WOMEN ENTRENUERS 2016 by Arkansas Times

ARKANSAS TIMESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

WOMEN Entrepreneurs Sponsored by

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

WOMEN Entrepreneurs presented by First Security

GLASS IS FOR TABLES.

NOT CEILINGS. When you have a vision for taking care of customers, the best person to work for is often yourself. First Security is proud to serve women entrepreneurs – and everyone else – investing in our home state.

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

fsba n k .co m • on lyin ar k.c om Member FDIC

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

Sponsored by

HEATHER

JAVONNE

Smith D

SMITH LEADS LOCAL RETAIL REVOLUTION WITH DOMESTIC DOMESTIC.

omestic Domestic, a trendy men’s lifestyle store in Little Rock, isn’t Heather Smith’s first retail rodeo. Not even close. “This is my sixth start-up,” she said. “I think I’m just a natural-born salesman. I love the work.” As a matter of fact, Smith can step out onto the sidewalk, look left and see one of the businesses she started — Eggshells Kitchen Co. — just a couple of doors down. She can also look around the neighborhood and around the community to see how unique the independent business community has become. “In so many other communities, everything is cutthroat,” she said. “And here [entrepreneurs] just truly want to see each other succeed. No one is looking to edge out the competition. We all realize the better I do, the better my neighbor does down the street and vice versa.” Smith, 37, has lived enough places to know the difference between a welcoming small business environment and the notso-friendly variety. It’s one of the things that drew her and her partner, attorney Sarah Ort, back to Central Arkansas. She launched Domestic Domestic as an online store in 2013 — half of the store’s sales are still online — and opened her brick-andmortar location in the Heights in 2014. “In other communities where I’ve lived, people are quite selfish and they look out for No. 1 and No. 1 only,” Smith said. “It might not be the best business model for us to say we all cooperate but those relationships make [Little Rock small merchants] very unique.” At each stop along her entrepreneurial journey, Smith has demonstrated an eye for opportunity, of which Domestic Domestic is a prime example. One of the few shops of its kind anywhere in the city, it creates a vibe that’s palpable from the first step through the front door. “It definitely has that masculine, kinda woodsy feel,” she said. “There are just so many great feminine boutiques in town, and there wasn’t really anything for guys. People have a real easy time finding a place 4

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

to get gifts for women and we wanted to be able to complement that with gifts for men.” Smith not only stepped into this underserved niche, but did so with a commitment to feature only American-made products, something many people didn’t even know was possible, let alone find a market for them. But that’s precisely what she’s done, including a fair number of Arkansas-made products. “When I owned Eggshells Kitchen Co., my personal buying habits and buying habits for the store started to shift to higher quality,”she said.“I wanted products that were more generational, that could pass down more like heirlooms, that sort of thing. And I started noticing that a lot of those products were manufactured in the United States. That aesthetic was really appealing to me and so that was the concept for this store.” Now expecting her first child, Smith hasn’t slowed down much and is generally front and center in the showroom most days. “I find that my success comes from being an owner-operator and not just an owner,” she said. “I’m in the business on a daily basis and not just in the back, but on the sales floor. That’s the part that really drives me. I love the customer interaction.”

Jordan T

FAMILY AND FAITH TURNS BAD SITUATION INTO THRIVING CAREER.

o look at Javonne Jordan’s business now, you would think her timing was practically clairvoyant, perched as she is in one of the trendiest neighborhood in Little Rock. The truth is, as she’ll gladly tell you, bringing Inretrospec Recycle*Regift*Reuse to life was as much about adjusting to changing tides as having an ironclad master plan. “You always have a tendency to set out with what you think is the plan and then the plan always gets altered,” she said with a chuckle. Jordan, 40, had no intention of getting into retail when she purchased two decrepit apartment buildings on the corner of 12th and Center Streets, well ahead of the development and new affluence that would eventually come to the South Main area. “We bought these two properties that had been dilapidated for years, around 2005,” she said. “I had every intention of renovating the apartment buildings. The bank gave us the loan to get the property, [but] when we went back to the bank to say ‘Here’s what we need to renovate,’ the bank said no, the market crashed on us. “After a couple of years trying to get funding, we also lost a battle with the city. They gave us so many days to knock the buildings down.” Owning little more than a commercially zoned patch of mortgaged grass, Jordan looked for ways to generate income while she pondered her next move. She found inspiration in a long-held talent she shared with her mother. “As a kid, my mom and I would go shopping and we could shop all day long,” she said. “I mean, our eyes would be bloodshot red and we would leave the mall and then rush to TJ Maxx because they closed 30 minutes later.” Jordan turned her inexhaustible spirit — and her knack for finding bargains — toward picking antiques which she’d flip at outdoor flea markets. She was so good at it, in just a few years she was able to build Inretrospec on her site in SoMa.

“The furniture and clothing and antiques here are all hand-picked,”she said “We take a lot of pride in finding really good things.” To see Jordan at work today is to see a woman pursuing her true calling, as well as a family affair. Her children — James, 13, and Nia, 6 — often work in the store with her and she’s extended her reach for picking antiques with a little help from her husband and fellow entrepreneur, Darryl Jordan. Darryl’s moving company takes him to all corners of the U.S. and when the client’s load drops, Javonne is more than happy to fill the homebound trucks with more locally picked treasure. Meanwhile, the neighborhood has caught up to Inretrospec. Sandwiched as it is between some of the city’s best restaurants, shops and reviving neighborhoods, the store looks like it’s always been there and moreover, that it was meant to be there, Jordan, for one, doesn’t disagree. “I definitely know that God has been in this the whole way,” she said. “Sometimes, we think that because something is not great that it’s simply that, it’s not great. But it’s really just his way of showing you that he knows what’s best. And it may not feel good right now but you’ll be able to see a result in the end.”

