Conway entrepreneursupport organization aids small businesses
CONWAY — An entrepreneur-support organization in Central Arkansas’ fastest-growing city is helping small business owners with planning, networking and variety of programming; it’s one of a number of similar organizations that have sprung up in recent years.
“We really just try to meet business owners where they’re at. People will come in saying, ‘Hey, I have an idea for a business. How do I validate that? What’s my next step look like?’ And we try to help them chart the course based on where they’re at right now,” said Grace Rains, executive director of the eight-year-old Conductor public-private partnership in Conway.
“It may be a business owner who currently has a business or has had a business for years, and they’ve got this big challenge they have going on. We say that we provide results-driven insights, tools and connections,” she said, specifically listing insights, troubleshooting and business connections and networking.
A client with a sales issue, for instance, would get help drafting a portfolio of potential customers, from how to research them to making contact to best customerrelationship management systems like Salesforce and HubSpot. They can also get connected to Conductor’s subject matter experts in sales. Conductor also hosts local business owners — accountants, lawyers, bankers, government contracting experts and more — who volunteer free office hours.
Beyond one-on-one consultations, Conductor runs the Arkansas Economic Development Commission-funded 10X Growth Accelerator program for Arkansas companies with between $100,000 and $10 million in revenue that want to grow tenfold. Rains said 10 to 15
“tech-enabled, scalable companies” out of 40 applicants participate every summer and fall.
Conductor’s annual fourday Healthcare Innovation Sprint introduces Arkansas college and graduate school students to the field.
Another program, Conductor Connect, opened last March. Since then, 10 subject matter experts have done consultations with at least 85 entrepreneurs. Conductor also holds two workshops a month in Conway (recent topics include marketing and financial disciplines) and hosts local entrepreneurs.
Additional funding comes from the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, Searcybased First Security Bank, the Conway Regional Health System and Edafio, the North Little Rock information technology management and consulting business.
Conductor is one of a number of entrepreneursupport organizations in Arkansas, from Winrock International’s Innovate Arkansas, the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center and the Little Rock Venture Center to StartupNWA in Bentonville and Delta Circles in HelenaWest Helena.
“We see people from across Central Arkansas,” Rains said. “There’s a lot of resources in Pulaski County, so we don’t see a ton of people from there. But we’re not turning anyone away.”
Conductor recently started working with local finance and real estate groups on a three-part workshop in Spanish, monthly programming at UCA’s College of Business and rural business-focused workshops in Searcy and Morrilton. The Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance is beginning a new business consultation series with Conductor on March 7.
Rains said the spectacular rise of tech start-ups in the 2000s and 2010s, driven by new innovations, entrepreneurship and venture capital, cast a focus on a new economic development model that eventually came to places like Arkansas.
Far from Silicon Valley, entrepreneur-support organizations “serve not only those high-tech, scalable companies, but also mom-and-pop shops as well, because all of them are growing the economy and creating jobs,” Rains said. “We try to take a lot of the jargon out of it and make it results-driven.”
Fayetteville business consultancy Startup Junkie began Conductor in partnership with the University of Central Arkansas in 2016. It contracted with the Small Business Administration to expand work in Central Arkansas in 2019 and began offering credit to rural entrepreneurs through the nonprofit Local Initiatives Support Corporation community development financial institution in 2020.
“The numbers have really shown that most net new job growth comes from small businesses owners. It depends on what source you use, but somewhere between 65% to 85% of net new job growth comes from small businesses. So if we really want to look at growing jobs, job opportunities and economies, it’s in the small businesses.”
Rains has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCA and became Conductor’s executive director in 2019. Its 2022-opened headquarters, the Arnold Innovation Center (AIC) at 1201 Oak St. in downtown Conway, is also an 11,000-square-foot co-working space with more than 140 members.
As of last year, 9,429 entities have participated in Conductor events and services, 49% of whom reported entering a new market. Consultations, outreach engagements and overall reach increased. More than half of clients reported adding new products or services, more than 30% added new positions to their business, and clients’ average revenue growth was around 25%.
“The more research that you can provide to small business-owners and the more barriers you can lower for them,” Rains said, “that’s only going to increase the number of business owners that we have in our community that are thriving, and the easier it’ll make it for new starts to happen here.”