Randy Scott is the president and chief operating officer of Farmers Bank & Trust in Blytheville. A 26-year veteran of banking,  he has worked the last 16 years at Farmers. He was appointed to the six-member State Banking Board on June 8, and his term runs through Dec. 31, 2020.

Scott grew up near Hornersville, Missouri, and graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, majoring in finance with a minor in accounting. After college, Scott went through the management training program at Mercantile Bank of St. Louis and returned to the Missouri Bootheel, where he worked at several banks in Sikeston. He is a director at the Arkansas Bankers Association and serves on the board of trustees at Arkansas Northeastern College in Blytheville.

Farmers Bank & Trust, established in 1908, is a $485 million-asset lender.

What happened to turn your career compass toward banking?

Some people switch careers several times in their lifetime. I’ve been fortunate to know that I have always wanted to be a banker. I grew up on a family farm, and both of my older brothers became farmers. Very early on, I knew that I didn’t want to be a farmer. I set my goal to become a banker in eighth grade, and on my high school senior spotlight, under ambition it stated “Bank President.”

What is your biggest challenge as an east Arkansas banker?

I think we face the same challenges that bankers all across rural America face. Rural America is drying up. Small towns are getting smaller, which provides fewer business opportunities for us as bankers. We are not only bankers; we also serve as economic developers, civic leaders, youth sports directors, church leaders, etc.

If you could make one change in the banking industry, what would it be?

Less federal regulation!

Every time there is an economic crisis, a mass of regulations is placed on all banks, regardless of their size. No regulations are ever removed. Arkansas banks have always outperformed their peers in other states and rarely get into the risky lending issues that have affected the banking industry in the past; however, we get the same regulations that are imposed on the Wall Street banks. This, in turn, hurts our consumers. When I started my banking career 26 years ago, a consumer had to sign eight times to get a home loan. Today, that consumer would have to sign over 80 times to get the same loan.

What is your favorite part of being a banker?

Helping people achieve their goals, whether it is home ownership, starting a new business, expanding a business or planning for retirement. I love to hear their success stories and know that I helped play a small part in their success.

Agri lending is a big component of operations at Farmers Bank & Trust. What are some of the big issues in this lending sector?

There’s no doubt that this sector of the economy is soft right now. With lower commodity prices and increased input expenses, the farmers’ cash flows are very tight. Fortunately, our farmers have had several very successful years, allowing them to build up equity in their land and equipment. They are in good shape to weather a few bad years.

It is important for our bank and our regulators not to panic when they have a losing year or two. We are in it for the long term with our farmers. We have banked several generations of farmers, and they have had their good years and their bad years, just like any industry sector.

Mistakes are said to deliver some of the most meaningful lessons. What was your biggest career mistake and how has it helped shape your career?

I was young and eager and accepted my very first lending job for a bank that was desperate for a lender. Little did I know at the time, the bank had major lending problems with a toxic loan portfolio. I spent the first two years attending foreclosures and bankruptcies. I learned everything not to do as a banker. It turned out to be a great learning experience for me.

You can add another likely entrant to the craft brewery lineup in Little Rock: Nolen Buffalo’s Buffalo Brewing Co.

Buffalo is the founder and owner of the Water Buffalo, a retailer of supplies for hobby beer and winemakers, cheese makers and specialty gardeners (think hydroponic) at 106 S. Rodney Parham Road.

The Water Buffalo opened Nov. 1, 2014, and Buffalo Brewing is an outgrowth of the store.

“We sell to hobby beer and winemakers all over the area, and we also help the breweries fill in the gaps whenever they are a little short on an ingredient or a supply of some sort,” Buffalo said. “And because we already had all these relationships, and because we already had all the materials, we decided to take advantage of some of our square footage.”

He’s added a building behind the store that will serve as the brewery, and he’s developing a taproom inside the store.

The store/brewery will offer about 20 beers on tap. “Some will be ours and the rest will be from all the local brewers in the area.”

In addition, Buffalo Brewing will make its facility available to “some of these more accomplished home brewers,” Buffalo said, allowing them “to come into our brewery and guest brew so that we can put their beer on tap. It’s not the brewer that’s certified; it’s the brewery. And as long as we’re overseeing and we’re doing everything in accordance with the law and Health Department standards, then we can have a guest brewer come in and make a beer.”

If he gets approval from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, Buffalo hopes to have the brewery up and running around Labor Day.

“I got into making beer and wine about 20 years ago,” said Buffalo, who grew up in Little Rock and is a Catholic High grad. “I got into indoor gardening and hydroponic gardening at about the same time. My hobbies just kind of got out of control, and so this is what I wound up with.”

And because this is our Banking & Finance issue, Whispers will note that Buffalo gratefully credits Bank of the Ozarks for providing the majority of the funding to open the Water Buffalo. Savings and family help provided the rest. Said Buffalo: “I’m a very satisfied Bank of the Ozarks customer.”

Medical condo space in midtown Little Rock and a 140-bed nursing home in south Pulaski County were just two recent property deals exchanged in multimillion-dollar transactions.

♦ An affiliate of Physicians Realty Trust of Milwaukee bought 29,340 SF in the Parkview Medical Building at 1 St. Vincent Circle for $5 million.

Sellers: St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, St. Vincent Foundation and St. Vincent Community Health Services Inc.

Another affiliate of the real estate investment trust purchased 13,551 SF in the Blandford Medical Building at 5 St. Vincent Circle from St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center and St. Vincent Foundation.

Price? More than $2.5 million.

♦ Dixon Realty LLC of Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, bought the Madison Health & Rehabilitation project at 2821 W. Dixon Road for $4 million.