Sponsored by

MARY JO

RENÉ

Sikkema

Hooper

SIKKEMA’S LITTLE RASPBERRY AND WHITE FOOD TRUCK WAS A LUCKY FIND.

t’s a refurbished horse trailer, the kind she had wished for to use as a food truck for her business, Velvet Whisk Cheesecakery, for a while. “I had gone online and seen some horse trailers used as food trucks and I liked that idea,” says Sikkema, who worked in higher education and the nonprofit sector before getting into the food business. “I just couldn’t believe my luck when I found one right here in Little Rock, and it was already a food truck.” Sikkema opened Morsels Desserts while she was still living in Yanton, S.D. She was selling to about 15 grocery stores when she and her husband, Keith Robinson, moved to Little Rock so he could take a job as philosophy professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She started out with a variety of desserts, but she began specializing in cheesecakes because that’s what the market demanded. “A lot of restaurants had them on their menus. But it’s a particular style of cheesecake that I didn’t really like that much,” says Sikkema, who says her cheesecakes are creamier than the dense ones she found. “I decided to make this different style and see how it goes and it turned out to be true that other people like it, too,” she says. Her Morsels cheesecakes were selected by The Nibble, an online gourmet food website, as a Top Pick for Food Connoisseurs. She established the New Cheesecake Co. in 2013, after she happened upon an ad on Craigslist from a woman who makes chocolates who wanted to share commercial kitchen space in Greenbrier. Sikkema makes her cheesecakes from scratch in that kitchen — party-sized cheesecakes as well as single-serve sizes. “Everything is made from scratch,”’says Sikkema, who also caters events. “I make the crust from scratch, if there are sauces involved, I make all those from scratch.” Lemon strawberry cheesecake is her personal favorite, but she says turtle cheesecake is the most popular with customers. “People like that one because it has chocolate sauce and caramel sauce and 6

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

people really like that,” says Sikkema. She takes her food truck to events around Central Arkansas, though she is open to venturing further out into the state. “Some of the churches are inviting food trucks monthly as an outreach kind of thing,”she says. “Businesses do it, generally for employees when there’s no cafeteria, but it’s open to the public. Those are really successful. I try to do as many events as I can, some big ones and some small ones. It’s a hard slog, the food truck business.” Food trucks are at the mercy of the weather and the changing seasons. The Velvet Whisk’s food truck allows her to follow her dream of owning a business without the risk of signing a lease. “It sure as heck is a lot more economical to do food that way than it is to have your own restaurant. For people who want to do food and want to do it less expensively, this is a good way,” she says. Sikkema’s son, Christopher, is a senior at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D.; their daughter, Nicole, lives in Little Rock. Having grown children makes it easier for Sikkema to focus on her food truck business, and having the food truck business makes it possible for her to spend time with her 1-year-old grandson. “You can choose to do certain events or not, you can work it around your schedule. There’s a certain amount of flexibility that gives you.”

HOOPER MAKES FITNESS PRACTICAL WITH MULTIFACETED CROSSFIT TRAINING.

oftspoken she may be, but René Hooper is all about explosivity. In the two years since opening CrossFit Align, the North Little Rock CrossFit training center, Hooper’s been making it her mission to provide quality physical and mental training to people from all walks of life. “I might have a woman in her 60s on one side of me and a high school baseball player on the other. We’re all pushing each other to be better,” says Hooper. After running competitively in college at UCA, Hooper was at a loss as to how to exercise once she graduated.“I got used to being on a team and having that outside drive, always having a goal and a coach,” she says. She was already working as a personal trainer at the Little Rock Raquet Club when she discovered CrossFit. Like many people, she’d always been skeptical of the exercise program, but upon looking into it further, she was drawn by its multifaceted and practical approach to fitness. “CrossFit is about getting you doing what you’re already doing really well,” Hooper explains. “It’s about building a better quality of life, whether that’s being more competitive in your sport, more agile in your workplace or simply staying out of the nursing home.” Hooper brings an impressive educational background in dietetics and physical therapy to her coaching, along with years of experience. Working in a variety of settings as a physical therapy technician, “I discovered my passion was more in teaching people how to move really well so they don’t hurt themselves,” she says. As a certified CrossFit coach since 2012, Hooper teaches athleticism as a way of life, focusing on the everyday benefits of improved strength, flexibility, endurance, and other principles built into the CrossFit program: “Whether it’s balance and reaction time on an icy walk, the UPS man using proper lifting technique, or training for the baseball season, we’re retraining movement patterns so you don’t hurt yourself.” Added bonus: it’s a LOT of fun. Hooper

refers to the gym as their “adult playground.” “Right now we’re all trying to get better at walking on our hands,” she says of her current training gang. Turns out the physical principles involved in handstands are beneficial all around. Because CrossFit is personalized to each practitioner, finding a knowledgeable and intuitive coach is paramount. Hooper is constantly self-educating based on her clients’ needs. “It’s very interactive work, consulting with other coaches and with students,” she says. Ultimately, CrossFit Align is a place of healing for both the body and the mind. Alongside Collin McReynolds, Hooper is building a safe space where people can develop according to their personal goals in a nonjudgmental, teamwork-centered atmosphere. “We try to instill in people to be OK with failure, to face it head on and break it down into bite-size pieces and figure it out,” she says. “That applies to every part of your life, so people come out of here more confident in general.” Providing reliable nutritional guidance, physical training, and unflagging personal support, Align has proven to fill a vital role in the area. “We got into it just trying to do the right thing,” Hooper says. Clearly, she’s succeeding.

WOMEN Entrepreneurs presented by First Security

THEY ALWAYS WEAR THE PANTS.

EVEN WHEN THEY DON’T. When you have a strategy for success, the best person to work for is often yourself. First Security is proud to serve women entrepreneurs – and everyone else – investing in our home state.

