Therapists and co-owners Debbie Mabray and John Leach used the SBA 504 Loan product to expand their business from a small location in Killeen to a beautiful new facility on a large acreage on the edge of town. The new location is highly appreciated by clients and employees alike.

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Ruth and Arnold Guerra were born and raised in Gonzales, Texas, where they have opened hotels, restaurants, and built homes to meet their community’s needs. “We started with nothing,” Ruth said. Now, they have built over 100 homes in their community of 7,000 people.

I visited the Guerras and we drove around the town, as Ruth pointed out both homes she and her husband had worked on, as well as other neighborhoods of older homes in states of disrepair. Gonzales has not had new home construction in a long time. “Big builders are not going to come into this town,” Ruth said. In a previous subdivision, a builder constructed about 5 homes and then left town, the work unfinished. We drove past a 17-home affordable subdivision of 3-bedroom homes the Guerras built in 2009.

Now, they are building Angel Oaks, a 6-home development for median income families, featuring 3-bedroom ranch-style homes with yards. A longtime customer of BCL, having worked with us in the past for an SBA 504 loan, the Guerra family is now working with BCL’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Texas Community Builders for our new pre-development loan product.

The demand for median-priced new housing in Gonzales is apparent, as five of the Angel Oaks homes have already been purchased, just as groundbreaking has barely begun. Most of the buyers are people of color, and all are first-time homeowners. “People are getting out of renting and into their first homes,” Ruth said.

And as with their hotels, their construction business is a family venture. They’ve taught their two daughters skills in construction, management, and project administration. “In the big city, you get a job and you learn one thing,” Ruth said. She said her daughters are now prepared with a wide range of skills to take on all kinds of jobs.

“I’m really glad that Texas Community Builders is investing in small developers,” Ruth said. “I appreciate that they saw that we have projects that will benefit individuals that probably never would have been able to buy a home. Without Texas Community Builders, we would not have been able to do this project.”

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KTonic Kombucha emerged from the seed of an idea, germinating around the concept of transforming tea into a fermented beverage. In pursuit of a healthful and functionally balanced drink, KTonic embarked on a journey to create a version of the beverage that maintains a “tea-centric” profile with the lowest sugar content possible.

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How far would you go to grow your business? Would you drive nearly 400 miles twice a month for 6 months?

That’s exactly what Jazmin Jernigan of Aesthetic Innovations, LLC is doing. Jazmin’s business is a full service marketing firm that provides branding, web design, graphic design, and photography services all under one roof. She drives from Shreveport to Dallas twice a month to participate in Capital One’s Getting Down to Business education and mentoring program, which provides guidance on a series of business topics taught by industry experts. BCL of Texas is the facilitator for the 2015 course in Dallas.

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