Whistle Pig Country Store Deli & Coffee Shop grew from intention, purpose, and a deep connection to place. After more than forty years away, sisters Jan Brown and Melissa Hubbard returned to Lee County and quickly recognized the shift around them. Diversity had increased, yet the shared spaces that once anchored community life had faded. A “For Sale” sign on a long-standing country store signaled more than a real estate listing. In that moment, the sisters recognized an opportunity to restore connection, not simply reopen a building.

In 2025, Jan and Melissa opened doors to Whistle Pig Country Store Deli & Coffee Shop inside the former Wheeler Store along Wilderness Road. Today, local residents mingle with visitors, travelers, and students from nearby universities. Unique merchandise lines the shelves, while a full deli and coffee shop invite guests to pause or stay awhile. From the outset, the vision held steady. Whistle Pig would foster gathering, create local jobs, and support employees through a culture of respect and care.

Opening a business in rural Appalachia brought real obstacles. Infrastructure gaps, startup logistics, and limited access to nontraditional financing shaped early decisions. Support arrived through the Mountain Empire Small Business Development Center, where the sisters partnered with advisor Becki O’Quinn. Her experience guided them through rural startup requirements, operational planning, and financial readiness.

Although funding options remained narrow, SBDC support helped identify viable opportunities and assess next steps. Small grants followed, enabling critical infrastructure improvements and paving the way to opening day.

Today, Whistle Pig Country Store Deli & Coffee Shop continues to operate with its founding purpose intact. Each morning begins with community at the center, guided by connection, service, and sustainability. Jan and Melissa credit Becki for practical guidance and for clarifying the responsibilities tied to building something meaningful in a rural place.

Their story reflects the resolve required to return home, invest locally, and create a business that serves more than customers. It serves a place.

Economic Impact

• Opened a new rural retail, deli, and coffee shop in Lee County
• Created 10 local jobs since opening
• Secured $35,000 in local grant funding to support startup infrastructure needs
• Provides a gathering place for residents, travelers, students, and park visitors
• Continues to experience steady sales growth since opening

Mountain Thyme Honey began as a simple dream. After nearly thirty years in Northern Virginia, Sarah Melendy moved to a quiet log cabin surrounded by mountains and wild thyme, imagining a slower, more intentional life. She had long been fascinated by beekeeping, inspired by her daughter’s college course in honeybee biology and a high school honeybee club where students shared jars of fresh honey like precious gifts. When Sarah discovered stacks of unused hive equipment in the garage of her new home, it felt like a sign. The former owner told her she could keep everything, and Sarah stepped into beekeeping with curiosity and a sense of wonder that still shapes her business today.

The Moonlite Drive-In Theatre has woven itself into the lives of generations in Washington County. Originally built in 1949, it became a beloved gathering place for families who curled up under blankets and watched movies beneath the stars. For many locals, including the current owners, it held memories of childhood visits, first dates, and long summer nights. When the theatre closed in 2013 because it could not secure a digital projector, the loss resonated deeply across the community.

Clinton Ward and Stephen Young worked together for years in the HVAC industry. With help from the Blue Ridge Crossroads SBDC, the friends and co-workers are now co-owners of an HVAC contracting business.

“We’ve worked together for a lot of years, and it was just finally the right time to start,” Clinton says.

After planning the business together, Clinton launched Appalachian Mechanical in January 2024 with Stephen coming aboard the following May. Now the duo is managing projects in Southwest Virginia with jobs as far as two hours away from their home base in Fancy Gap.

They credit SBDC Business Advisor April Collins with laying the foundation that made their business possible, from helping them set up as an LLC to registering their Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI).

“I really can’t brag on April enough,” Clinton says.” I know the trade, but when it comes to a lot of the paperwork, the business, licensing a lot of that, they’ve helped me out a lot. It’s been the biggest learning curve, actually seeing and understanding how much goes on behind the scenes to have a business and operate it.”

Clinton has worked in HVAC, plumbing and electrical for his entire career, while Stephen is a lifelong tinkerer who entered the industry through building trades programs. And while Clinton’s father and grandfather owned a contracting business — which he credits with planting the entrepreneurship seed in his own mind — launching a company was well outside his area of expertise.

“I feel like if it weren’t for [the SBDC], we’d probably still be scratching our heads figuring out how we were going to do this,” Stephen says. “We would have figured something out, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as smooth.”

Along with the LLC and BOI setups at the start, April also connected Clinton and Stephen with Virginia’s APEX Accelerator program, which facilitates connections and contracts between businesses and government agencies. A year later, Appalachian Mechanical’s services are in high demand.

“I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but we’re both very skilled at what we do,” Clinton says. “We’re really focused very heavily on our quality and making sure we do things right. By being small and keeping our overhead low, we’re able to provide that quality at a more affordable price than a lot of the major companies.”

And while Clinton and Stephen are currently the sole employees, their early success has them planning to expand to a four or five-person operation.