fsba n k .co m • on lyin ar k.c om

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

Member FDIC

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

Sponsored p by y Sponsored by Sponsored by

AMY

Denton W

DENTON SERVES CLIENTS, PROMOTES LEADERSHIP WITH PEDIATRICS PLUS

hen Amy Denton and her husband, Todd, purchased Pediatrics Plus 14 years ago, you could fit the entire company in a garage – employees, clients and all. “A friend of mine actually started [the company] and it was serving about 10 or 12 clients. Very, very small operation,”she said. “I went to work for her after hours because I got off work at 2:30 every day. When she and her husband were looking to sell it, I thought, you know what, I can do this and I can really make it awesome.” Recently married and relocated, it was a period of radical change in Denton’s life, to say nothing of having zero experience running a business. Undeterred, Amy developed a plan that focused on the basics and dug in. “I have very particular ideas on how I like things done,”she said.“I’m very progressive, I like to be forward-thinking and I like to look for new ideas and try to always be improving what’s happening. My experience at places where I’d worked was that these weren’t always welcome attributes. “I just took everything I’d learned from experiences of working at different companies through college and after college, got a core group of people together, and we sat down and created a vision and a mission and some values. We all just said, ‘We’re going to do this.’” Denton’s twofold plan – deliver the utmost in caring service and expertise to the patients and do all you can to take care of your employees – proved to be symbiotic components of the same equation. “What we did in the very beginning was sit down and say, ‘We’re going to put our patients and our families first and we’re going to treat our staff with respect and give them autonomy, lots of flexibility, really try to make sure we set it up where everybody is happy to be here.’ “We set the culture up from the very 8

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

beginning with the mindset that we’re going to be all in. It’s a really positive culture which, when you’re serving children with special needs, the last thing they need from us is to not be positive and to not be happy when we’re there.” Denton’s simple philosophy has led Pediatrics Plus to big things in the state. The company now operates four offices throughout Central Arkansas, and grew its staff from around 10 in 2002 to nearly 450 today. The vast majority of executive leadership is homegrown, which has helped the original vison stay intact even as the company has expanded beyond Denton’s ability to manage every aspect. “The biggest challenge has been maintaining consistency and the level of quality across the board without being in control of every little piece. That’s definitely been the hardest part,” she said. “But, we still have the majority of the original crew that started with us 14 years ago and a lot of those people are now our executive team. “Our main goal has always been to create a culture where the kids of the families we serve have the best of the best we have to offer. That’s what we really try to do.”

Milholland A

MILHOLLAND’S EARLY START LEADS TO SEW FAST ALTERATIONS

my Milholland learned to sew quilts and clothing for her dolls and progressed to making clothes for herself. “One of my grandmothers quilted, and she had us make little doll quilts and doll clothes and other fun things. We would spend a week with her in the summer and she would have projects for all the girls to do – I had mostly girl cousins,” says Milholland, owner of Sew Fast Alterations in Sherwood. “She taught us how to crochet and things that were fun. I think a lot of things like that, if you learn, they just stay with you. I was really young when the interest was instilled.” Milholland started making her own clothes in her teens. “I started buying patterns at Hancock’s when I was in junior high and high school and doing that. I would start drawing what I wanted to make and combining patterns to get what I wanted and just did more creative things than I mostly do now,” she says. Milholland worked in the alterations departments of several stores before she opened her shop in 1985. She doesn’t make custom clothing there, although she tried that the first couple of years she was in business. “I decided I needed to focus on either that or on alterations and I realized there was more of a demand for alterations,” she says. She and the two women who work for her do everything from simple pants hems to more complex alterations, like men’s suits and prom dresses. They promise to have items ready within one week for simple items but may need more than two weeks for more complicated work. They do offer rush jobs on hems or minor repairs. “But for most things, we take our time and we go for quality work, and it really does take time,” she says. “I think people have a notion that we can just zip some-

thing out, and some things we can, but with most things we take our time and make it look just like it did when they bought it. We want to have it professionally finished and we do put a lot of time and thought into it.” Sew Fast’s busy season kicks off in September, with school uniforms and cheerleader uniforms, and that leads into cotillion, homecoming and holiday seasons. As prom nears, the shop bustles again. Milholland grew up in Little Rock, but the time she spent on her grandparents’ farm in Florida makes for precious memories. Besides sewing, she and her cousins got to help with gardening and other projects. “It was kind of like living in the past, kind of like living on the land,” she says. “I remember picking strawberries from the garden and coming in and my grandmother would make biscuits and we would eat those fresh strawberries.” Milholland doesn’t sew as a hobby much anymore, and she rarely finds time to sew things for herself, friends or family. She’s making something special right now, however – a quilt for her first grandchild, due in November.

Sponsored p by y Sponsored Sponsored by by

BRITTANY

ERIN

Sanders T

WEST LITTLE ROCK PHARMACIST SANDERS FINDS PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS

he vibe you get walking into The Pharmacy at Wellington is one of immediate welcome. With a pleasant interior well-stocked with your daily needs, and smiling faces behind the counter ready to help, you know you’re in a place where quality care is paramount. This is exactly what founder and owner Brittany Sanders is going for. After working for several years in a chain pharmacy, Sanders knew it was time for a change.“I just felt like there were better ways to take care of patients than we were able to in a big-box setting,”she says. What she saw missing in this area was something that offered the convenience of a big-box pharmacy – longer and weekend hours, a drive- through pickup option – combined with the things that make for better service, like quality staffing, free delivery and on-site immunizations. With the goal of providing a better level of service, she and her business partner opened The Pharmacy at Wellington last October. Closing in on their one-year anniversary, the rapidly growing West Little Rock area has enthusiastically welcomed them to the neighborhood. That feeling is mutual. Sanders has loved getting more involved in her patients’lives. She says, “I like knowing what’s going on, that they had surgery last week and how that’s going. It’s nice to be able to help them manage more aspects of medication than just handing them something over the counter.” That personal interaction was what led Sanders to her profession in the first place. “I always knew I wanted to be involved with health care,” she says. “I loved people and the natural chemistry, so pharmacy was a natural fit.” Sanders graduated from UAMS in 2005, so with more than a decade of experience in pharmacy, along with management and front-end retail experience on her resume, she was ready for the challenges of running a business.

“It’s managing every little aspect, taking responsibility for things like hiring and health care benefits for my employees,” she says. But Sanders also has found unexpected help along the way. For example, information from the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center at the University of Arkansas was invaluable in writing the business plan for The Pharmacy at Wellington. Sanders says, “There are a lot of resources out there that you don’t know about until you go and look for them and use them.” This pervasive sense of collaboration in the pharmacy is what Sanders thrives on. As a wife, mother of a 7- and a 9-year-old, and frequent foster parent, teamwork is important in her family life, too. The kids might roll their eyes when they have to stop at the pharmacy on the way home from church, but“they get it, they’re supportive,” Sanders says fondly. Being a business owner has expanded horizons for the Wellington community and for Sanders herself, who is getting used to looking at the bigger picture as a manager and care-provider. “Life doesn’t just happen from 9 to 5,” she says, “and I want to be there for people.”