Seller? Trinik Holdings LLC, led by Saeed Niksefat.

♦ Dominik and Georgia Mjartan sold six rent houses in the Cammack Woods neighborhood and two in the Heights area for more than $1.3 million.

Buyer: CSW LLC, led by Willis Smith.

♦ Nick and Sharron Linner of Escondido, California, acquired the Dollar General at 2005 Old Military Road in Jacksonville for more than $1.2 million.

Seller: Yellow Store Holdings LLC, led by Kevin Huchingson.

Meanwhile, down in Saline County …

♦ Dennis and Ann Garner acquired the 16,246-SF Ron’s Body Shop facility at 2500 Old Congo Road in Benton for $1 million.

Who sold the 2-acre development? J.D. and Lanese Grim.

Sissy Jones, owner of Arkansas-based Sissy’s Log Cabin, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Jewelry Association at the association’s annual Awards for Excellence gala on July 25.

Jones began her career in jewelry retail in 1970 when she rented an old log cabin in Arkansas and opened an antique and jewelry store called Sissy’s Log Cabin. The company has become one of the most well-known jewelry stores in Arkansas.

Sissy’s Log Cabin stores are located in Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Jonesboro and Memphis, Tennessee.

The Hall of Fame honorees’ awards were presented at the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center in New York.

Peter Engel, president of Fred Meyer Jewelers, received the Ben Kaiser Lifetime Achievement Award and Ben Bridge received the Corporate Award.

Jones was unable to attend the event but her son accepted the award on her behalf. An audio file she recorded played at the awards ceremony.

"Our motto at Sissy's Log Cabin is 'Life's too Short for Ordinary Jewelry,’ but I also hold the belief that life's too short for an ordinary day,” Jones said in the recording. “Today is certainly not an ordinary day. It'll be a day I will always cherish and remember."

Jones has also been named the Retailer of the Year by the Women’s Jewelry Association and the 2015 Arkansan of the Year by Easter Seals.

I know I risk sounding like a shill here, but if you weren’t one of the 500 or so who attended the Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 luncheon a few weeks ago, you missed the kind of feel-good moments that can help balance out some of those feel-bad moments.

I was out of state during the 2015 event, so I had not previously watched the dozens of honorees each step to the lectern and answer one of four revealing questions. What a treat (and, miraculously, not overlong).

My favorite of the questions, although I might have worded it a bit differently, was “What do you wish you had known when you were 20 years young?” I think it’s an even better question for those of us who are (well) over 40, and I’ve found myself thinking about it from time to time since the luncheon in June.

I was still 20 when, on May 17, 1982, I took the journalism degree I had received from Harding University eight days earlier and started my first reporting job at the Pine Bluff Commercial. What I didn’t know then could fill a library.

For one thing, I didn’t know how to use a computer, which was not a big problem since it would be several more months before I had to learn. Reporters at the Commercial were still writing stories on special paper using IBM Selectric typewriters and scanning the text into the rudimentary computer system using a scanner roughly the size of a golf cart. (That may be a slight exaggeration.)

I was assigned to the education beat. At that time, Jefferson County was divided up among nine school districts, so I quickly learned a lot about school board meetings. But even though my father had been an administrator in the North Little Rock School District, I knew approximately nothing when I started. I remember distinctly that the first meeting I covered started with the declaration of a quorum, and a little thrill shot through me. I had no idea what a quorum was — wasn’t even sure how to spell it — but the school board had declared something and surely that was newsworthy! (My next beat was county government. By then I knew what a quorum was; I’m still not sure why a county’s governing body is called a quorum court.)

That first year was miserable for all the usual reasons that transition to the full-time workforce is hard, but after I got the hang of it, I realized that I was being paid to learn all kinds of things. And that was a blast.

So when I ask myself what I wish I had known when I was 20, I don’t wish I had known any specific fact. If I had known what a quorum was, I would have missed out on that little thrill and on the laugh I got when I looked it up in the dictionary when I got back to the newsroom. I would have missed out on one of my favorite memories of being so green that my first city editor, the late, great Joe Farmer, nicknamed me Sheena Innocence.

But here’s what I do wish I had known and what I would want every young adult to know: You need to play your own game. Don’t let the decisions others are making be more than data points in the mix when making your own decisions, because they aren’t working with the exact same factors.

This is such great advice in every part of life. Obviously, our personal decisions — marrying, starting a family, personal finance — shouldn’t be determined by what others are doing. (I say obviously, but for a lot of people it’s not obvious at all.) It’s also true in career decisions. Other people’s paths are just that — their paths.

You hear political candidates talking about running their own races. Has anyone ever run a less typical campaign than Donald Trump? (I’m not a fan, you understand, but I have to hand it to him for originality if not consistency.)

It’s great advice for businesses, too. The worst decisions I’ve seen businesses make are reactionary — either panicky responses or overly optimistic attempts at duplicating a competitor’s move.

The decision that is right for someone else is not necessarily right for you. What’s more, other people’s decisions may not even be right for them — or their families or their companies. Sometimes it’s hard to tell from the outside, so just keep playing your own game.

Tuesday of this week is my 17th anniversary as editor of Arkansas Business, and I’m still learning every single day. The 20-year-old me truly had no clue how young I was or how quickly time flies.

Gwen Moritz is editor of Arkansas Business. Email her at GMoritz@ABPG.com.

A 35,492-SF bowling center in North Little Rock weighed in at $2.3 million.

Millennium Bowl of Little Rock LLC, led by Anil Nayar, Aziz Pabani, Akbar Pabani and Kairunnisa Khan, bought its namesake project at 7200 Counts Massie Road. The seller is Millennium Bowl Inc., led by James Moore.

