How U.S. Bank's Business Resources Central Is Helping Small Businesses Grow
In this piece sponsored by U.S. Bank, Business Access Advisor Nancy Alvarado-Hazelton explains how the bank's Business Resources Central tool, launched in partnership with Next Street, connects small business owners with self-paced courses and in-person workshops on credit, funding, legal guidance and more. Jeena Gurung Vomhof, founder of Namaste Brows and Boutique in Roseville, shares how the platform's pitch training and financial planning resources helped her grow her business, hire staff, and navigate a difficult 2026.
U.S. Bank’s digital Business Resources Central provides tools to help small business owners learn about various topics, from credit and profitability to funding, legal guidance, advertising, technology and building capital. The tool launched in July 2025 in partnership with Next Street, a small business advisory firm.
“The idea of the Business Resources Central is that it’s an opportunity for us to really connect the digital to human experience for our business owners,” said Nancy Alvarado-Hazelton, a U.S. Bank Business Access Advisor in the Twin Cities. “We understand that business owners are extremely busy, and sometimes it can be really hard to lean into that learning piece.”
With the new knowledge, business owners are given a toolkit they can apply directly to their operations, and they’re encouraged to work with their bank advisors along the way.
“It’s an opportunity for business owners to do this at their own time, and at the same time, it gives us the opportunity to equip business owners with tools that will help them in the future,” Alvarado-Hazelton said.
To use the tool, business owners register and complete a short assessment gathering information about their specific business. After that, they have free access to all of the courses. U.S. Bank also offers workshops where business owners can build on what they’ve learned online, asking experts questions and getting individualized assistance.
“With the workshops, we’re creating spaces so that they can actually come in with those tools and have the conversations they need to be able to continue to leverage the growth of their business,” Alvarado-Hazelton said.
“It is extremely important that, as we’re creating access for business owners to have this tool, that they leverage it, because that power of knowledge is going to help them to be able to really articulate how they show up in spaces, what is it that they need for their business, for each of those topics, in whatever space that they’re in.”
That power of knowledge is exactly what Jeena Gurung Vomhof said she found through the program.
Gurung Vomhof is the founder of Namaste Brows and Boutique in Roseville, which she started in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. “We were not seeing the smile under our mask, and that was the main reason that I actually said yes,” she said of her decision to open the business. “I should start something to build a community, a space where people can just come and feel the love.”
Drawing on a Nepali tradition of removing facial hair using 100% cotton thread, Gurung Vomhof built a business that now serves more than 1,000 customers a year across both a threading service and a boutique side, where women create felted goods, hem work and cotton crafts. “I feel like today, Namaste Brows and Boutique has become the bridge between two cultures, between two peoples,” she said, adding that the business has become a way to support Nepali artisans and help the women who work with her earn income and educate their children.
Earlier this year, Gurung Vomhof consolidated her banking relationships and reached out to U.S. Bank. “I realized that they have that community at U.S. Bank, and the Business Resources Central for U.S. Bank was the extra cherry on top of the cake,” she said.
She’s used the platform’s pitch training to prepare before presenting her business and has leaned on its financial and business planning resources as she’s grown. “I realize that if you want to grow, you need to have a financial plan and a business plan, and they have that,” she said. She’s also brought the platform’s workbooks to her team to review together. Gurung Vomhof said she hired staff last month to help build out her business’ systems and policies, something she credits in part to what she’s learned through the resource center.
“You cannot do your business alone. You need a community,” Gurung Vomhof said, encouraging other small business owners to use the tool. She said what sets the Business Resources Central apart is that its materials stay current, unlike some organizations she’s seen still circulating resources from 2021, and that it connects business owners with a mentor in their own state.
Asked about how the tool supported her business through a difficult 2026, Gurung Vomhof said challenges pushed her to lean further into the resources available to her. “Inside me, I knew that this was another chance to thrive more.” She said she used this time to focus on learning and grew her business further as a result.
Namaste Brows and Boutique is located at the intersection of Lexington and Larpenteur in Roseville. Gurung Vomhof said the shop welcomes everyone, with customers typically ranging from age 20 to 65, men and women alike.
“When you come here, I just want you to come and see and feel and experience a piece of Nepal,” she said.
For more information on U.S. Bank’s digital Business Resources Central, visit https://usbank-brc.com/.