Tawann Scott always dreamed of being a business owner. When she discovered a need in Richmond’s Southside and Northside communities, she found her niche — a beauty supply store for African American customers. When she discovered the Capital Region SBDC, she turned her dream into a sustainable reality.

“After years of going to stores for products for my kinky hair, I wanted to pursue my dream of opening a beauty supply store,” states Tawann, a Southside Richmond native.

Tawann’s beauty supply store was self-funded from the start, but with one daughter in college, another planning a wedding, and widespread economic complications from the COVID pandemic, she was forced to push back her original opening timeline. However, an unwavering commitment to her vision allowed her to persevere and open the doors to Marie’s Hair & Nail Supply in October 2021.

And while that grand opening was a major milestone for a first-time business owner, it had an even bigger impact that led to introductions to the Metro Business League (MBL) and, later, the Capital SBDC.

Initially, the MBL helped Tawann secure a “KIVA” loan of $8,500 made up of contributions from unknown individuals, including family members. When she began working with SBDC Assistant Director Charese Chambers soon after, she gained access to more funding opportunities and, equally important, guidance on the next steps to take for her burgeoning business.

“From the start, Charese was on it,” Tawann recalls. “When she gave me an assignment, I knew I had to do it.”

Charese started by updating Tawann’s Quickbooks account, which included categorizing transactions dating back to 2021 and organizing her accounts. That provided Tawann with the necessary documentation to apply for a business loan of $10,000 through Bridging Virginia. Along with additional guidance from Bridging Virginia’s Michelle Jones, Tawann was approved for the loan.

“Thank the Lord for Charese,” Tawann adds.

From there, Charese and Tawann set their sights on marketing, beginning with a flyer for a braider. The response prompted Tawann to expand Marie’s Hair & Nail Supply’s offerings, which now includes two stylists who rent space in the store.

Tawann credits the SBDC for helping her business grow.

“The SBDC will shoot it to you straight,” Tawann concludes. “To me, SBDC is a necessity — as a small business owner, you need that support,”

From its launch as a wholesale bakery in 2016 to its Mason SBDC-aided expansion in 2023, Nordic-Knot’s wholesale pretzel baking business has seen its profile rise right alongside its gourmet pretzels. But for all the growth Eric Lundberg and Melissa Romano’s Scandinavian-style bakery in Reston has experienced, it owes its beginnings to a note and a pretzel once placed on the doorstep of the Lake Anne Brew House, which Melissa also co-owns..

“The note was from a pretzel-making neighbor Eric Lundberg,” Melissa says. “Together, we visualized a pretzel bakery and the Brew House as ‘a match made in malt and salt heaven.’”

With a business model aimed at wholesale, Nordic-Knot opened in 2016 with Melissa and Eric as co-owners. The culinary duo specialized in baked-to-order pretzels made with natural and organic ingredients and hand-milled grains.

“We wanted to add vibrancy and give back to our Lake Anne neighborhood, and also find a way to support other small breweries, coffee shops and businesses with our wholesale pretzel sales” Melissa adds.

Despite challenges to that vibrancy that came during the COVID pandemic in 2020, Nordic-Knot continued to adapt, evolve and grow. They overcame the pandemic hurdle by incorporating direct sales into their business strategy, and their customer-friendly service earned them second place and a $40,000 cash award in the national “Small Business Big Wins” contest for pandemic-impacted small businesses. The addition of Wolf Trap National Park as a major customer in late 2022 set the stage for an expansion of the business and a consultation with the Mason SBDC.

With a proven product and an even larger customer base provided by Wolf Trap’s addition, Eric and Melissa met with SBDC Senior Business Counselor Mark Julian. In those early meetings, Mark provided them with options on financing and examples of a business plan to present to lenders.

By early 2023, Nordic-Knot was seeking a $250,000 loan for equipment and leasehold improvements, which SBDC Program Director Timm Johnson helped them procure by preparing plans and a presentation and connecting them with M&T Bank.

“The SBDC not only showed us the steps needed to apply for financing but also provided direct connections to local lenders,” Melissa states.

By May 2023, their loan was approved, and they have since added over 1,800 square feet of production space to supplement their original bakery space at Lake Anne Plaza

“The SBDC was very supportive of our journey to expand,” Melissa concludes. “You wear a lot of hats as a small business owner, but you don’t always know all you need to run a business. It’s good to have SBDC resources available to help you learn.”

