[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 38 (Thursday, March 6, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1701-S1702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                 CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF ALT.CONSULTING

 Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I wish to recognize a nonprofit 
organization that has been making a difference in the lives of Mid-
South and Delta small business men and women for the last 10 years, 
alt.Consulting. Founded in 1998, alt.Consulting has been providing 
small business owners and entrepreneurs with the tools and advice 
needed to build their businesses and provide jobs in a region of the 
country in need of a boost.
  When one reads their mission statement, you quickly gets a sense of 
what makes alt.Consulting different. It reads as follows:

       alt.Consulting works with local business owners and 
     entrepreneurs in rural Delta and minority communities to 
     examine, diagnose, start and rebuild businesses. We provide 
     tailored support, skill building, and access to capital to 
     enhance business performance leading to growth and self-
     defined success.
       We act on our ethical and social principles, empowering 
     entrepreneurs to overcome racial, gender, socioeconomic and 
     geographic barriers. We believe this leads to vibrant, 
     entrepreneur friendly and just communities.
       Through its comprehensive, affordable assistance to small 
     businesses, alt.Consulting raises the standard of living by 
     enabling profitability for new and growing businesses and 
     preventing business failures. We demonstrate the 
     contributions of healthy small businesses to growing 
     communities with more jobs, wealth building opportunities and 
     a stronger tax base.

  With offices in Pine Bluff, AR, and Memphis, TN, alt.Consulting has 
gone into some of the most impoverished communities in Arkansas, 
Mississippi, and Tennessee and provided the support and assistance 
needed to get businesses off the ground. The average poverty rate in 
their target market is a staggering 24 percent. Average unemployment is 
8 percent. Even more daunting is that less than 13 percent of the 
population has a bachelor's degree in the areas they work.
  Due to their methodology, though, alt.Consulting has been making a 
big difference in the Mid-South and the Delta since its inception. In 
2006, 195 businesses received one-on-one assistance. As a result, 
alt.Consulting was responsible for 75 new jobs in a region of the 
country that had been experiencing negative growth. Moreover, 10 
businesses on the verge of failure were saved which protected 700 
existing jobs. The sales growth of companies they assisted resulted in 
$12.7 million in new economic activity. And their technical assistance 
resulted in $430,000 in SBA community express loans to 39 businesses. 
This gave those existing businesses the working capital to grow and 
reach new customers.
  alt.Consulting is also working with selected communities to train 
business specialists to replicate their services at the local level. 
Thanks to support from U.S. Department of Agriculture, the rural 
community development initiative program, and the Enterprise 
Corporation of the Delta, they have launched new, nonprofit 
microenterprise programs to provide continuous resources to rural 
communities throughout the Mid-South.
  One such effort, the Pine Bluff Entrepreneurship Collaborative, was 
started in June 2006 and was comprised of 47 community leaders. Their 
goals were to create an equity pool to start and expand businesses, 
identify local resources for small businesses, make health insurance 
affordable for small businesses, and develop marketing and training 
workshops.
  Youth is also a major focus for alt.Consulting. Recognizing that 
youth entrepreneurship builds a lifetime of opportunities, 
alt.Consulting works with partners to help ``at-risk'' youth start and 
build their own small businesses. Through one-on-one mentoring and 
assistance, alt.Consulting has worked to turn their young ideas into a 
reality.
  As a native of Helena, AR, who grew up in the heart of the Delta, I 
am proud of the impact that alt.Consulting is making in communities 
throughout my State. They serve as an example of what we can do when we 
focus on what

[[Page S1702]]

we can be, not what we don't have. This program, and others like it, 
allows us to build on our strengths, to enable our citizens to make a 
decent living, to encourage our young people to stay at home, and to 
ultimately build the tax base and enhance the quality of life for us 
all.
  I commend alt.Consulting on their vision and hard work. I am honored 
to recognize them on 10 great years, and I look forward to seeing the 
fruits of their labor for years to come.

                          ____________________