Revisiting Past Success Stories in celebration of National PTAC Day

by Kim Magee - September 8, 2022

National PTAC Day is September 21, 2022. 

PTAC Day is a national campaign celebrating the contracting success of the tens of thousands of small businesses who have benefited from training and technical assistance delivered by their local PTACs. It will be marked by events and media outreach at both local and national levels to promote the effective work being done by PTACs across the country and the resulting success achieved by PTAC clients.

In celebration of this special day and our Arkansas PTAC clients, we would like to take this opportunity to revisit and highlight some success stories that we have shared over the past three years.

ZUNI Learning Tree, LLC

ZUNI Learning Tree, LLC received their first government contract after four unsuccessful attempts. Their company provides an online learning platform for teachers, parents, and students. The government contract will consist of the creation of an app called CatchIt. This is the first Department of Education Small Business Innovation Research award to be made to an Arkansas company since 2003.

“I had always thought of the certification process as a daunting task and, therefore, put it off. PTAC counselor Liz Russell made the process so quick and easy. I wish I would have found her earlier,” said CEO Tina McCord. 

READ THE FULL STORY Here.

 Legacy Transit Lines, LLC

Legacy received its first government contract in December 2020, a four-year $1.5 million contract with Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The scope of work consists of packing and crating for military personnel between Oklahoma and Arkansas.

“Max has assisted us in many ways including the Woman Owned Small Business certification process, sharing bid opportunities, assistance with Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS), Commercial and Government Entity Code (CAGE), Small Business Administration Dynamic Small Business Search (SBA DSBS) capabilities, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and System for Award Management (SAM) registration. We want to thank Max for his help thus far. He has been extremely helpful, and we could not have gotten this far and won this government contract without his help,” said Mario Cunningham, owner of Legacy Transit Lines.

READ THE FULL STORY Here:

Banana Graphics, LLC, Choice Promotions, LLC and Tara Promotional Products, LLC

In February 2022, Ralph Grinnell, a contract specialist at the Arkansas Army National Guard (ARNG) at Camp Robinson contacted the Arkansas PTAC while searching for Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) to respond to a need for promotional items for the Arkansas Army National Guard.

"The Arkansas Army National Guard is making a concerted effort to reach out to Arkansas small businesses and purchase their products and services whenever possible," he said.

Over a period of several months, Arkansas PTAC assisted with connecting Grinnell with several qualified Woman-Owned Small Businesses throughout Arkansas and also assure the businesses were current in the System for Award Management (SAM). As a result, two of PTAC Counselor Tim Hick's clients and one of Liz Russell's clients were awarded portions of the contract. Those clients are: Banana Graphics, LLC, Choice Promotions, LLC and Tara Promotional Products, LLC.

“Timothy Hicks at Arkansas PTAC has been an integral part in helping Banana Graphics identify and solve problems we didn’t even know we had. With the help of Timothy and the whole team at Arkansas PTAC we have learned how procurement and government contracting work, increased our contacts and job opportunities, and learned to ask the right questions and where to find the answers we needed to succeed,” said Sara Kirk, owner of Banana Graphics.

READ THE FULL STORY Here:

Connect with our Arkansas PTAC counselors at ptac@uada.edu to learn how you may also be able to expand your business through government contracting.