The property now is helping secure a five-year loan of $3.2 million from Centennial Bank of Conway.

The 3.3-acre development previously was tied to a February 2008 mortgage of $1.9 million held by Triumph Bank of Memphis.

The site was purchased for $260,000 in April 2002 from Richdale Development Group LLC, led by Keith Richardson.

Parker Property

A 6.18-acre commercial site in west Little Rock tipped the scales at $1.54 million.

Lexus Land LLC, led by David Parker, acquired the land near the northwest corner of Shackleford Road and West Shackleford Boulevard. The seller is Westrock Partnership, led by Robert Vogel.

The land is part of an 89-acre tract Westrock bought in June 1995 from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for $2.63 million.

Commercial Parcel

A 3.74-acre commercial site in North Little Rock changed hands in a $735,000 sale.

Setu Inc., led by Manoj Patel, purchased the land near the northwest corner of Stockton Drive and Smokey Lane. The seller is Woodcrest Co. LLP, led by James P. Matthews.

The deal is funded with a three-year loan of $1 million from First Arkansas Bank & Trust of Jacksonville.

The property previously was used to help secure a string of mortgages held by Centennial Bank: a $430,000 loan in May 2008, a $5.4 million line of credit in July 2009 and three July 2014 loans of $10.6 million, $3.2 million and $312,641.

The land was part of the 400-acre Springhill Farm the Matthews family bought in August 1959.

John and Martha Matthews acquired it from Fred and Katherine Watkins for $250,000.

Auto Transaction

A 6,739-SF auto parts store in Sherwood rang up a $425,000 transaction.

Clifton Family LLLP, led by Norman Clifton, bought the Advance Auto Parts at 4120 E. Kiehl Ave. The seller is Valley Realty Co., led by Larry Magdovitz.

The 0.79-acre development helped secure an August 2014 mortgage of $460,000 held by First Alliance Bank of Cordova, Tennessee.

Valley Realty purchased the property for $573,000 two years ago from Hal and Vicki Matthews.

Masoud Investment

A 9,900-SF retail center and 44-unit mini-storage facility in southwest Little Rock are under new ownership after a $250,000 sale.

Masoud Investments Inc., led by Wadeea Masoud, acquired the South Heights project at 4729 Baseline Road. The seller is Sunbelt Investment Eight, led by Roger Hawk.

The 1.35-acre development was bought for $335,000 in September 1989 from First National Bank of Fayetteville.

Acreage Acquisition

A 315.8-acre tract in south Pulaski County drew a $220,000 transaction.

Greenwing Properties LLC, led by Joseph Baker and Brian Bewley, purchased the land along 145th Street between Interstate 530 and Wrightsville. The seller is Silvicraft Inc., led by Michael Pierce.

The deal is financed with a 10-month loan of $165,000 from Arvest Bank of Fayetteville.

The property previously was tied to a June 2011 mortgage of $315,170 from Commercial Bank & Trust of Monticello.

Silvicraft acquired the land for $315,000 five years ago from Townsend Partners, led by Lisa and Edward Wright, Mark Townsend and Kristi Floyd.

Bella Rosa Manor

A 5,673-SF home in the Bella Rosa Estates neighborhood of west Little Rock weighed in at $1 million.

Kristen Lienhart and Chad Gossett bought the house from Kristopher Magnuson.

The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $800,000 from Bank of Little Rock Mortgage Corp.

The residence previously was linked with an August 2014 mortgage of $625,000 held by Bank of Little Rock Mortgage.

Magnuson purchased the location in February 2013 as part of an $186,000 deal with Steve Wortman.

Prospect Home

A 3,850-SF home in Little Rock’s Prospect Terrace neighborhood sold for $875,000.

William and Corinne Beck acquired the house from the Stamp Revocable Trust, led by Stephen and Patricia Chaffin.

The deal is funded with a 30-year loan of $831,250 from SunTrust Mortgage Inc. of Richmond, Virginia. The residence previously was used to help secure a September 2011 mortgage of $1.9 million held by First Security Bank of Searcy.

The trust bought the property for $916,000 in August 2005 from James and Donna McDonald.

Rural Residence

A 5,099-SF home in the Virginia Downs neighborhood of west Pulaski County changed hands in an $815,000 transaction.

Jon and Kricia Palmer purchased the house from Bryan and Christie Yarnell.

The deal is financed with a 30-year loan of $417,000 from Bank of Little Rock Mortgage and a 15-year loan of $315,585 from BancorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Mississippi.

The residence previously was tied to a May 2015 mortgage of $395,500 held by Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff.

The Yarnells acquired the property for $715,000 in June 2011 from John and Jill Childers.

Orle Abode

A 4,871-SF home in the Orle neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development rang up a $725,000 sale.

Matthew and Kristin St. Clair bought the house from Chad and Lindsay Wilkerson.

The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $540,000 from Arkansas Federal Credit Union of Jacksonville. The residence previously was linked with an October 2009 mortgage of $753,601 held by Jim Bottin.

The Wilkersons purchased the property for $759,000 in August 2009 from Wilson and Barbara Hatfield.

Chimney Rock House

A 5,876-SF home in North Little Rock’s Chimney Rock neighborhood drew a $510,000 transaction.

Jason and Ashley Mounts acquired the house from Michael and Rhonda Marlar. The deal is funded with a 30-year loan of $408,000 from Bank of Little Rock Mortgage.

The Marlars bought the residence for $600,000 in January 2003 from Alvin Schultz.

Suite Funding

The owner of an 80-room hotel in west Little Rock picked up a $5.25 million funding agreement.

