- May 07 2025
Small Business Gets the Boost of a Lifetime
The store has been in business for more than 30 years and is a mainstay in this rural town.
Ms. Burns, now 30, had been running a smaller gift shop in Wynne, Arkansas, when the mother-daughter duo at The Antique Rose approached her about buying their shop.
The deal came together the following spring with an SBB loan playing a star role.
The SBB is a secondary, unsecured loan from FHLB Dallas provided through an FHLB Dallas member — in this case First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas — that fills the gap between what a FHLB Dallas member can finance and the loan requested by the small business. Members use it to provide financing beyond their loan when there’s a lack of equity, a collateral shortfall or initial debt service challenges. FHLB Dallas made $4.3 million available to the program last year.
“The gift shop was a mainstay, and Ms. Burns was interested in buying it, but she didn’t have the customary down payment available for us to approve a loan,” said Nick Sutton, president of First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas. “We believed this was a creditworthy borrower and a strong business proposition, and we realized this was a perfect opportunity to combine our loan with an SBB loan,” Mr. Sutton said.
Ms. Burns received a $107,000 Small Business Boost loan that she used as the down payment. It was combined with a traditional term loan from First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas to complete the deal.
Ms. Burns now has ownership in a larger, well-known store.
“I couldn’t have bought the store without the help of the Small Business Boost.”