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

Eason T

EASON PARLAYS SERVICE, FINANCIAL SKILLS INTO SUCCESSFUL WORK

here was never a time in Erin Eason’s professional life that she wasn’t working with money. “Actually, I’ve never done anything else,” she said. “I started out as a teller in a bank right out of high school.” That humble first job sustained her through her time earning a degree in management at UALR and into the full-time working world. Eason steadily worked her way up the management ladder at local banks until she landed as an assistant to a financial adviser and discovered her true passion. “I like helping people and being able to tell people they have enough money to live the rest of their life,”she said.“And, being able to problem-solve when they don’t and figure out how we’re going to get there.” Eason, 45, moved into financial advising exclusively in 2002, and to say she did things the hard way is an understatement, trying as she did to manage clients’ money in one of the worst market slumps since the Great Depression. But the times also sharpened her instincts and her drive to succeed, allowing her to take advantage of opportunities. “It’s a very male-dominated field. I think the first time I walked up to a door for a cold call I realized I was 100 percent female,” she said. “In my client’s age range of 70 to 85, the majority of the women in couples ultimately make the decision on who to hire as a financial adviser. If you are able to relate financial information to both of them in layman’s terms without making them feel as though they are asking stupid questions, you can be successful. “A lot of people get into financial advising because of the analytics and stock-picking and number-crunching, but the reality is it’s a sales job. A lot of people like the investment side of it, but you can’t do that if you can’t do the sales part of it.” Eason, a Lonoke native, found a particularly strong toehold among seniors and niche populations such as firefighters, where word about her traveled fast. Her

natural wit and easy conversational style only added to the picture. “Working with municipalities across the state – fire and police – that’s a subculture unto itself,” she said. “They all referred me to their friends and employers because all firemen pretty much work two jobs. It’s just grown from there.” Eason launched her own firm in 2014, and having her name over the door just spurred her on. As a customer service, she regularly crisscrosses the state to call on clients who appreciate her straight-ahead style and measured investment approach. “I’m ultra-conservative,” she said. “I try and protect money with the slow, steady rate of growth rather than try and knock the cover off the ball.” Male-dominated and heavily regulated though her industry is, Eason can compete with the best of them, another payoff of years of experience in the business. “It’s not an impress-your-clients thing as much anymore as it is a down-to-business, cut-and-dried, here’s-what-I-can-do-foryou,” she said. “The reality is you can buy stock anywhere. It’s completely about trust and selling yourself and getting somebody to trust you.” WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

Sponsored p by y Sponsored by Sponsored by

KRISTI

GINA

Dannelley

Radke “D

LEAN EARLY YEARS FORGED RADKE’S ENTREPRENEURIAL METTLE

o you want it by the hour or the whole night?” Gina Radke remembers the shock at the desk clerk’s question, delivered sober as a Sunday, during a business trip to Seattle. The fledgling CEO had been tearing up the road beating on every door that would open – and a few that didn’t – trying to market the company she and her husband had sunk their last dime into back in Arkansas. And now, she and an intern along for the ride had landed a reservation in a hotel for which the term“business center” had a whole other meaning. “Have you ever seen the movie ‘Tommy Boy,’?” she asked. “That’s what I felt like.” It was 2008 and Radke and her husband, Wade, were living the downside of the American dream. Their company, Gallery Support Innovations, had suffered the one-two punch of a flatlining economy and the rank inexperience of its owners. Wade took a second job as the company sputtered and Gina dove into any source of information she could find trying to turn things around. “Google and YouTube became my very best friends,” she said. “I learned how to run a machine by YouTube, I learned manufacturing software via Google. I began to seek out any kind of education I could get on manufacturing. I went to Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions, SCORE, Small Business Administration, Arkansas Economic Development Commission; I mean, I knocked on every single door that would give me any information, especially if they would give it to me for free.” Gina, 38, regards the Seattle experience as more than just a great story. Looking back on it now, she sees the trip – which also included her contact at Boeing leaving her to rot in a lobby waiting room for eight hours – as a defining moment both personally and professionally. “It definitely taught me perseverance,” she said.“I’m not afraid to lose, at this point. 10

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

I figured when you have stayed in a hotel where they ask you if you want it by the hour, you’re not afraid to get out there and do what you gotta do.” Perseverance paid off with an invitation by the state Economic Development Commission to attend the National Business Aviation Association’s annual trade show. It was the crack in the door the Radkes had been waiting on. “After we got our bearings the first day, it became we’re gonna shake every hand that we have to, meet every person that we have to, knock people over if we have to until we leave with something,” she said. “That show opened up a whole new world for us.” Today, the company is a leading supplier of custom after-market locks and latches for private and commercial planes, trains and yachts. The Sherwood headquarters employs 28 and just stepped up from 8,000 square feet into 20,000 square feet of space, signaling the best part of the company’s story is yet to be written. “I’m not afraid to work hard. I’m not afraid to do what I gotta do,” Radke said. “I know what being broke feels like, and it didn’t kill me, so I’m not scared of it.”

DANNELLEY ON TARGET AS CO-OWNER OF MAGNA IV

risti Dannelley expected her stay at Magna IV to be brief, but 18 years later now, she has no plans to leave. In fact, she’s now co-owner of the growing print and marketing business. “I had been in public accounting as an auditor and I really was tired of traveling. I took a job as the accounting manager for Magna IV and I really thought this would be a stopover and I would go on and work for a private company like an Alltel or a Dillard’s,” she says. “But I really loved it here. I still love it.” She moved up to controller, then chief financial officer and then chief operations officer, joining her partner Kent Middleton in buying the business from his parents. “We do all types of printing, but what we really do well is help customers solve problems by centralizing and streamlining the procurement of their marketing needs,” Dannelley says. “The printing business is very technology-driven and is rapidly advancing so we’re constantly making investments to ensure we’re delivering the most value we can to our customers. Today, I may be researching new equipment to make us more efficient. Tomorrow, I may be meeting with one of our larger client accounts to develop a program that will help them reduce their marketing spend while increasing procurement efficiencies.” Magna IV has full-time programmers and the technological capability to build online marketing portals for clients, effectively creating “one-stop-shops” for businesses’ print and marketing needs. “Our marketing portals are extremely valuable, especially for those big businesses like Dave & Buster’s or Gold’s Gym with multiple locations. The general managers can go to these portals and order brochures, signage or t-shirts—really whatever they need. By ordering it all through one central location, they are able to ensure brand consistency,” Dannelley explains. “Their colors are consistent, their logos are consistent, the sizing is consistent… We are able to do that because we have such varied capabilities. There are very few

