innovate arkansas

Joe King, owner of King Disposal Inc. in Palestine, recently received the Minority Business of the Year award from the U.S. Small Business Administration as part of Minority Enterprise Development Week, Memphis-based alt.Consulting announced Monday.

King opened his business in 2001 and worked with alt.Consulting from the beginning. He currently has 15 employees and provides them with livable wages, health insurance, retirement benefits and credit union services, according to alt.Consulting.

"The hardest thing is to manage growth," King said in a news release.

"You have to control growth and costs and make sure that every decision you are making is right. When you start a business you need to get the best guidance you can possibly get. A small business is just like a big business - it has to be managed properly to survive and grow."

Minority Enterprise Development Week was held in Little Rock Sept. 14-20.

The consulting firm also announced that its staff has grown to 10 with three offices in Memphis, Pine Bluff and Jonesboro, which opened recently, and another one planned for 2009.

The Delta Center for Economic Development at Arkansas State University provided office space to enable the Jonesboro expansion.

"We are so excited to have this presence in northeast Arkansas," Ines Polonius, executive director of alt.Consulting, said in a news release. "We appreciate the partnership with the Delta Center and the great reception we have received in so many communities throughout the northeastern part of the state."

The firm works with minority-owned, women-owned and rural-based businesses to provide customized, on-site managerial assistance at affordable rates to businesses in low-wealth communities.