Chi Development Co. LLC, led by Jasen Chi, received the five-year loan from U.S. Bank of Cincinnati to improve and refinance the Candlewood Suites Extended Stay Hotel.

The 1.43-acre development at 10520 W. Markham St. previously was tied to a December 2010 mortgage of $3.7 million held by IberiaBank of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The former Shoney’s restaurant location was purchased for $640,000 in March 1998 from RBR Enterprises Inc., led by Carl Ricker.

Office Mortgage

A 4,920-SF office building in downtown Little Rock was used to secure a $2 million funding agreement.

TMG Properties LLC, led by Larry Hale, Robert McLarty and Paul Neaville, obtained the one-year loan from First Security Bank.

The 0.24-acre development at 1000 W. Third St. also is linked with an April 2014 mortgage of $332,521 held by the bank.

TMG bought the property for $385,000 in November 2009 from the William J. Walker & June Walker Revocable Trust.

You may have heard that the feds seized nearly $157,000 from the father-and-son pair who have been accused of running an elaborate food stamp fraud that involved 94 beneficiaries.

The U.S. government recently filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Western District to keep the money it took from Raja Zaman and his son, Haroon “Harry” Zaman, who owns several Fort Smith convenience stores.

But did you know the Zamans are part of an ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture?

If you recall, the feds also seized the family’s 2002 Dodge Ram, 2007 Acura and 2010 Acura and filed a civil suit to have the property forfeited.

Federal prosecutors asked in July that the civil case be put on hold for three months or until the “related criminal investigation is resolved,” whichever is sooner.

An attorney for Harry Zaman didn’t have a problem with the delay, and U.S. District Court Judge P.K. Holmes III agreed to it.

Zaman’s attorney, Rex Chronister of Fort Smith, didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

The Zamans’ three convenience stores in Fort Smith — Fenny’s, Park Mini Mart and a Valero — accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits as payment. (SNAP was previously known as the Food Stamp Program.)

In an interview with federal agents in January, Raja Zaman “admitted to helping ‘poor people’ that come in and ask to sell some of their SNAP benefits,” Lee Stovall, a special agent for the IRS Criminal Investigative Division, wrote in a report that was attached to the government’s lawsuit.

Zaman said he would pay people $60 for $100 worth of SNAP benefits. He then would use the SNAP cards at other stores to buy groceries, which would then be used as inventory in his convenience stores.

Haroon Zaman also “admitted to directing SNAP cardholders to purchase specified store product in exchange for cash” that equaled about half of the cost of the groceries, the report said.

The alleged scheme went on from July 2013 through May 2016, but the report didn’t reveal the total amount of money the scheme generated.

Jay Amargos has left Startup Junkie Consulting of Fayetteville to run her own meditation studio.

Amargos’ last day was July 25. She had been Startup Junkie’s minority outreach program director, as was highlighted in an Arkansas Business story in May.

Amargos and Jessica Boyd co-founded i’Mindful Studio in Fayetteville. Amargos said the studio teaches a form of meditation called mindfulness stress reduction, and the studio has classes at its Fayetteville location or it can do sessions at places of work. i’Mindful has already worked with several companies in northwest Arkansas, such as Whole Foods Market, Samsung and Acorn: An Influence Co.

Amargos said she has practiced mindfulness for five years, beginning after she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and lupus. It has also helped with her autistic son, she said.

Amargos said she originally planned to stay at Startup Junkie while running the studio. The meditation business became popular quickly enough that she decided to do it full time.

“It’s all about bringing your attention to the present moment so it allows you to become very focused so you can be more productive,” Amargos said. “It has nothing to do with mantras. You don’t have to be a hippie or dress like a monk. It is becoming very mainstream.”

Maumelle T-shirt maker Rock City Outfitters was recently featured in Google's 2015 Economic Impact Report after its use of the internet giant's analytics tool helped Rock City learn more about its customer base.

One revelation gleaned from using the tool was that 25 percent of the private company's online business was coming from customers in Texas.

Rock City co-owner Ryan Ritchie said the report highlights how the small company that had been run out of a home grew into its own. It grew so quickly that Rock City had to move into larger spaces four times within a few years, he said.

Ritchie and Matt Jones bought the company in 2008 from another Arkansan who had been operating it as a home-based business but moved out of state and didn't want to continue running it.

Ritchie and Jones sold T-shirts out of a home for a while, but now Rock City employs three full-time workers (including Ritchie) and six part-timers.

Ritchie said the company uses the analytics tool to "really look at our website and see where our fans are coming from, how engaged are they, what products are they looking at, how'd they get there, how long are they looking."

He said the company has used information gathered through the analytics tool to develop a targeted social media marketing strategy.

"We were surprised to see that we have, even though we're all about Arkansas and 80 percent of our T-shirts are about Arkansas and you wouldn't get them if you weren't from Arkansas, from a specific town, a lot of out-of-towners from other states looking," Ritchie said. "I figure a lot of those are transplants...That was eye-opening to us. There are a lot of opportunities out there."

The owner added that Rock City tries to put out a new shirt every month and its catalog is getting so large that some have had to be cycled out of production. It also has a flourishing custom orders department and provides officially licensed collegiate apparel from Arkansas universities and other schools, he said.

Ritchie said the company is selling about 60 shirts from its website, but has about a hundred awaiting launch.

James at the Mill's Ozark Plateau Cuisine is now available for delivery from 4:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday through Chef Shuttle, the restaurant announced Monday.

Customers in northwest Arkansas can place dinner orders here, according to a news release.