printers, even in the nation, that have the breadth of services Magna IV does.” Magna IV has served national clients like Gold’s Gym, Dave & Buster’s, ConAgra Foods and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, along with several well-known local companies such as Dillard’s, Staley Electric and Harding University. Dannelley also founded and oversees Magna IV’s gifts company, Incredibly Charming Paper and Gifts, which offers monogrammed and personalized items, as well as grab-and-go paper goods, foam cups, apparel, sorority lines, tumblers and more. When she’s not creating new product lines or addressing customer’s needs, Dannelley spends her time volunteering and spending time outdoors with her husband, Scott, and their sons, Connor, 10, and Cole, 8. Scott bought her a bow for her birthday a few years ago. “Honestly, I’m always going, from the time I get up in the morning until I get into bed at night,” she says. “So when I started bow hunting and I realized I could sit in a tree, just sit there for hours, it became something that I really look forward to.”

Sponsored p by y Sponsored Sponsored by by

MARY G.

CATHERINE

Nash

Gutierrez

MAUMELLE LAWYER NASH PROVIDES PRACTICAL AND EMPATHETIC ESTATE PLANNING

ave you given any thought to your own or a loved one’s long-term care and estate planning? It may be an uncomfortable question on the surface, but attorney and author Mary G. Nash of Nash Law in Maumelle makes it easy with her gentle and practical approach. “Estate planning is a major step in one’s life,”Nash says.“The quicker you get it done, it’s something off your mind.” Currently at work on her third book, Nash’s most recent publication is “Helping Hands Across Time: Keeping Family Money in the Family” (2014, Outskirts Press), the title of which nicely sums up the ethos that guides her legal practice. Elder and family law is all about protecting people and their assets as they pass through different phases of life. Nash knows that her clients are concerned with making sure their children are taken care of. “We want what we have accumulated to be our legacy to our children,” she says. Nash was raised in North Carolina by working-class parents who were instilled with strong work ethic by their own parents. To that legacy, her parents added the value of education, encouraging her to work hard in school. “You weren’t allowed to breathe until you had your homework done,” Nash laughingly remembers. Apparently it worked: Nash has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, her Juris Doctor, and a post-doctoral legal master’s in international finance from Georgetown University, for which she spent about nine months in the Czech Republic conducting research. This cross-generational accumulation is how we build our family legacies, Nash says. As a lawyer, she ensures those legacies are protected, putting legal jargon in practical terms and encouraging her clients to establish living trusts for the material elements (“emphasis on living,” she adds). Her goal for clients? Family unity. “We don’t want dissension in the family,” Nash says. Nash herself has a small family and is keenly aware of the importance of building

trusting networks. Her grandson (by the name of Nash) is an only child, so she makes sure the both of them have close bonds in the neighborhood. The younger Nash’s crew, or “band of brothers” as Mary calls them, are largely Latino kids whose own grandparents may still be in their home country. “So I have 13 grandkids who’ve adopted me,” she says. She is also followed everywhere she goes, including the Nash Law offices, by Bear, the miniature poodle she rescued a few years ago. As the frontispiece of her second book reads, “You can always tell the character of a person by the way they treat children, animals, and the elderly.” Nash’s empathetic nature means that sometimes her job working with aging clients and their families is tough emotionally. She’s present in some of the most difficult, personal moments of their lives – providing legal counsel, yes, but Nash also says, “Sometimes we truly are counselors.” Whether she’s fighting for veterans and proper treatment of elders or providing vital planning services at sensitive times, Mary Nash is unfailingly committed to her work. In her words: “This is absolutely the best part of the law that anybody can practice because I know when I leave home in the morning that I’m going to do something good for my clients today.”

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

GUTIERREZ DISPLAYS PLANNING APTITUDE WITH APTUS FINANCIAL

uring the financial crisis in 2008, Sarah Catherine Gutierrez noticed that people were suffering because they had taken on too much mortgage debt on the advice of lenders and real estate agents who had vested interests in their purchases. Financial planners weren’t the answer in all cases because most price their services as a percentage of their clients’money, but if people don’t have money to invest they can’t be clients, says Gutierrez, a Harvard University graduate. She started Aptus Financial in 2011 after meeting a longtime financial planner who had been giving financial advice for 20 years, charging by the hour and working out of her home, to help people save more and avoid spending traps that can come with home and car purchases. “When I saw what she was doing and lives she was changing, I realized that an hourly financial planning model could be a significant solution to help this group of people not served by most financial planners,” she says. “We charge for all advice by the hour, the way a lawyer or a CPA charges. It was highly experimental but I can attest to a pretty significant demand for hourly financial planning advice, particularly by young doctors and professionals. We are currently serving clients in 27 states.” In most cases, Aptus is helping people avoid financial pitfalls rather than helping them dig out of financial holes. “Knowing the statistics about high divorce rates caused by financial problems, people unable to retire on their own terms, or parents without a nest egg for their kids’ college education, I know that what we are doing is life-changing,” she says. “We are starting so early in people’s lives that there is still plenty of time to avoid emotionally charged financial mistakes and to better prepare for retirement and other long-term goals.” She learned the rigor of analyzing companies through detailed modeling and research while working at Stephens Inc., and applies the same rigor to clients’ data.

