The Arkansas Starters Coalition is a statewide initiative that is advancing entrepreneurship across Arkansas. This can lead to greater prosperity for all Arkansans through homegrown jobs, higher incomes, stronger communities, lower inequality, and less poverty.

Join the Coalition and take action to make our state more supportive for every entrepreneur in Arkansas!

Join the Coalition!

Join the Arkansas Starters Coalition to support new and young businesses, grow our state’s economy, and create more opportunities for everyone!

Together, we can break down barriers, improve policies, and build stronger communities.

Join the Coalition

Register for the 2025 Celebration of Entrepreneurship!

Mission & Objectives

The Coalition, powered by Right to Start, exists to:

Promote Entrepreneurship as a Civic Priority.

Advocate for recognizing entrepreneurship as a fundamental driver of economic growth, innovation, income, and community development.

Policymaker Education.

Educate stakeholders and policymakers on policies that remove barriers to starting and growing businesses, ensuring a supportive regulatory and economic environment for entrepreneurs.

Increase Public Awareness and Understanding.

Drive public awareness and deepen understanding about the positive impacts of new and young companies on job creation, economic benefits and diversification, and poverty reduction.

Foster a Dynamic Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.

Support a strong network that connects entrepreneurs with essential resources, while also fostering collaboration between investors, educators, service providers, and entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) to drive innovation and growth.

Membership Information

The Coalition is committed to fostering entrepreneurship across all communities in the state while working toward greater prosperity through homegrown jobs, higher incomes, stronger communities, and expanded opportunities for all Arkansans.

Membership is open to entrepreneur support organizations, entrepreneurs, investors, educators, community organizations, and other individuals or entities committed to advancing entrepreneurship. The Coalition meets monthly (virtually or in-person).

Founding Coalition Member Organizations

RIGHT TO START'S NWA SUMMIT

Right to Start’s Northwest Arkansas Summit in August 2023 was the first of its kind, where Arkansans came together to realize the potential in all of us to be starters, makers, doers, dreamers. Attendees met “next door” entrepreneurs and became active changemakers for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northwest Arkansas.

Barriers Identified

During the Summit, participants identified significant barriers that exist for entrepreneurs in starting and/or running a business. These challenges, and their potential solutions, are listed below.

Also, groundbreaking information about the impact of micro-businesses on the Northwest Arkansas economy was shared from Venture Forward by GoDaddy (slides are downloadable here).

Here are barriers that participants identified:

“There are too many regulations. There should be deregulation and exemptions from certain regulations for small businesses to enable competition and reduce barriers to opening.”
“More opportunities for government contracts.”
“Access to capital/loans”
“Incentives for traditional small businesses”
“Access to resources”
“Information clearing house. Capital clearing house. Compliance simplified.”
“NWA has a lot of resources and organizations supporting entrepreneurs. We need these services in all areas of the state, especially in the south and eastern parts of our state.”
“Help us find funding!”
“I would like to ask for cities to be more consistent with their approvals.”
“The confusion on where to start (this pushes people away).”
“My entrepreneurs struggle with collateral (for funding)!”
“Access to healthcare and other benefits.”
“Language accessibility: English, Spanish, Marshallese.”
“High-speed broadband.”
“Removing red tape. Streamline at city, state level.”
“Financial Literacy.”
“Have the cities notify entrepreneur when the state has a new policy or change to an active project.”
“Access to childcare.”
“Clearer information for SBA loans with clear approval notes for banks and entrepreneurs. Reduced processing times.”
“One-stop shop.”
“Increase staffing for the existing small business and entrepreneurship office— so state employees can provide for help.”
“Business education and helping immigrants understand how to start a business in the U.S.”
“Representation: having a voice for the diverse, one to help us get in spaces.”
“Helping entrepreneurs get more exposure.”
“Real estate access at affordable prices.”
“Office of Entrepreneurship state office!”
“Entrepreneurs should have access to capital that doesn’t eat into their ownership.”
“Entrepreneurship education. Especially in Jr. High/High school.”