… From Biz2Biz NWA, February 2010
By Jamie Smith
You may be familiar with the breads and baked goods created by husband and wife team Ben Gitchel and Hannah Withers, but you may not know their Little Bread Company started in a renovated garage in Eureka Springs. Now, several years later, the couple has a rising business and happy customers at their retail bakery on Block Street in Fayetteville.
Money needed for their original property renovation came from a Financing Ozarks Rural Growth and Economy (FORGE) (http://forgeonline.com) loan. When they were ready to purchase more equipment they turned to FORGE again.
“FORGE has been great, it was perfect for what we needed,” Withers says. “We didn’t need a lot of money. What we needed was a perfect way to utilize their program.”
FORGE is a micro-lender located in Huntsville that has been assisting business people in Northwest Arkansas since 1989. When FORGE was created, the goal was to help small local farmers only, but it has since branched into small business lending.
“Over time we realized that we had too narrow a view of the community’s needs,” says Charlie Stockton, FORGE director.
FORGE raises the money it lends through several revenue streams, including loans from the Small Business Administration, USDA, individual members and local charities. Although all loans must go toward creating a business or a job in some way, they don’t see it as making loans to businesses.
“We don’t make loans to businesses, we make loans to people,” Stockton says.
FORGE, a certified 501c3 nonprofit agency, averages 45-50 loans each year, and this year’s financial crisis increased the number of applicants.
“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” Stockton says. “The banks are turning away so many that they are now coming to us.”
FORGE is chartered to serve Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, although 90 percent of its business is in Northwest Arkansas. As the organization grows in its outreach, it must also grow in investors. Members receive quarterly interest on their investment.
“For us to make loans we need members to invest,” Stockton says. “No one has lost a dime when they invested in us.”
Tracey Jeffers has been on the FORGE board of directors since 2005. She lives in West Fork and owns ValuPath Advisors in Fayetteville.
“FORGE has a lot of value,” she says. “It’s all particular to the individual needs. FORGE is an option to borrowers other than the traditional avenues. FORGE has an open-minded view of people’s endeavors. Although the [financial] downturn has been difficult, it will give FORGE the opportunity to become more well-known in the small business community.”
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