“Along with my business partners, we built our own models that we use for clients to find answers to lots of financial questions, large and small, such as how to allocate investments, how much money to put aside for college, how much house to buy, and the best way to prioritize their spending and charitable giving according to their personal values.” Aptus became a registered investment advisor last year, adding a partner who is a chartered financial analyst with a doctorate in finance so the company could offer investment advice to clients. But Aptus doesn’t sell insurance or profit from clients’investments and makes money strictly through client fees. “We are quite unique because we believe that people can do nearly everything related to investing on their own — they just need a little education and guidance,” she says. Gutierrez and her husband, Jorge, have three children under 3 1/2 years old. Her perspective as a mom – and as a woman – benefits her clients in myriad ways. “I think it makes me a good financial planner,” says Gutierrez. “My passion is for the household budget, and I think I speak that language well. Investing is certainly important as a discipline, but if there is no money saved to invest in the first place, then investment advice is pretty irrelevant.” WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

WOMEN Entrepreneurs presented by First Security

SHE MINDS HER

OWN BUSINESS. When you have a dream to pursue, the best person to work for is often yourself. First Security is proud to serve women entrepreneurs – and everyone else – investing in our home state.

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

fsba n k .co m • on lyin ar k.c om Member FDIC

Sponsored by

JAN

MAGGIE

Ham M

LOCAL FARMER HAM CLEANS UP WITH LUXURY HANDMADE SOAPS

eet Jan Ham, the force of nature behind Owl Ridge Farm, a goat and cattle farm near Bee Branch that produces, among other things, luxury goat’s milk soaps, along with a whole lot of joy for everyone close to the farm. As Ham says, “It’s, like, the bomb.” Working a fully operational farm and soapmaking business is no walk in the park. As soon as the sun is up, she’s caring for her goats – milking, feeding, moving, doctoring and more – and if it’s kidding season, well, forget eating and sleeping. On a normal day, once outside chores are done, it’s straight to the soap room where Ham hustles to keep up with the growing demand for her soaps, sometimes making several hundred bars a day. It’s a full-time job and then some, but every day, Ham says, “I can’t wait for daylight!” Ham’s energy easily carried over from her more than 20 years in coaching basketball and golf in East Arkansas. After finding success in the athletic world, Ham and her husband, also a coach, were ready to move on to something else, which for them meant the opposite of literal “retirement.” They moved to Owl Ridge in 2006 and immediately became involved in niche farming projects – Ham’s husband, Rick, in beef cattle, and Ham herself, who had loved raising goats growing up in Greenbrier, in dairy goats. Her unwavering commitment to quality meant she invested in the very best genetic lines. Her Nubians come from the best stock and make some of the best milk in the world. And, with a keen interest in genetics and advice from a close friend, Ham has continued improving her lines, one of which she calls “the Beans.” The first goat she had shipped to Arkansas from California “got off the plane and looked just like a pinto bean, so that’s who she was: Beans.” From that first Beans came others, with names like Cocoa Bean, Vanilla Bean, Refried Beans and Cool Beans. Of course, Ham knows her 18 does (and 14

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

several prize bucks) each by name. The problem with that many dairy goats is the influx of milk. When another friend suggested Ham try making it into soap, she began a more-than-yearlong science project, testing different blends of food-grade, from-the-earth products to create the perfect soap bar. She sold her first bars in her brother’s antique shop, Arkansas Peddlers Mall in Greenbrier, and quickly found her way into other stores. Having just gained LLC certification this past September, Owl Ridge Farm soaps are available in Gearhead Outfitters in Jonesboro, and Ham says she hopes to keep growing. With luxurious ingredients like cocoa and shea butter, top-quality goat’s milk, and fun scents and designs such as Berrylicious, Dragon’s Blood, and Mayan Gold, her products are in high demand. But Ham still finds time to share her farm and story with others. She frequently hosts soapmaking workshops and school visits, where kids get to see farming firsthand. With humility and gratitude toward her goats and those she terms “friends of the farm,” her helpers and advisers along the way, Ham loves that she can share the bounty of Owl Ridge with her customers through the quality of her soap. “I’m just a farmer, just plain old Jan,” she says, but the success of her product and the atmosphere of her farm say differently.

Young M

YOUNG BUILDS SOUTHWEST EAP THROUGH LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS

aggie Young, president of Southwest EAP, was destined to make a career out of resolving conflict. One look at her college transcript will tell you that. “I grew up in Arkansas, I have an undergraduate degree from Auburn University, and my master’s in social work is from Alabama, which makes me a bit of an oddity in the SEC,”the Pine Bluff native said. EAP stands for employee assistant program. Southwest EAP helps clients provide help to their workforce, including in the areas of employee counseling for wellness, marital or stress issues; work/ life services such as providing adoption assistance or wellness programs; management consultation on various workplace and employee issues; and critical incident debriefing, such as what might follow a workplace tragedy or downsizing. “Corporate EAPs are more critical now than ever because they positively impact employee productivity and reduce turnover costs,”said Young, 44.“I call it a maintenance contract on your employees. People call us when problems come up, and so you really never know what your day is going to look like. The phone rings or a client walks in and you just sort of take it from there. It really is such a varying job and it’s about working with people and solving problems.” As a benefit that many companies offer to their workforces to help employees connect with a wide range of resources in addressing personal, professional and work-life balance issues, the company plays right into the elements of business that Young loves most. “I love working with people,” she said. “I love the collaborative nature of that and I love problem-solving. I get to do that in such varying ways where one hour I’m working with a supervisor about an employee situation, then the next hour I’m on the phone with HR talking about a departmental problem, and the next hour I’m doing individual counseling.” Young’s father, Dick Dewoody, founded the firm and taught her how to serve clients

and their employees in times of need. She started at the very bottom doing general filing and worked her way through the ranks before taking over for her dad. Having been at the helm for 16 years, she stresses responsiveness and communication as keys to effective customer service. “I think one of the keys with EAPs is how to get connected and how to stay engaged with the company on multiple different levels,” she said. “In some ways it’s easier to do now. We have more ways to stay connected and more ways to reach people with information. But you also have to stay abreast of those and you have to make some decisions about what technology is going to be effective and be putting the right message in the right avenue.” Most of all, Young said, the company has grown to become one of the leaders in its field by thinking big but operating small. “One thing that is so wonderful about working here is we are not a large 1-800 number EAP,” she said. “We have a regional focus, and some of our clients or client companies have been with us for 30, 25, 20 years. And being able to build those long-term relationships is rewarding. “Our client profile hasn’t changed dramatically. You meet people where they are, you assess their needs, and if you do that, you can demonstrate your value.”

