Busy Beaver Buttons & Merch: SomerCor SBA 504 Loan Feature

10/22/2025|Sarah Boghossian|Chicago, Client Success Stories, Commercial Real Estate, Illinois, Manufacturing, Renovation, Retail, SBA 504

Busy Beaver Buttons and Merch: What started as a one-person operation run from a college apartment has transformed into a nation-wide supplier of pinback buttons and stickers. Since 1995, Christen Carter’s Busy Beaver Buttons and Merch has steadily grown to offer a variety of services in addition to their custom buttons, like stickers, magnets, mirrors, and more.

Woman-owned and solar powered, Busy Beaver Buttons and Merch knows how important it is to be able to express yourself while building community. That is exactly what drives Carter and her team of hard-working creatives. Busy Beaver makes sure their processes work for their customers and the environment with the help of local suppliers and eco-friendly materials. Their “Service From A Friend” ensures every project, big or small, is simple and seamless, promising top-notch results on time, every time.

SBA 504 Building Purchase and Renovations

With the help of SomerCor, Busy Beaver Button Co. used an SBA 504 loan to purchase a 3,200 square foot building with an additional 3,000 square feet of basement space. Totaling 6,200 square feet of operating space, purchasing the building gave Carter and her team more than twice the space they were operating out of before. They were also able to purchase larger, more efficient equipment and can now help more customers while expanding the business.

“Working with SomerCor has been a dream. Being able to purchase our own space gave us the freedom to transform it into what we needed; an environmentally friendly workspace that fosters industrious creativity and collaboration. We have been able to nurture our friends and our community in this new space, and we are so grateful for the help of SomerCor.”

Along with their new-found space, the SBA 504 loan with SomerCor helped Busy Beaver Button Museum come to fruition, too. As the world’s one and only pinback button museum, the exhibit showcases a wide variety of history, art, and human stories. It encompasses everything that drove Carter to start Busy Beaver Buttons and Merch all those years ago in her college apartment.

SomerCor Team Members: Loan Servicer – David Sommers & Sue Skinner

Busy Beaver Buttons and Merch Gives a Dam! With over 100,000 designs under their belt, Busy Beaver Buttons and Merch. is ready to help make your vision become a reality! Visit https://www.busybeaver.net/ or call 773-645-3359 to learn more.

Download the program flyer and connect with a member of SomerCor’s loan origination team to learn more about how the SBA 504 loan program helps small businesses expand.