James at the Mill of Springdale joins a list of eateries in northwest Arkansas that have paired up with Chef Shuttle, which has offices in Little Rock, Rogers and Memphis, since the service announced its expansion into that region in August 2015.

"We're very excited about the partnership with Chef Shuttle," Miles James, owner and executive chef of the restaurant, said in the release. "It's going to bring an added level of convenience and great exposure to what we have to offer here...We want to expand our customer base, and we recognize that people are busy with their lives. This is a nice treat for our customers to be able to get our food at home."

The full menu of appetizers, entrees and desserts ranging from $8 to $59 will be available for delivery to residents with the following zip codes: 72762, 72764, 72701, 72703 and 72704. There is a standard delivery fee of $4.95 with a minimum required food order of $15.

James was trained at the New England Culinary Institutes; has worked with Chef David Burke and Chef Guy Savoy in Nantucket, New York City, Paris, London, Florence and Sante Fe; and is a James Beard Foundation semi-finalist for Best Chef in America.

Being a trustee of our company retirement plan reminds me of the Biblical character Job, who asked, "Where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding?”

Retirement plan administration requires understanding of the continued regulatory oversight by Congress and the Department Of Labor, while consulting with a retirement plan attorney and Registered Investment Advisors provides wisdom.

When Bell and Company started in 1982, I didn’t worry about retirement. My wife Lee and I were just trying to pay the mortgage and truck payment. I remember going to the North Little Rock post office each week and there would be one client's check for the work done the previous week, and for that we were thankful.

Over time, like many businesses, ours grew and I began to think about how we would share our success with the staff that contributes to our success.  

As entrepreneurs, we have choices among what happens to profit, spending, paying of taxes and reinvestment. Our firm, like many, has opted to share profits with all staff members through a generous bonus program. We offer a match of 5 percent if a staff member contributes 5 percent of his or her pay. Over time, young professionals who dedicate the maximum contribution over the course of their work life, along with the 5 percent match, will become quite wealthy. But with the generosity of a company retirement plan comes responsibility.

As trustees of this small business retirement plan our intent is generous, however regulations by acts of Congress and its enforcement arm the Department Of Labor have created regulatory burdens on our social engineering concept of creating wealth. We have recently retained a retirement plan attorney and an outside consultant who specializes in plan litigation to review our duties as trustees to ensure that we are compliant with the law. As a result of 2012 regulations, our broker is now required to advise us as to what revenue he is receiving from third parties, and we understand more about fee sharing arrangements, loads, 12b-1 fees and marketing fees, and that is a good thing. But as a result of fiduciary regulations this year, the broker advisor is increasingly unwilling to assume risk of fiduciary duty, and has shifted more responsibilities on us as trustees. That has created more expense and headache and fewer mutual fund options for us as trustees, and that is a bad thing.

We also understand the attempt to shift the burden of risk to us as fiduciaries if a regulatory agency does not agree with our broker's suggestion to our employees as to what mutual funds to buy, which may be funds offered by that particular institution to the exclusion of other funds.  

All this being said, we sometimes feel that our honest intent to share wealth with our employees is being caught up (and possibly diminished) in the regulatory world of mutual funds and brokerage houses and their often hard to understand fees and costs.

If you’re a trustee of a small business retirement plan, you may want to do a review of your plan with your attorney or an independent plan advisor to ensure you're fulfilling the trustee's role in the new world of retirement plan regulation.

One of the state’s oldest theaters, the Melba Theater in Batesville, will reopen Friday, Aug. 12, with a grand opening following the restoration efforts of owners Janelle and Joe Shell and Mandi and Adam Curtwright.

Doors will open at 6 p.m., and the show will begin with announcements from the stage at 7 followed by a showing of “The Wizard of Oz”. The owners say they would like to see guests show up in black-tie, Hollywood-style attire, according to a news release. Tickets cost $50 and include a commemorative photo and gift bag.

There will also be an “Owl Show” for those who can’t make it to the first show as it conflicts with a concert that's part of the Cave City Watermelon Festival. Doors at the theater open at 9:30 p.m., and the late-night screening of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" commences at 10:30. Tickets are $25.

Tickets for both shows can be purchased at the main Citizens Bank branch and WRD Entertainment. Seating is limited.

The couples bought the theater and its assets for $117,000 in March 2015 with a goal of restoring it for $400,000-$600,000. The reopening was scheduled to have taken place at an earlier date but had to be rescheduled because of a delay in getting permission from theater companies to show the films.

Joe Shell said in the release that the reopening will be an “experience to remember,” the new slogan the theater has adopted.

Since the theater was closed last October, the seats have been refurbished, the floors have been repaired, and a new digital projector and Dolby surround sound system have been installed.

Janelle Shell told Arkansas Business last year that the theater would show all kinds of movies and concerts and would be available for groups to rent. Marshall Dry Goods and Babb’s Upholstery helped provide new seats and curtains.

Citizens Bank of Batesville announced in April at an open house and progress report on the theater project the creation of a $10 million redevelopment fund that will support the Impact Independence Strategic Plan. It is comprised of low-interest rate loans and grants.

The theater benefited from the low-interest financing and received a $5,000 grant. The money was used to help pay for the new digital projector that cost $65,000, according to a news release from the bank. 

Phil Baldwin, Citizens Bank President and CEO, said in the release, “We know the Melba Theater’s Grand Opening will be a historic event. We’ve even offered to supply the giant spotlights to shine in the sky on that evening. We want everyone in the county to be aware and take note that amazing things are happening on Main Street.” 

Citizens Bank has awarded other grants, too, including one to The Pinton, a new restaurant slated to open within the next few months that is adjacent to the theater.

The Batesville Downtown Foundation also agreed to take tax-deductible donations for the renovations.