Sponsored by

SARAH ANNE

SUPHA

Vestal

Xayprasith-Mays

VESTAL’S VAST CAREER CARRIES HER TO TAXATION EXPERTISE ON MEDICAL CANNABIS

arah Anne Vestal’s background in business development, accounting and greenhouse growing has led to an unexpected career niche. Vestal is recognized nationally as an expert in the taxation of medical marijuana production. Vestal is also recognized as a national transgender activist. In December 2015, she attended a class reunion at Catholic High School for Boys, the school she graduated from 40 years earlier as Charles Vestal. She wrote about that experience in an essay that was published in the Arkansas Times. Vestal grew up in Little Rock in an entrepreneurial family, and started a business of her own – Seasons, a manufacturing and wholesale distribution company of candles, potpourri and soaps – shortly after graduating from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with a bachelor of science in accounting in 1980. When it sold in 1990, it had 200 employees and $25 million in retail revenues, Vestal says. Next came American Optimum Products in Moscow, Russia, where she represented multinational companies like Tyson Foods, Avon, Maybelline and Proctor and Gamble in financing and setting up foreign corporations in Moscow. Then she started Transmedica International Inc., developing a company and raising money to market medical laser and drug delivery technology. In 2005, she startedVestal Greenhouse Inc. “I had sold the medical laser company and I was trying to decide what to do next,” she says.“I went to Wild Oats and asked for a BLT and the produce manager told me,‘There is no tomato that tastes good in January.’That became my newest challenge. I developed the first certified organic greenhouse in the country growing tomatoes for Whole Foods and Kroger.” Ten years ago, Vestal moved to San Francisco and became a revenue agent with the Internal Revenue Service. She was assigned to help cannabis growers in Marin, Mendocino and Sonoma counties, north of San Francisco stay in compliance with taxation laws. 16

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

Marijuana, classified as a Schedule 1 drug, by the Drug Enforcement Administration, can be legally sold in 25 states and the District of Columbia, but federal tax laws prohibit producers from claiming deductions for general or administrative expenses like many other retailers do. “You can only deduct the cost of goods sold,”says Vestal, who has a master of science from Golden Gate University and a doctor of management in organizational leadership from the University of Phoenix. Rent, utilities and staffing expenses are not deductible for cannabis farmers, making brick-and-mortar buildings impractical. In California, she explains, where marijuana was legalized 17 years ago, buyers often purchase medical marijuana from distributors’ online stores and have their products delivered shortly after by a separate company, much like they might order a pizza, to get around tax implications. Vestal returned to Arkansas five months ago, and consults with agents in other states where medical cannabis is legal, as well as with groups in Arkansas, where there are two issues regarding medical cannabis on the ballot in the November general election. “I am working with people, such as in the state of Arkansas if they do pass medical marijuana laws, to make sure that we are in compliance and collect all the tax money that is due us. That is my latest entrepreneurial venture, on behalf of the federal government,”she says.“I would much rather these guys know the laws up front instead of me cracking down on them in two years.”

XAYPRASITH-MAYS ZEROES IN ON SUCCESS FOR OTHERS

upha Xayprasith-Maysisbymost accounts brilliant in business. She likes wheeling and dealing, but what she loves is helping people be the best they can be. She went to work in Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville when she was 20, and within a few years had risen through the ranks. “I had an opportunity to learn from the best in the industry how to negotiate multi-million dollar deals before I got to be 30 years old,” says Xayprasith-Mays. Xayprasith-Mays arrived in the United States with her mother and sisters when she was 7 years old, speaking three languages, none of them English. She learned English at school, but wasn’t allowed to speak it at home. “My mother didn’t want us to lose our language or our culture,” she says. “I understand it now but I hated it at the time.” At just 13 years old, she began buying fabric and making things and purchasing at sale prices multiple accessories and pieces of clothing in styles admired by her friends and selling those items for a steep profit. “I’m a retailer,” she concedes. She has held various corporate positions over the years and created her own businesses, too – Thai restaurants and I Love New York Fashions, which sells items to various boutiques across the country, and also Inclusion, a Little Rock-based bimonthly magazine associated with her consulting business. She hosted an Inclusion & Multicultural Youth Empowerment Summit last summer, bringing in speakers to address 700 youths information about professional attire, selfesteem, education and careers. She did that to give kids a leg up – that’s something she likes to do for grownups, too. “I always like to make people better,” she says. “I learned early on that everyone is important and sometimes it takes other people to really build up their self-esteem and know that they can do better. I tell people, ‘You can do better. You could be making triple this amount. Let me show you how.’”

Xayprasith-Mays gets calls and emails from people all over the world who have heard about her from other people who excelled after consulting with her. Her fees range from $5,000 to $12,000 per month. “Money is not the motivating factor because I charge based on the size of the services I have to provide for them,” she says. “People give me lotion, power bars, power drinks, barbecue sauce, coffee, from all over. It’s amazing because I don’t advertise what I do, outside of my magazine and my conferences.” She is working with scientists in Germany to bring out an organic, natural skincare line with one client, and she has partnered with people in technology, food, healthcare and more. She only takes about three new clients each year. She understands advertising, product development, sustainability, pricing and more, and she shares her knowledge with her clients and helps them connect with buyers, with the goal of raising their income. “You can’t be a jack of all trades. You say, ‘I’m just really great at one thing and I try to find ways that are better and better at it,’ and then you can go into other areas,” she says. “It’s a lot of work. I’m a minorityowned company – it’s Asian female-owned – and they recognize that I have a company that helps bring products to life, whether it be with Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Dollar General, Tyson Foods, whatever. Let’s just say I was the Shark Tank before Shark Tank became alive. I love what I do.”

