"Small businesses are crucial to the health of Missouri’s economy and will play a critical role in our economic recovery," Nixon said when announcing the initial Small Business Loan Program recipients. "These low-interest loans will assist several dynamic small businesses in accessing capital so they can create jobs and help grow our economy."

Daniels had been building her brand and product awareness for over two years. The company had momentum, the brand awareness and the sales, but was having difficulty keeping an adequate inventory on hand to meet the demand.

"The loan really came at an absolute pivotal time," Daniels said. "We had this tremendous need for inventory going into the fourth quarter and were literally tapped out on all of our personal resources. We were scratching our heads and wondering how we were going to come up with the funds for inventory. (The loan) was the difference of the business basically closing down or continuing to go."

As an occupational therapist, wife and mother of two, Daniels understands all too well how active lives and busy schedules can prevent families from sharing the anecdotes and folklore that make a family just that – a family. That’s why she created Around the Table games as a fun way for families to reconnect.

What began as a business of bringing families together through conversation has now brought the Daniels family together through entrepreneurship. Beth’s 9-year-old daughter saw and heard the impact that her mom’s games had on peoples’ lives, so she decided to write some games of her own. Thanks to Beth’s daughter’s hard work, in 2009, Around the Table added Buddy Talk (for tweens) and Camp Talk (for kids going away to camp) to its line of conversation games. The family involvement continued as Beth’s niece wrote Teen Talk – a conversation game designed for teens.

Some are funny as well: How was your room decorated when you were a kid – was it clean or messy? What is your favorite food to eat at a restaurant? If your family was to do something nice for someone else what would you do? What was the first concert that you went to? Who did you go with?

"There are no wrong or right answers, they’re just conversation questions that allow people to have fun," Daniels said. "The questions are nostalgic and thought-provoking and some are serious. Basically just to keep people talking and to keep people connected despite the busy lives that we all lead."

"It really gives you a glimpse into what your kids are worried about or fretting about these days," she said. "I found that with my own kids that answer changes daily, so I try to ask that pretty often."

"Who knew we would have to be teaching verbal communication," Daniels said. "With so much texting and instant messaging people do today and all the things families are caught up in, we might be sitting at the table and might be texting each other rather than talking to each other. Our games are a fresh break from that. Since they are portable, moms and dads can throw them in the car or their book bags or whatever, so that they can take advantage of those fewer opportunities to spark some conversation and talk with their families."