Forstall Art Supply

Before Hurricane Katrina poured eight feet of water into one store and three feet of water into the other, Forstall Art Supply was a thriving family owned business – a fixture among New Orleans artists and art students for more than 30 years. In January 2006, Paul Forstall re-opened one store and hopes to reopen the other in the future. He credits LED’s Business Recovery Grant & Loan Program and the Louisiana Small Business Development Center for their critical roles in the company’s recovery.

"The grant from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development helped a lot. I don’t know how we would have done it without this help," Paul says. "Every month we’re registering an increase in sales now." A Business Recovery Grant enabled the company to purchase inventory and restock its shelves. "I would probably have had to go to the bank and borrow the money to restock at whatever high interest rate they would have charged. I don’t think we’d be nearly as far along as we are without this grant."

Paul Forstall has also found the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (SBDC) very helpful. "They have been wonderful. This program is administered very well," he says. "With their help, we’re developing a website and figuring out how to use that best. We’d like to do Internet sales, but that is a heavily discounted business, and it’s just for art supplies. Ours is a very service-oriented business." According to Paul, the SBDC professionals are helping guide their web-development decisions and offer strategic advice on how to proceed.

"They’ve also looked at how we run the business to see if there are ways we can improve," he says of the SBDC counselors. "We’ve been in business 30 years, so we’re pretty efficient and running the business the way it’s supposed to be run. But it’s a valuable service."