WOMEN Entrepreneurs presented by First Security

SHE IGNORED THE PATH

AND FOLLOWED A DREAM. When you have a passion to express, the best person to work for is often yourself. First Security is proud to serve women entrepreneurs – and everyone else – investing in our home state.

fsba n k .co m • on lyin ar k.c om

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

Member FDIC

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

Sponsored by

Bank Better

all across Arkansas. FIRST SECURITY LOCATIONS Beebe Main Banking Center 1801 Dewitt Henry Dr. 501.882.6411 Center Street Banking Center 400 W. Center St. 501.882.8511

Main Banking Center 214 W. Main St. 479.754.2020

Hwy 64 Banking Center 20 Highway 64 West 501.882.5100

Rogers St. Banking Center 1007 S. Rogers St. 479.754.3404

Benton Main Banking Center 205 West Carpenter St. 501.315.0411

Clinton Clinton Banking Center 112 Volunteerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Parkway 501.745.2600

Military Road Banking Center 1401 Military Rd. 501.303.5483

Coal Hill Coal Hill Banking Center Highway 64 West 479.497.1750

Harvest Foods Banking Center 1212 Salem Rd. 501.316.3648

Conway Downtown Banking Center 1001 Front St. 501.450.9800

Bentonville Bentonville Banking Center 2300 S. Walton Blvd. 479.273.1515 Bentonville East Banking Center 2501 E. Central, Suite 2 479.273.3606 Bryant Alcoa Banking Center 20697 Interstate 30 501.315.0163 North Banking Center 5619 Highway 5 North 501.228.8000 South Banking Center 1823 N. Reynolds Rd. 501.847.3552 Bull Shoals Bull Shoals Banking Center 907 Central Blvd. 870.445.4505 Cabot Main Banking Center 205 W. Pine St. 501.941.2265 Northport Banking Center 2255 W. Main St. 501.628.5300 South Pine Banking Center 906 S. Pine St. 501.941.1032

Clarksville Harvest Foods Banking Center 502 S. Crawford 479.754.4234

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016

North Conway Banking Center 1390 Highway 64 West 501.450.1810 East Conway Banking Center 1110 E. Oak St. 501.450.1855 Prince Banking Center 2925 Prince St. 501.450.1885 University Banking Center 2105 Dave Ward Dr. 501.450.7337 West Conway Banking Center 801 Hogan Rd. 501.450.1876 Farmington Farmington Banking Center 191 W. Main St. 479.267.4600 Fayetteville Main Banking Center 1219 E. Joyce Blvd. 479.527.7000 Downtown Banking Center 11 N. College Ave. 479.527.7080 East Banking Center 2630 Citizens Dr. 479.527.7020 West Banking Center 2552 W. 6th St. 479.527.7060

University Banking Center 640 N. Garland, Suite 106 (479) 527-7040 Gassville Gassville Banking Center 7447 Highway 62 West 870.435.7447 Greenbrier Greenbrier Banking Center 7 Wilson Farm Rd. 501.679.5175 Griffithville Griffithville Banking Center 110 Bailey St. 501.323.4511 Heber Springs Main Banking Center 1140 Highway 25B North 501.362.4800 South Banking Center 110 S. 7th St. 501.362.5819 Hot Springs Higdon Ferry Banking Center 1635 Higdon Ferry Rd., Suite A 501.525.4300 Jonesboro Main Banking Center 1341 Red Wolf Blvd. 870.930.2500 Southwest Drive Banking Center 313 Southwest Dr. 870.930.2590 Judsonia Judsonia Banking Center 401 Van Buren 501.729.3148 Little Rock Cantrell Banking Center 11300 Cantrell Rd. 501.217.4521 Chenal Banking Center 15420 Chenal Parkway 501.217.5950 Gateway Banking Center #10 Bass Pro Drive 501.217.4560 Heights Banking Center 5600 Kavanaugh, Suite 9 501.217.5940 Markham Banking Center 4936 W. Markham St. 501.217.4540

Need directions? Download our FREE iPhone or Android app for location information at your fingertips!

Markham/I-430 Banking Center 10421 W. Markham St. 501.217.5920 River Market Banking Center 521 President Clinton Ave. 501.907.9100 Ranch Banking Center 17810 Cantrell Rd. 501.217.4500 Lowell Lowell Banking Center 400 W. Monroe 479.770.5400 Maumelle Main Banking Center 12005 Crystal Hill Rd. 501.217.5900 Mayflower Mayflower Banking Center 626 Highway 365 South 501.470.3600 McRae McRae Banking Center 601 E. First St. 501.726.3354 Mountain Home Main Banking Center 105 E. 9th St. 870.425.2166 North Banking Center 520 Highway 5 North 870.424.8090 North East Banking Center 949 Highway 62 NE 870.424.8054 Wal-Mart Banking Center 65 Wal-Mart Dr. 870.492.7040 Mountain View Main Banking Center 601 E. Main St. 870.269.7979 North Little Rock Broadway Banking Center 415 E. Broadway 501.370.4810 Indian Hills Banking Center 6855 JFK Blvd. 501.833.8000 McCain Banking Center 2504 McCain Blvd 501.404.6140

Pangburn Pangburn Banking Center 502 Main St. 501.728.4422 Prairie Creek Prairie Creek Banking Center 14512 Highway 12 East 479.925.7077 Rogers Main Banking Center 3901 Walnut St. 479.246.7000 Pinnacle Banking Center 3333 Pinnacle Hills Pkwy. Suite 160 479.464.0550 Searcy Main Banking Center 314 N. Spring St. 501.279.3400 South Main Banking Center 1118 S. Main St. 501.278.2100 Beebe-Capps Expressway Banking Center 2531 Beebe-Capps Expressway 501.279.3480 East Race Banking Center 2800 E. Race St. 501.279.3472 Springdale Trust & Wealth Management 2500 W. Sunset Blvd. 479.750.5666 Emma Banking Center 100 W. Emma 479.750.5500 Sunset Banking Center 2863 W. Sunset Ave. 479.750.7060 Johnson Banking Center 5208 S. Thompson St. 479.750.5574 East Banking Center 2012 E. Robinson 479.750.5787 Vilonia Vilonia Banking Center 1137 Main St. 501.796.8600

Bank Better.

Member FDIC

Sponsored by

Bentonville Rogers Lowell

Bull Shoals Prairie Creek

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

Mountain Home Gassville

Springdale Fayetteville

Mountain View Clinton Clarksville

Coal Hill

Greenbrier Conway Mayflower Vilonia Maumelle

Jonesboro

Heber Springs Pangburn Judsonia Searcy Griffithville McRae Beebe

Cabot North Little Rock Little Rock

Bryant Benton Hot Springs

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS 2016