The theater first opened in 1875 as an opera house. It was a mercantile store before it became the Melba Theater in 1940, and, according to Janelle Shell, it was one of the first Arkansas cinemas to feature a CinemaScope projector.

The theater closed in the 1990s, but was reopened later by Terry and Ramona Chandler, who kept it going as a second-run theater until it shut down last year.

Baldwin said in the release, "I am excited that Historic Downtown Batesville will now have the ability to combine the vibrancy of a college community and the ambiance of a small southern town. My hope is for Historic Downtown Batesville to come alive again and provide family friendly entertainment with diverse and eclectic shopping, dining, arts, cinema, music and pubs; to become residential again, with loft apartments above and shops below; to be a place for all generations to gather, walk, bike or talk — a people gathering place for all of Independence County.”  

Watch the governor's address above.

I don’t know how else to say this: If you don’t enjoy this issue, you really don’t have any business reading Arkansas Business. We’ve had some fun issues in the past — I’m especially proud of our 25th anniversary issue from 2009, when we rounded up 25 scoundrels and 25 mysteries and 23 other lists. But we’ve never done an issue quite like this one, with so many interviews and so much insight into 10 of the most iconic businesspeople living in Arkansas today.

The lists we do routinely — largest banks, largest accounting firms, the list of the state’s oldest companies in issue — are ranked by some objective measure. But we also do more subjective lists, like the annual 40 Under 40 project in which we introduce our readers to 40 deserving young leaders in business and government. Deciding which individuals to feature as “business icons” was a similarly subjective exercise, and the staff started to think of these stories as a way to acquaint younger readers with the personalities behind some of the most familiar names in our state’s business community.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the printing press: Those of us who thought we knew Bob Shell, Johnny Allison, Walter Hussman and the rest discovered new facts and gained new understanding of what makes them tick. I’m pretty sure you will too.

• Johnny Allison
• Wallace Fowler
• George Gleason
• Johnelle Hunt
• Walter Hussman
• Jim Lindsey
• Reynie Rutledge
• Bob Shell
• Warren Stephens
• Alice Walton

Nothing is easy and everything takes longer than you expect in this world, and that holds true for restaurant openings.

David “Alan” Bubbus, owner of the Little Rock mini-chain David’s Burgers, is hoping to open the David’s in the River Market in September or October. But first he has to finish converting an outdoor seating area into a common area for visitors to Ottenheimer Market Hall.

David’s will occupy the old Dickinson Hardware Co. building, the space formerly occupied by Boulevard Bread at the east end of Ottenheimer Hall. The seating area being converted for common use had previously served Boulevard Bread.

David’s Burgers is bearing the cost of the construction in exchange for a longer-than-usual lease with the city of Little Rock — up to 20 years, Bubbus said.

“We’re extremely excited about the location and the direction the River Market is moving,” Bubbus said. The River Market location will be David’s Burgers eighth.

He also emphasized that David’s Burgers, in working to staff the restaurant, will be seeking “team members” who want to be leaders.

“We really want to find people who really care about people,” Bubbus said. “We’re looking for leaders who are energized by working with people.”

2nd David’s in Conway

Bubbus had other news. He’s bought property at Lewis Crossing for a second David’s in Conway. He’ll be building the new restaurant from the ground up. “We’re trying to become more of a brand in the central Arkansas market. New construction allows us to have consistency in the model.”

Unemployment rates rose slightly in Arkansas metro areas in June, but rates are still lower than a year ago, notes Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported earlier this month that unemployment rates were lower than a year earlier in 285 of the nation’s 387 metropolitan areas, “and all eight metro areas that cover parts of Arkansas were in that total,” Pakko said on his Arkansas Economist blog.

Year-over-year changes ranged from a decline of 0.7 percentage point in Fort Smith and Texarkana to a drop of 1.6 percentage points in Pine Bluff.

The chart “Payroll Employment in Arkansas MSA” illustrates the trends of Arkansas’ metro areas since the 2008-09 recession. “Fayetteville, Jonesboro and Little Rock are the only three metro areas to have higher employment now than at the end of 2007,” Pakko said.

Unemployment Rates in Arkansas MSAs - June 2016
(Not Seasonally Adjusted)

I trained for facilitation work in the lineage of Sam Kaner, the author of “Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making.” Kaner’s company, Community at Work, stresses consensus in all decisions.

Both conventional wisdom and the company name might indicate that Kaner’s work and research are aimed at the nonprofit sector. But his company has served the likes of Charles Schwab, Hewlett-Packard, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Visa. Facilitators trained in Kaner’s methods, myself included, have worked in business entities large and small on every continent on the globe. While his is a technical methodology for professional facilitators, all leadership requires some capacity to facilitate groups and teams to get work done.

Mainstream, action-oriented leadership thinkers tend to hate the idea of consensus, opting instead for rapid-fire, quick-decision meetings. The efficiency of pushing quickly for a clear path forward is hard to resist; however, it often steps over or forces underground the kind of resistance that will kill a new idea or initiative — but usually not until most of the time and money are spent.

Consensus is really hard and it means everyone has to agree, which is all but impossible. Striving for consensus is, however, a worthwhile and high-value investment in time. The discussions needed for those who are doubtful or uncomfortable with a potential strategy or new direction reveal critical information that might otherwise not be taken into account. Taking the time in the ideation and planning stages allows valid concern and even open opposition to have a voice. So why, if I am clear about a project or strategy that I want to get off the ground, would I want to provide time and attention to those I may view as worrywarts and naysayers? Here are my top five reasons:

♦ Risk mitigation. Time spent fully developing the list of things that could kill a project is foundational to building a risk mitigation plan.