For 25 years in their native Colombia, Jeniffer Sanchez and her husband Juan Carlos Correa owned a successful machinery parts manufacturing business. When they decided to move to Virginia and replant their entrepreneurial roots stateside, a partnership with the Greater Roanoke + New River Valley SBDC was crucial in helping them establish a new business venture.

“As a Colombian I had to start from scratch in the US,” Jeniffer says. “I found the SBDC online and made an appointment with Tom Tanner.”

Working with Tom, an SBDC Business Advisor, Jeniffer found help for everything she needed to open J.C. Spare Parts and Consulting. That process started with acquiring a specific work visa and continued with financial projections, capital formation, and marketing – all of which the SBDC assisted with.

“I came to the US with a tourist visa,” Jeniffer says. “Tom helped me with the business plan I needed to apply for the E-2 visa that allows me and the three technicians I brought from Colomba to work in the USA.”

The SBDC also connected Jeniffer with key educational resources, like SBDC marketing webinars, and profit and budget forecasting and management.

After laying those early foundations, Jeniffer followed Tom’s guidance and began networking within the new community she and her husband now called home. That included joining the Pulaski Chamber of Commerce, Pulaski County Innovation center and connecting with local manufacturing groups.

In May 2020, JC Spare Parts and Consulting officially opened for business. In the three-plus years since, the company has expanded its services by offering Class A electrical installations to its existing services of providing industrial parts, sharpening, and maintenance services.

That growth has been sustained by the formation of a large repeat client base that has grown from one to five clients from multiple states, and a team that has grown from one employee to eight and its sales grew 800% in just two years.

“The SBDC supported us the whole way,” Jeniffer concludes. “Pulaski is projected to grow, and we want to be part of that growth. With SBDC, we believe we can do it.”

Dr. Bobbie Hansel-Union established Hansel Union Consulting, PLLC in 2010 to provide personal therapeutic services. After experiencing, and surviving, a brain aneurysm in her late 30s, Bobbie was convinced of the value of therapeutic services.

“After my experience, I realized it was only through therapy I was able to come back,” Bobbie says. Inspired by a desire to help others with developmental, intellectual and neurological disabilities, she opened her office in Portsmouth with a staff of one – herself. However, even though Bobbie embarked on her business venture on her own, she knew that didn’t mean she had to go about it alone.

“I was the only one on staff,” she says. “But I knew about the Hampton Roads SBDC, so I reached out to them for help.”

Bill Holloran, a Hampton Roads SBDC Business Analyst, answered Bobbie’s call and has been her advisor ever since. Their partnership started with a business plan Bill helped her write, along with developing business goals for Hansel Union Consulting’s future.

As Hansel Union developed its primary goal – to serve children and adults “from birth to the end” – the company experienced steady growth, both in personnel and clientele. While the SBDC was instrumental in getting Hansel Union off the ground, their assistance didn’t stop there. Bill and the SBDC helped Bobbie secure grants of $25,000 and $10,000 and advised on staffing as Hansel Union expanded.

“Next we added recreation therapists and occupational therapists,” Bobbie says. “From there we added psychologists, physical therapists, speech therapists, and a nursing staff.”

As Hansel Union’s team expanded, so too did its footprint in the community. They now provide both in-person and virtual services across the commonwealth, from Richmond to Roanoke and Northern Virginia.

As the company continues to move forward, Bobbie plans to take the SBDC along.

“Without the SBDC I don’t think I would have been as successful as I am,” she says. “My first year in business I made $33,000; today Hansel Union is a $5 million agency with 36 on staff.”

“The SBDC has always been there for me,” she adds. “I don’t understand why anyone would start a business without SBDC support. They provide a wealth of knowledge — and it’s free.”

In 1927, entrepreneur Harry P. “H.P.” Johnson established Johnson Funeral Home in the small Virginia town of McKenney. Nearly 100 years later, the third-generation family business has grown to include three funeral homes spread in the Tri-Cities area, including the McKenney facility operated by Joseph “Joey” Johnson Jr.; the South Hill facility run by his sister, Mary E. Johnson-Fields; and the Petersburg facility managed by Wendal A. Givens.

Even a longstanding family business that has been in operation for nearly a century like the Johnson’s can benefit from the SBDC, as H.P.’s great nephew Joey has learned since partnering with the Crater SBDC in Petersburg beginning in 2021.

