FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                         April 11, 2023

CONTACT: Mary Coyne, mary@mcmc-marketing.com

                 806.670.7440 

Little Bee’s Playhouse Recognized As Best Child-Friendly Business

Amarillo, Texas – The popular play and birthday party venue Little Bee’s Playhouse, 2600 Wolflin Ave., received national recognition as the Best Child-Friendly Business at the BizX Conference recently in Nashville, Tennessee. 

“The BizX awards recognize small-to-medium business owners that are the backbone of our economy,” said Rory Sheppard, West Texas franchise owner of ActionCOACH, sponsor of the BizX Conference. “Those businesses account for more than 99% of all businesses and more that 90% of employees in the U.S.”

Sheppard said owners Kathy and Carlos Lopez have a heart for the kids that come to Little Bee’s to learn, discover and play. 

“It has been fun to watch them grow - both their business and individually as business leaders,” he said. “The passion that drove them to open their business three years ago is still there and growing.”

Little Bee’s owner Kathy Lopez said it was exciting to be part of the BizX event and to be recognized for doing what they love.

“The planning process we have learned from ActionCOACH has made one of the biggest impacts on our business,” she said. “Setting yearly goals and breaking them down into bite size has allowed me to reach them, and I’m able to adjust and even increase my goals as we go. Looking for opportunities, owning the growth of my business and leading a team are just some of the things that I have learned.”

Sheppard said, “There are those who think since Amarillo is a smaller market we can’t compete with larger markets for quality of businesses, but Little Bee’s and the other finalists from our market proved we can go toe-to-toe with the best on a national level. Of the 391 finalists in 23 award categories, 28 were from Texas – 11 from right here in the Panhandle.”

As the former vice president for strategy and services for Whataburger, Sheppard says he had the privilege of making an impact on the systems, processes and people in a single large organization.

“Now in our work at ActionCOACH, we have the opportunity to work with multiple businesses across multiple industries in a single day – it’s very rewarding,” he said.

“Our ActionCOACH framework of more than 3,500 tools, processes and systems places us in a unique position to add tremendous value to business owners in any industry – from retail to manufacturing, from restaurants to blacksmiths, and from construction to non-profits,” he said.

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About ActionCOACH West Texas

Rory Sheppard purchased the West Texas franchise of ActionCOACH in 2021 to serve the Texas

Panhandle and South Plains regions. ActionCOACH is the world’s largest business coaching franchise with nearly 1,000 coaches in 84 countries working with approximately 18,000 businesses weekly to improve results. ActionCOACH specializes in coaching small- to medium-sized businesses, as well as executives and their teams. Visit www.westtexas.actioncoach.com for more information.