Victor Werley

Arkansas has everything we need to build the next wave of strong private businesses — low costs, strong work ethic, and people who still believe in showing up and building something real. At Acansa we bet on this every day. The entrepreneurs here don’t need hype. They need capital that understands the region, operators who respect how things actually get done here, and partners who think in decades, not quarters. If you’re building in Arkansas, I want to hear what you’re working on.

@dougboneparth Good advice. Beware anyone giving you blanket statements like these. Life has nuance. Individual decisions are circumstance dependent. What's dumb for me could be genius for someone else.

Rent vs. buy is dumb. Lease vs. own is dumb. Kids vs. no kids is dumb. Stocks vs. real estate is dumb. Arguing about your personal decisions is dumb. Live your life how you want. Just be smart about it.

I'm asked fairly often why I run an Arkansas-focused PE fund instead of a national one. Honest answer: the math is better here than people think, and the second-order reasons matter to me personally. Arkansas has a quietly thriving small-business economy. Multi-gen manufacturers. Service businesses with 30 years of community goodwill. Owners thinking about the next chapter. The capital markets serving these businesses are thinner than Dallas or Chicago. Thinner capital markets means that a thoughtful investor sees more opportunities and competes with fewer firms. That's not a secret. It's a regional reality. The second-order effect: when capital stays close to home, decisions about those businesses stay close to home too. Whether to keep a plant open. Whether to retain a long-tenured workforce. Different calls when the decision-makers live in the same state. Acansa is industry-agnostic on purpose. What we look for is ethical, profitable businesses with foundations that will still be there in 20 years. If Arkansas businesses are going to do better, somebody has to commit to them. I'd rather be that somebody.

Am I the only one who thinks that the world of marketing for small businesses has just become noise and that most small businesses need to get back to answering the phone and shaking peoples hands?

@brianbeers Yes! Do the boring stuff brilliantly while everyone else is chasing the shiny thing. Hire people who deserve to paid more than the average and then get out of their way. Spot on!

My business just did $850,000 in gross profit across 36 locations And we didn’t roll out a new service or implement fancy AI software. Everyone is looking for a shortcut or hack But my team does the complete opposite. I want to become absolutely brilliant in the basics. For us, that's how we answer the phones to get more customers in the door. It's hiring great mechanics and managers It’s improving our process so customers have a better experience So it’s basic but it's not easy. It's easier to just chase new ideas. It’s boring to talk about the same stuff over and over But only one way makes you a lot of money So I’m gonna keep doing that

@sbabmarks I see this all the time as well. Or I get told "Here are our tax returns but we don't show everything on them..." which is an automatic deal killer for me. If you're willing to lie to the IRS then you're willing to lie to me.

Yesterday, I shared live with about 32 Searchers this: Off the books cash (yes, I saw this on a Broker’s CIM) is NOT an addback! Remember, the SBA, is the sister of the IRS Unreal😳

@SBA_Ray Really interesting. Great research. Thank you.

I just spent the last week digging through 5.5 years of SBA 7(a) volume data. Every lender that finished in the top 40 — any of the last 5 years — plus current YTD. 8 takeaways. Thread 🧵

@agazdecki This is so true.... but it's kind of awesome!

Building a startup is amazing because you get to escape your boring 9-5 and finally have freedom. Now you get to do sales, marketing, support, recruiting, product, engineering, finance, and customer success all at the same time.

@BlueCollarInvr Exactly. It is an amazing field. It's just not the "money while you sleep" opportunity that it gets sold to be.

@VictorWerley It’s no hate against real estate investors either. I’m just not cut out for it. I’ll keep building my business. I much prefer that.

Realtor just called me: “Hey man I saw where you purchased a property for cash back in 2024. Are you interested in getting more rentals in your area?” Me: “No I actually hate being a landlord and I am never owning another rental again.” Realtor: “Oh Ok well sorry to hear that.” Rentals are not for everyone. Definitely not for me.

@MoneyQuotesX Respectfully, rental income is not a "while you sleep" proposition.

