During Searcy’s Beats & Eats on Friday, March 22, Ty Pennington and Amanda Brinkman,hosts of Hulu show “Small Business Revolution,” personally announced the six small businesses that will be featured on season four of the show.
An estimated 10,000 gathered together in excited anticipation to hear who won a spot on the show and who received the shared $500,000 prize. Brinkman announced the following small business winners: Savor + Sip, Zion Climbing Center, Nooma Life Studios, Whilma’s Filipino Restaurant, El Mercado Cavadas – Ethnic Grocery Store and ARganic Woodwork.
Welhilma Frogoso,owner of Whilma’s Filipino Restaurant, said she feels so grateful and blessed to be one of the six winners.
“Five years from now, I hope that our restaurant business will be exposed to more people in the community, and hopefully, we can better our food service to our beloved community,” Frogoso said.
Frogoso hopes the changes made in the future to her restaurant will help to invite more diverse cultures to visit the Searcy community.
The Deluxe Corporation team, who produces the TV show, chose a variety of businesses in order to better help the community of Searcy. Zion Climbing Center is a non-profit organization run by Sean Hudkins.The majority of volunteer workers at the climbing center are Harding students, and Hudkins hopes to involve more Searcy natives by expanding his market to younger children.
“I’m completely elated. I’m completely stoked, I guess, in climber terms,” Hudkins said.“It’s been very humbling as an individual and as an organization. It has been so encouraging and affirming.”
Hudkins said the Deluxe team is wanting to work alongside Zion to help execute their ideas and make them a reality.
“We definitely want to keep the aesthetic feel, and I think [Deluxe is] looking to help in that way,” Hudkins said. “We’re open to whatever they suggest. It’s going to give us an organizational knowledge.”
El Mercado Cavadas, an ethnic grocery store that caters to people looking for Latin American food, is owned by José and Catrina Mendoza, who said they feel excited and special that they were chosen.
“We’re just looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us,” Catrina said. “We will meet with some specialists that will come in and help with the design of the store and make some suggestions on how to best use the money.”
The couple hopes to incorporate more promotional items on the windows, renovate the layout of the store and work on creating a new logo.They want their business to provide services to people that would have otherwise have to drive farther to find what they need.
“I feel like the business is [a] symbiotic relationship between us and the people that are here,” Catrina said.