♦ Stakeholder management. People who feel they have no voice are likely to become either passive or overtly oppositional, neither of which moves the initiative forward.

♦ Conversion opportunities. While you cannot count on it, the folks who most strongly oppose an initiative can become its staunchest supporters — if they feel their concerns have been heard and addressed.

♦ Shine a light. The conversations are going to happen. Better to have them in the meetings where they can be vetted and handled rather than in the hallway “meeting after the meeting” that consists of only the naysayers.

♦ Better decisions. When it is time for the leader to make a decision, she will have heard all points of view and have a better idea of what will be needed to bring the strategy about or the project over the line.

Pat Lencioni describes this process in his landmark book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” During the team offsite, the new CEO exclaims clearly that “consensus is horrible.” Noting that if everyone does not agree at the beginning, consensus devolves into a never-ending attempt to please everyone, something that (assuming it is even possible) usually waters down any project until it is useless.

And he is right. If everyone were fully onboard, there would be no need for the project or the meeting. Consensus is about addressing the concerns on the team to a point that they are manageable and those involved can fully commit, despite reservations and concerns. As Lencioni puts it, “disagree and commit.” This is a critical distinction. Consensus is not about getting full agreement on every point in a plan. It is about fully engaging and, where possible, addressing the concerns of those whose commitment is required so that the team can create a sustainable and powerful commitment.

Whether the issue at hand is a major project, a new strategic direction, a simple process change or a cultural decision that impacts the entire team, stepping over the open debate invites dissenting points of view, and looking for accommodation will send naysayers underground and out into the hallway to be heard. And when it comes to organizational change, resistance is anything but futile.

I. Barry Goldberg is a credentialed executive coach and Vistage chair, hosting peer advisory groups for owners and senior executives in central Arkansas. You can reach him at Barry.Goldberg@EntelechyPartners.com.

The five-year battle between the federal government and John Stacks of Damascus ended July 20 when the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas dismissed an indictment against the former owner of Mountain Pure LLC bottled water company.

The ordeal “cost me something greater than $10 million,” Stacks, 61, said last week. “That was my life earnings. … I’m like starting all over again.”

The day after the charges were dropped, Stacks took back his old job as CEO and chairman of the board of HomeBank of Arkansas. Stacks is the primary owner of the bank but stepped down from the positions after being hit with an 11-count indictment in December 2013 that accused him of crimes in connection with taking out a Small Business Administration loan after his property in Van Buren County was struck by a tornado in May 2008.

Stacks said that the case was dismissed after he agreed not to seek attorneys’ fees and costs from the government in connection with the defense of his case. Stacks said the prosecution’s offer was “we’ll go away and leave you alone if you won’t come after us.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Harris, who prosecuted the case along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Jegley, told Arkansas Business in an email statement last week that the charges were dropped “because we made a decision not to retry the case.”

After a six-day jury trial in 2014, Stacks was convicted on seven of 11 felony counts. But the jury couldn’t decide on three of the counts, and one count had been dismissed by prosecutors before it reached the jury.

U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes didn’t agree with the jury and questioned whether there was sufficient evidence to convict Stacks. Holmes acquitted Stacks of two of the counts and ordered a new trial on the remaining five charges.

The prosecutors appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On May 9, the 8th Circuit upheld Holmes’ decision. “The court credited the evidence favoring the guilty verdicts, citing evidence from which a reasonable jury could convict Stacks,” according to the order by Appeals Court Judge Duane Benton. “The district court weighed it against the exculpatory evidence before concluding in a thorough, reasoned manner that a miscarriage of justice may occur if the verdicts were allowed to stand.”

Harris said that because of those court decisions and because a key witness had died, the government decided not to retry the case. “But we did not concede that the prosecution was wrongful,” he said.

Stacks’ problems started after he received the $526,100 SBA disaster loan.

The SBA, though, wanted more documentation from Stacks and in 2010 declared the loan to be in default because he didn’t provide enough information. Stacks maintained that he consistently made payments on the loans.

In January 2012, federal agents executed a search warrant at Mountain Pure’s plant.

Stacks maintained that he provided all the information required and more. He said he was innocent. He also accused the federal agents of stepping over the line when they raided his business in a SWAT-like manner. Stacks said he became a target of federal prosecutors after he criticized the tactics of the government in a documentary called “Rampant Injustice” that was released on Halloween 2012.

Harris denied that Stacks was charged because of the documentary. “He was charged because we had evidence that he had defrauded the United States,” Harris said.

Stacks said that as of a result of the charges, Mountain Pure went into receivership and was sold.

Stacks said all he wanted after the raid was an apology. “I know everybody can make mistakes,” he said. Instead, “the federal prosecutors … tried to make a case that was never there.”

David George doesn’t apologize for using scare tactics when he gives seminars at part of the Investor Education Program for the Arkansas Securities Department.

George worked 30 years in the financial industry, including 22 years running branches and compliance for Morgan Keegan in Memphis, so he knows a thing or three about retirement saving and wealth management. People always ask him for stock picks, but George quickly sets them straight on what he is talking about.

“My comeback is we’re not here to talk about picking tops and picking bottoms,” said George, 63. “It’s what are you going to be needing when you’re 65 or 70? We get into scare tactics: your price of procrastination. That’s a majority of us who have underfunded our retirement. What we try to do, for lack of a better word, is to scare people into looking at setting themselves up for a decent retirement.”

As a state agency, the Securities Department spends a lot of time reaching out to other state employees, but George said his seminars and advice are available to any company or individual who is interested. George said he understands full well how intimidating financial investments can appear to a layperson, but he said retirement planning doesn’t have to be complicated.

