Windsor Cottage
Sandra Powell, Owner
Texarkana, Arkansas
www.windsorcottage.org

In June of 2005 Sandra Powell contacted Paul Considine of the Southern Arkansas University Small Business Development Center to help her purchase an active retirement living facility in Texarkana, Arkansas. Sandra had worked in the health care industry for over fifteen years and for the last year she had been managing the center which was called Greenbrier Retirement Center. The center had 37 rooms and was licensed for occupancy of 42.

Sandra was a skilled manager and knew the industry and how it worked very well. She had put a good deal of thought into what improvements could be made to the business if she were the owner.

She and Considine worked together to create a business plan that included the improvements. The owners of Greenbrier also owned several other facilities and the financial records of Greenbrier were intermingled with the others so recreating the financial history to make an evaluation was difficult. When the historical data was compiled an evaluation showed that the purchase would be a sound decision. They then worked on completing the business plan. Most all of the communications were done by email.

Considine advised Sandra of the SBA 504 program and put her in contact with the local CDC office. She also met with the Texas State Bank and together the bank and the CDC committed to Sandra $1,300,000 in funds. She closed on the business in December 2005 and renamed the facility to Windsor Cottages. The business continues to show the gains as the projection predicted. Sandra welcomes you to visit her new web site at www.windsorcottage.org.

Sandra stated that "the SBDC was a great help in putting my plan into action and also supplied valuable information on the types of financing that were available to me. I really appreciate their help."

The Arkansas Small Business Development Center is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration through a partnership with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Business and other institutions of higher education. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. It is the goal of UALR to eliminate discriminatory harassment and to promote equal opportunity regardless of race, gender, color, national origin, sexual orientation, age, religion, veteran’s status, or disability.