“I was raised working in the funeral home,” says Joey, who, alongside his sister, worked at Johnson Funeral Services in various capacities as a child and young adult.

“In 1992, I took over the McKenney home. But there’s been a lot of changes in the industry. Changes to the business environment and business in general.”

Those changes, Joey says, range from the rise of the internet and digital marketing to the demand for alternative disposition methods, like cremation. That’s in addition to the gamut of traditional responsibilities related to running any small business, which was what originally led Joey to connect with the SBDC.

“[What first drew me to the SBDC was] the resources they offered,” Joey says. “I was looking for more experience and knowledge related to running the business.”

Joey reached out to the Longwood SBDC in Farmville after seeing a flyer for programs available to small-business owners. From there he began working with Vandy Jones, the Eastern Region SBDC Director who oversees the Crater SBDC.

Vandy initially helped Joey apply for a grant and enroll in SBDC courses related to taxes and finance. However, with Johnson Funeral Services coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic – which forced significant changes in how the business structured its on-site gatherings – Vandy saw another way to help Joey and Johnson Funeral Services by helping them apply for the zero-percent Tri-Cities Small Business Capital Access Program loan.

That loan, which is offered through Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and in partnership with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development and SBDC, allowed Joey to pay off high-interest debt with a zero-interest rate loan. Vandy assisted Joey by setting up a business plan and organizing other documents needed for the application.

“It was a program that with the struggle from the pandemic helped us secure some extra financing. It was a resource that really helped us,” Joey says.

That assistance will help ensure Johnson Funeral Services’ success and keep the family business running for generations to come.

Tia Hancock loves to grow plants; a skill she learned from her grandmother. Now Tia is growing a business in Lynchburg’s downtown district. With assistance from the SBDC – Lynchburg Region’s CO. STARTERS program and Launch LYH, Tia opened PREAM (Plants Rule Everything Around Me) in November 2023.

Tia’s business plans took root when she signed up for CO. STARTERS, a 10-week cohort-based program hosted through a partnership between the Lynchburg Office of Economic Development & Tourism, SBDC – Lynchburg Region, and Vector Space.

CO. STARTERS includes one-on-one entrepreneurial support, mentorship, and class speakers. The program introduced Tia to Jawansa Hall and Jordan Reeves from the SBDC, who both presented during Tia’s cohort.

Tia followed advice from Jawansa, Jordan, and other CO. STARTERS speakers and sought customer input.

“I talked to people and posted on social media,” she adds. “That input told me Lynchburg was a plant-friendly market.”

Next, Tia applied for the Launch LYH program that supports entrepreneurs ready to start a new business, relocate, or expand an existing business in a Downtown Lynchburg storefront. The SBDC is one of five sponsors for Launch LYH and the pitch competition for cash grants that concludes the program.

“I received a $25,000 grant,” Tia notes with pride. “Downtown Lynchburg Association also helped me find a good location.”

Tia’s grant covered her initial business expenses without additional financing. Nevertheless, Tia says she is now in a more confident position to approach local banks should financing be needed with the required business plan completed during the CO. STARTERS course.

“I still keep in touch with them at SBDC,” Tia relates. “I took information they presented and figured out how it would work for me.”

PREAM’s basic business plan is already blossoming with new ideas.

“We’ve started a Houseplants 101 and Build Your Own Terrarium class,” Tia concludes. “Working with the SBDC and CO. STARTERS definitely gave me a better start in business. I’ve enjoyed working with them and hope to continue.”

Leah Fallon knew nothing about opening a business, but she felt like Leesburg needed a bookstore. In March 2021, after Googling “How do you open a bookstore?,” she discovered the Loudoun SBDC and reached out to SBDC Manager and Lead Business Advisor Eric Byrd.

“Eric said, ‘You have to be more than just a bookstore. You have to be an experience,’” explains Leah. “So, I really dug down and thought about what creates an experience, and I was like: plants.”

Through SBDC startup classes and one-on-one consultations, Leah worked to validate her concept and identify her target market. In May 2021, she launched Birch Tree Bookstore, testing the waters with a pop-up shop full of books and plants. In September, she moved into her first location, Leesburg’s Cowbell Kitchen.

“I never thought I would own a business,” Leah explains. “Every step of the way, I kept thinking: ‘Once this gets too hard, I’m out. Anytime this gets too hard or too complicated with the town or the government or with money, I’m out.’ But with the SBDC and people in the book industry, I was able to get the support I needed, which helped me become successful and not really worry about it. I just felt taken care of.”