4 assets that build wealth while you sleep: 1. Dividend stocks 2. Rental income 3. Digital products 4. Index funds

@danmartell This is right. Also, nothing stays the same. Everything about the business will change over time. Get used to it.

Businesses are never not broken. The faster you grow, the more you break things. Stop treating problems as signs something's wrong. They're signs something's growing.

@ThinkAppraiser There is a strong point to be made. If someone has figured out a secret that "prints money" they aren't likely to share it. Usually the key is in the fact that it's a secret.

Sorry babe I can’t take your call right now I’m listening to Codie Sanchez on YouTube teach me how easy it is to make $100 million with a newsletter That sounds impossible …. Is that the same person that told you to buy an acre of land in the middle of nowhere and put up tents and then rent them out to people who wanna sleep on the ground for $150 a night? Yeah, that’s her Is that the same person that told you if you drywall and paint your garage it will increase the value of your home by 20%? Yeah, that’s her Is that the same person who told you to open a laundromat to get rich? Yeah, that’s her …. why do you still listen to these videos? I don’t know .

@mhp_guy This is awesome.

I could never say no to a cold email pitch like this. This stuff fires me up so much. Hard yes!

@JuliaEMcCoy I think there was a time where this was an attractive deal. But those days are over. The age of entrepreneurship is now coming. The decentralization of our economy is gaining steam.

The old economy sold you this deal: → Trade your best hours for a paycheck → Trade your health for a title → Trade your presence for a pension → Trade your *life* for a legacy you never got to live Most people accepted it. Called it “work ethic.” Called it “hustle.” It was just a slow drain. AI just blew the whole deal up. And I, for one, am not mourning it.

@Tim_Denning True. At the end of the day, the scoreboard is what matters.

Your bank account is a public resume of the execution you do in private. It’s never wrong.

@Zeeke2030 @AlexHormozi It has become a mantra at our firm.

@VictorWerley @AlexHormozi “Hell yes or no” is a good personal boundary for time protection.

Many entrepreneurs have a graveyard of failed experiments that they're keeping on life support. You've gotta be willing to pull the plug.

@thejustinwelsh Don't you feel like our entire society has been run on a constant cycle of overreactions for a while now? Politics, economics, news, social media...

The average person's entire career plan is to simply react to what happens to them.

Your point is well made. I guess I haven't contrasted the SBA process to a more conventional loan and I think you're correct. I just reflexively don't like cross-pollenating personal assets into business leverage but I will admit that I see it every day. I appreciate your perspective. I am glad there are experts like you out here in the world.

I’d be curious to know what you are comparing this to. If you walk into a bank for a conventional loan of up to $5,000,000 for your small business, they are going to also ask for a PG and will only lend against collateral at a relatively low loan-to-value. SBA has much more lenient rules. If you got an SBA loan at similar leverage, you would not need to pledge additional, unrelated collateral. The benefit of SBA is that you can borrow way beyond the limits of conventional leverage and beyond your available collateral. So if you can get an extra 2,3,4 million but have to pledge the few hundred grand equity in a piece of personal real estate to do so, I would think that scales your business much faster than what conventional financing would allow for. (Not to mention the loan covenants that would be put into place to purposely temper your growth.)

@SBA_Ray I have worked in M&A for many years here in Arkansas and I have felt that the SBA process is too slow and requires far too much collateral to be reliably useful if you're trying to scale. Am I wrong?

@SBA_Ray Gladly. I look forward to that follow up. On the collateral piece, I generally see an SBA loan require a personal guarantee and often the collateralization of many other, often unrelated, assets in addition to the business itself. Am I wrong?

You are right about it being slower than what businesses need in today’s day and age. On the collateral front, I have the exact opposite take. It’s conventional lending that requires too much collateral. SBA lenders can offer loans whether you have the collateral to back it up or not (unlike conventional.) Now, on the timeline front. Give me 30 days and check back with me. Something is coming that will drastically reduce the time and effort it takes to get an SBA loan.