Today’s employees can’t afford to delay the decision, though, which is why it’s important to George that he and private and public companies do what they can to inform employees.

“If you’ve put it off, get it set up tomorrow,” George said. “One of the questions they all ask is who should I talk to about this? I immediately tell them they need to talk to a professional. They’re going to give you the best idea if you lay out what you’re expecting and your timeframe. It’s all guidance.”

Big Company Tools

The larger the company the more resources available for in-house retirement accounts. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville has a 401(k) that is available to all its full-time and part-time employees the day they start work.

After one year of employment, Wal-Mart matches up to 6 percent of an employee’s 401(k) contributions. Offering 401(k) and providing stock purchase plans — as Wal-Mart also does — are nice benefits, but the retailer has a system set up to help its employees make more informed choices about how to invest their contributions.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg, the director of national media relations, said the company gives employees access to HelloWallet through its WalmartOne intranet portal. HelloWallet allows employees to get a quick analysis of their financial situation and options on how to plan for the future.

Lundberg said linking HelloWallet with WalmartOne made the information easily accessible to Wal-Mart associates, who regularly use the portal to check things such as pay stubs and work schedules.

“It will help you do a quick financial assessment and give you some ideas on how to help your savings grow,” Lundberg said. “You can game plan about what makes sense for you and how you’re able to do it. You can go back over time and make adjustments based on what you’re looking for and what you need. There’s a lot of good information in there that explains what this is. We try to do as much as we can to get people this information because there are some questions out there.”

Lundberg said the WalmartOne site also has information about such topics as opening checking accounts, setting up 529 college savings plans or building an emergency fund. Associates can also talk with store managers, personnel directors or members of the human resource department with additional questions.

“Retirement planning and wealth management planning are a part of the overall package that we offer folks to make Wal-Mart an attractive place to come work,” Lundberg said. “We are always looking at how can we make sure the benefits we are offering in wealth management are competitive and relevant.”

Small Company Needs

Lisa Bridgers is the senior vice president of talent acquisition and HR at Rockfish Interactive in Rogers, a subsidiary of WPP Digital. Bridgers said being a part of WPP, an international company, allows Rockfish to have benefits not available to smaller companies.

Through WPP, Rockfish has retirement accounts with the Vanguard Group, an investment group that manages trillions in assets. More important than just having a 401(k) is the access to Vanguard’s financial advisers, Bridgers said.

“The depth of expertise someone needs to effectively help an employee doesn’t exist in a general practitioner on the HR side,” Bridgers said. “Without that ability to reach out and help people understand what it is, it really doesn’t mean anything. Small companies can — and I’ve seen this more than in the past — host sessions with someone who is a financial planner so they can understand basic investment strategy.

“This might be their first exposure to having to think about planning for their future. The questions I get are: ‘How much am I supposed to save? How do I know what I’m saving is going to grow to what I need when I retire?’ Those are questions that, truly, only experts in the field are able to answer.”

Bridgers then learned of the Investor Education Program that George manages for the Arkansas Securities Department and said it would be a great asset for companies that would not otherwise have access to a financial expert.

Another path for smaller companies is to join a multi-employer plan. Bob Arthur of Incredible Influence is an independent representative for Employer Advantage of Joplin, Missouri, which operates an MEP that includes more than a dozen northwest Arkansas companies.

Arthur said Employer Advantage works with John Hancock Financial and has approximately 500 clients.

“For so many people who are employed by a small company, many times they don’t even have a retirement plan option,” Arthur said. “There are companies out there that have a 401(k) in place that a small-business owner can tap into. They want to be able to offer things to their employees to be competitive. They can’t do it on their own. I have those conversations fairly regularly. I see a lot of small-business owners who don’t offer anything but they want to.”

Casey Kinsey and Lofty Labs are on the move again after one year in a prime, but small, space in downtown Fayetteville

Kinsey moved Lofty Labs, a web development consultancy, to a 1,400-SF third-floor space at 1 E. Center St. on the Fayetteville square in late October 2015. The company plans to move this October to 3,000 SF at 509 W. Spring St., which is in Fayetteville’s entertainment district.

When Lofty Labs moved a year ago, Kinsey said, he had two full-time staff members and four contractors. Now, he has six employees as well as four contractors.

“We’re still growing,” said Kinsey, the founder and president of Lofty Labs. “The space is bigger than we need today, but we need to be somewhere we have space for growth.”

Kinsey said the space is in a building that has expansion possibilities, so if Lofty Labs continues to grow, it can just expand at the same address without having to move again. The East Center Street space was coming up for a two-year release, and Kinsey didn’t want to commit to that with the expectations Lofty Labs would outgrow the space within a year.

The new space also has approximately 1,000 SF of event space and a secure entrance for after hours. That is important, Kinsey said, because the company often has meetings and strategy sessions.

Kinsey said Lofty Labs is also expanding its business focus from software engineering to include more work with Big Data software design.

“It is a really big growth area, and we really like these types of problems,” Kinsey said. “It’s a really good niche to be in.”

Kinsey said Lofty Labs is still on target to hit $750,000 in revenue this year and he hopes the new space and expanded services can help the company reach $1 million in 2017. Kinsey has said before he’s not interested in growing Lofty Labs into a huge company.

Kinsey said that when he started looking for space, he was surprised to find such reasonable rates in the entertainment area. He believes it is because landlords wanted a business less volatile than restaurants or clubs as tenants.

The one drawback to the location, Kinsey joked, is that is it next to Cork & Keg and a stone’s throw from Dickson Street.

“We’re going to be a bunch of drunks,” Kinsey said.