As Birch Tree grew, Leah continued her one-on-one consultations with Eric. She also connected with Ami Mason, a professional gardener at the local nature preserve. A vendor at first, Ami sold plants to Leah, sharing her expertise along the way. It wasn’t long before Leah asked Ami if she wanted to quit her day job.

Ami launched Foliage Plant Shop in August 2022. Two months later, she and Leah moved into a shared space on West Market Street.

“We’re two businesses under one roof, under one register,” says Ami.

“We both have skin in the game,” says Leah. “We want to make plant people book people — and book people plant people.”

Throughout the process, the SBDC has worked with the co-located businesses to determine a joint marketing strategy and a plan for managing expenses, payroll and other finances. Eric has helped Leah and Ami conceptualize a completely new dual business model that they’ve built from the ground up.

Today, Birch Tree Bookstore & Foliage Plant Shop is a thriving community hub with 13 book clubs (one oriented on plants, of course), author events, plant workshops, and local celebrations like First Fridays.

“We want to facilitate people being downtown more often,” says Ami. “A lot of locals have complaints about getting downtown. They’ll just go to the outlets or the shopping mall or shop online. We want to create an atmosphere for downtown that isn’t just restaurants. It’s not even just us — it’s a vibe. It’s fun to do.”

Each enterprise makes the other stronger. The businesses have created six part-time jobs, and Birch Tree has tripled its sales since opening. Foliage Plant Shop has also scaled up.

“What I used to consider a good month is now a bad month,” says Ami. “The SBDC is a powerful resource.”

Driven by a vision to transform downtown Leesburg and backed by the SBDC, Birch Tree Bookstore and Foliage Plant Shop are redefining what local shopping feels like.

As a star soccer and lacrosse athlete, sports have played a pivotal role in Nora Maguire White’s life, instilling lessons that molded her into the person she is today. Following her playing career, she founded STEADY Academy with a vision to use soccer as a tool to empower girls with life skills on and off the field.

After Nora added Shenandoah Valley SBDC Business Advisor Barry Henderson to the team, her vision became reality with the opening of STEADY (Striving Towards Educational and Athletic Development of Youth) Academy.

STEADY Academy is the result of nearly three decades of coaching experience for Nora. She is a 1992 graduate of James Madison University and a two-sport standout who was inducted into the JMU Athletics Hall of Fame. After her playing career, she embarked on the traditional path of coaching, beginning as an assistant soccer and lacrosse coach at Loyola University in Maryland and moving on to stops as head soccer coach at Illinois State University and assistant soccer coach at the University of North Carolina.

However, after five years in the college coaching ranks, which included winning a National Championship at North Carolina, she took a timeout to revisit the real reasons she got into coaching.

“Over 18 months I wrote a 26-page development curriculum for girls,” she relates. “Initially I contacted the SBDC in Chapel Hill [N.C.], then let it rest awhile.”

That plan outlined her vision to bring the lessons she learned and personal growth she experienced through sports to local youth. STEADY Academy was the result.

After returning to Harrisonburg, Nora completed a business plan and started building her team. One of her first additions was Barry at the Shenandoah Valley SBDC.

“I think it was an act of God I was assigned to Barry,” she comments. “I would never have known how to get the capital I needed on my own. Barry’s experience in banking, contacts in the community, and passion for getting me over the end line led to a $50,000 line of credit.”

A good coach, Nora believes, makes all the difference.

“Many factors in starting a business can shut doors,” she adds. “Without someone to guide you, those doors won’t open.”

STEADY’s line of credit allowed for expansion of the coaching staff from seven to 20 and a player enrollment increase from 40 to 200, which has led her to plan for a national launch of STEADY this October. Going national with her program, Nora believes, will be a game-changer.

“I would not be where I am today without the SBDC,” Nora concludes. “The personal touch of the SBDC is what really put STEADY Academy over the edge.”

When plans to open a restaurant in Galax didn’t pan out for chefs Justin and Meagan Hitt, Crossroads SBDC Director Mandy Archer helped them consider other ideas and start a catering business. Even after landing their first opportunity – catering a friend’s wedding – the husband-wife culinary team learned the road to building a catering company was anything but a piece of cake.

