps Memphis Groomer Open a Pet Spa Brittany Givens has loved animals for as long as she can remember. At 18, that love led her to a job at a large corporate pet store, where she discovered pet…
The Tide Keeps Turning
Rural Water System Ownership Takes Hold in Shallowater, Texas On a Friday afternoon in July 2023, organizers in Shallowater, Texas, expected maybe 10 people to show up for a meeting. Fifty did. For two hours, customers…
Tapped Out
Emergency Well Repair Financing Kept Water Flowing in Gober, Texas For 63 years, a single well has supplied water to all 167 connections served by the Gober Municipal Utility District (MUD) in Fannin County, Texas. With no…
Fresh Current
Mound Bayou Water System Upgrades Bring New Investment to the Delta Mound Bayou, Mississippi, in Bolivar County, was founded in 1887 by formerly enslaved settlers who built one of the nation’s first self-governed Black…
Winning Back Insurance
How a Fortified Roof Reversed an Arkansas Insurance Exclusion Blanchie Brown got a brand-new roof, built to stand up to the kind of storms that wore out her old one. Her insurance policy still excluded roof damage. Getting…
Breathing Room
Fixing a Sewage Odor from a Missing Roof Vent in El Paso County Sandy Sanchez and her husband bought their first home in a rural stretch of El Paso County, Texas, early in the summer of 2026, ready to start over outside…
Learning to Float
How Small Business Consulting Helped a Memphis Float Spa Expand When Antwanette Crutcher tried flotation therapy for the first time on a girls’ trip to California in 2021, she had been working in corporate finance…
From Pallets to Possibility
Small Business Loan in Fort Smith, Arkansas Keeps a Family Warehouse Moving Forward When Matt Merechka married his high school sweetheart, Brandy, he brought her into the family pallet business his father had started…
Square Roots
How a Main Street Grant Relocated a Hemphill Kayak Outfitter Toledo Bend Kayak Rental recently traded a dead-end dirt road in Milam, Texas, for a renovated 1903 storefront on the nearby downtown square in Hemphill, and…
Eyes Inside
Drone Inspection Startup Launches in Nederland, Texas Kaycie Gunn spent years working in the Ethylene Unit at Sabine River Operations, writing hundreds of confined space entry permits and watching crews prepare before…
Growing Fleet
How an Amarillo Trucking Business Loan Fueled a Second Truck In Amarillo, Texas, Javier Martinez turned 20 years of trucking experience into his own company, MTZ Ranch Trucking, in September 2025. Almost a year later, a…
Breaking Ground
Working Capital Loan Backs New Civil Construction Firm in Lufkin Zane Adams and Jeremy Dickerson spent years building other companies before they decided to bet on themselves and build their own. “We’ve both…
Park Reborn
Community Volunteers Revitalize Zavalla City Park in Rural East Texas Generations of Zavalla families have built birthdays, cookouts and long summer afternoons around this park and its pavilion. The playground itself,…
Seen, Not Scored
Small Business Loan Helps Memphis Groomer Open a Pet Spa Brittany Givens has loved animals for as long as she can remember. At 18, that love led her to a job at a large corporate pet store, where she discovered pet…
The Tide Keeps Turning
Rural Water System Ownership Takes Hold in Shallowater, Texas On a Friday afternoon in July 2023, organizers in Shallowater, Texas, expected maybe 10 people to show up for a meeting. Fifty did. For two hours, customers…
Tapped Out
Emergency Well Repair Financing Kept Water Flowing in Gober, Texas For 63 years, a single well has supplied water to all 167 connections served by the Gober Municipal Utility District (MUD) in Fannin County, Texas. With no…
Fresh Current
Mound Bayou Water System Upgrades Bring New Investment to the Delta Mound Bayou, Mississippi, in Bolivar County, was founded in 1887 by formerly enslaved settlers who built one of the nation’s first self-governed Black…