“Financially, we realized a restaurant wasn’t going to happen,” Meagan relates. “We decided to try catering instead but needed someone to explain business details. Mandy explained an LLC and showed me how to apply for SWaM certification.”

Funded by Justin’s 401K, Beyond Catering opened for business in 2020 and acquired its first steady customer: the Volvo Truck Customer Center in Dublin. That has since turned into a thrice-a-week culinary affair that Beyond still serves today.

However, even with the steady customer base, the couple wanted a commercial kitchen closer to home. When a business incubator kitchen in the Crossroads Institute became available, Beyond Catering moved in. An added bonus was the SBDC office across the hall.

“I popped in there a lot as our company grew,” Meagan says. “We’ve added two full-time and four part-time employees and 20 on-call servers.”

Beyond Catering’s sales have also exceeded $250,000 annually, and recently won the Gemini Award from The Carroll News in 2022 and was named Best Caterer by the publication in 2023. Meagan and Justin are paying forward the lessons they’ve learned through a podcast they started, titled “Business Bites,” which offers hard-earned advice to other food entrepreneurs.

As Meagan and Justin look beyond catering to their ultimate goal of opening a restaurant, they’ll continue to depend on the SBDC for advice.

“Mandy’s been a great support,” Meagan concludes. “I don’t see any reason you wouldn’t want to have the SBDC in your back pocket.”

Shrishti Singh completed a doctorate degree in bioengineering at George Mason University (GMU) in December 2022. With support from her GMU mentors, she created a promising new imaging technology with potential to impact many lives — including her own.

After finding an injectable contrast dye that enhances healthcare imaging capabilities, under the mentorship of Dr. Remi Veneziano, Assistant Professor of GMU’s bioengineering department and Dr. Parag Chitnis, director of GMU’s bioengineering Ph.D. program, Shrishti shifted her career focus from scientific research to entrepreneurship. With a vision to take her groundbreaking technology “from the research bench to the patient’s bedside,” she co-founded NIRView with Dr. Veneziano and Dr. Chitnis.

During the last year of her PhD, with a novel product and trusted mentors at her side, Shrishti sought out a business advisor for the entrepreneur piece of the puzzle. A consultation with the Mason SBDC connected her with the ICAP Life Science Mentor Elizabeth Pyle, whose work with the Virginia SBDC’s Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP) aligned perfectly with Shrishti’s technology and entrepreneurial vision.

Virginia SBDC-ICAP helps Virginia-based technology and innovation-driven startups like Shrishti’s move from idea to launch, offering advising, training and pathways to funding. Elizabeth and Shrishti’s first meetings were to understand the technology, followed by more concrete business planning.

“After Shrishti and her mentors had conducted 20 customer interviews, we realized there was something to develop as a business,” Elizabeth adds.

After completing the Virginia SBDC-ICAP cohort, Elizabeth guided Shrishti and Dr. Remi Veneziano through the I-Corps Program created by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help move academic research to market. Shrishti’s faculty mentors, have since received funding from a number of sources, including the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation Commonwealth Commercialization Fund ($75,000), an NSF I-Corps National Grant ($50,000), and an NSF I-Corps Site Grant ($3,000) to take the technology forward. Shrishti won the top award at the 2023 Patriot Pitch Competition ($6,000) and the event’s Mason’s Choice Award ($1,000).

“The SBDC introduced me to a whole new world,” Shrishti states. “The ICAP Program showed me that while you might have the best technology, if no one wants to buy it, you don’t have a business.”

Additionally, Shrishti was recently nominated for the Forbes Under 30 Summit and has shared her experience as an entrepreneur through several interviews, including the PhD Talk Show podcast episode “From PhD to Entrepreneurship: A Researcher’s Journey of Turning an Idea into a Reality.”

As Shrishti and her team continue to lay the groundwork for the 2024 incorporated NIRView, she plans to use the Prince William County Innovation Park, a university-centered research park anchored by George Mason University, to continue developing her product. This will allow NIRView to progress toward a full launch while Shrishti continues to seek additional funding sources.

“Starting from this space, we hope to expand and enhance the realm of healthcare imaging,” Dr. Veneziano says.

Shrishti and her team note their appreciation for all the assistance they received from the SBDC. “The support we got from the SBDC was amazing,” Dr. Chitnis adds.

“Learning the business end was a bit scary for me,” Shrishti concludes. “Having someone like Elizabeth to rely on — that support was extremely helpful for all of us.”