“You have to make money. You have to make a living. But in my mind, being able to help people, your community, friends and neighbors — that stuff is honestly more important than the money,” Clinton says. “I don’t care about being a big millionaire running a massive empire. As long as I’ve got enough to pay the bills and go buy a cheeseburger once in a while, I’m just fat and happy.”

Growing up on a family farm in Botetourt County, Candace Monaghan and her family worked the land and tended cattle as a team. When 20 acres of the farm became the epicenter for the annual Beaver Dam Farm Sunflower Festival, a need to expand that team prompted Candace to bring in the Greater Roanoke & New River Valley SBDC.

“We’ve been a family farm since 1900, my great-grandfather, grandfather, father, myself and siblings, and so on; so it’s always been a huge part of my life,” Candace says.

As a child on a dairy and cattle farm, Candace grew up milking cows and bottle-feeding calves, but she also harbored an interest in the arts. She went on to study graphic design at Virginia Western Community College and, after graduating, launched Candace Monaghan Design where she designs marketing materials.

And when Candace’s father planted Beaver Dam Farm’s first sunflowers in 2015, Candace’s creative, entrepreneurial mindset saw potential. She organized the first Beaver Dam Farm Sunflower Festival in 2016, and the annual event has since grown to cover multiple weekends, draws more than 20,000 people and 100 vendors, and won a Blue Ridge Golden Star Award.

All of that foot traffic created a significant revenue stream for the farm, but also a need for business and marketing expertise. In 2019, with the event growing in scope and attendance each year, Candace connected with Greater Roanoke & NRV SBDC Business Advisor Heather Fay. Heather helped Candace and Beaver Dam Farm Sunflowers, LLC secure a $20,000 Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) Grant and provided a guiding hand in 2021 when Candace won first place at The Gauntlet, a prestigious Virginia business competition.

The SBDC has also guided Candace to new marketing opportunities for the festival, ranging from advertising to digital media and public relations. The two continue to collaborate through the GrowthWheel Peer group Heather facilitates. They are currently planning for the sunflower festival’s 10-year anniversary in 2025.

“When I have an idea and think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the best idea ever, that’s when I’ll meet with Heather,” Candace says. “Then she’ll come back with another amazing idea that I hadn’t thought of. It’s just a highlight for all of us to be able to meet monthly and discuss what’s going well and what’s not going well.”

Along with the anniversary planning, Heather and Candace are currently collaborating for the upcoming “Agripalooza,” a brainchild of Heather’s that will connect agriculture, technology and tradition in the Greater Roanoke and NRV SBDC’s coverage area.

“Heather has helped me so much,” Candace says. “From applying for the Virginia Tourism Grant every year to advertising opportunities and just somebody to share ideas with.”

Shortly after they first struck up their relationship in 2019, Michael and Mary Blevins discovered that their skillsets and passion for developing luxury spaces complemented each other professionally and personally. After decades of high-end design and marketing strategies for the real estate and economic development sector, building and designing spaces for themselves, the now-married couple felt was the next natural progression to intertwine their skillsets from the ground up.

“Once we got together, we instantly recognized both of our skillsets and how well they played together,” Michael said.

With Michael’s 25-year background in real estate development and marketing complemented by his love of architecture and building plus Mary’s career in hospitality and interior design, the couple launched their own contracting company in 2022: Mason Dixon Brothers. They began by purchasing and renovating a historic storefront on Tazewell’s Main Street to create Haus of Taylor, an art gallery that doubles as an Airbnb and a showcase for the design and building skills of Mason Dixon Brothers.

As they completed Haus of Taylor, however, a larger vision began to take shape—one that extended beyond a single property and aimed to breathe new life into their hometown and the entire Southwest Virginia region. Ground zero for this revitalization is an 87-acre property they own, dubbed Ruakh Resort. They and Mason Dixon Brothers’ master carpenter Scott Fry are in the process of converting Ruakh into a getaway destination for concerts, events, and vacations.

This vision led Michael and Mary to the SBDC.

“Everything Mason Dixon does is focused toward making Ruakh a success and one of the biggest things to hit Southwest Virginia,” Michael says. “Mason Dixon really exists to fund that. In 10 years, we hope to have a little Red Rock in the back of the property – an outdoor amphitheater that attracts big names to a place where people may think there’s nothing.”

To secure funding that would make those first steps possible, Michael and Mary began working with the SBDC in February 2024 through a recommendation from the Tazewell County IEDA. Mt Empire SBDC Director Becki O’Quinn-Purdie and Southwest Virginia SBDC Director Denise Harmon helped them apply for a Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) tourism grant. VCEDA approved a $10,000 grant that helped Michael and Mary build Ruakh Resort’s first luxury geodesic dome.

The Blevins’ 10-year plan is to erect more geodesic domes at Ruakh in proximity to other amenities like a common house kitchen and the aforementioned concert venue. And with Mason Dixon Brothers’ capabilities and the SBDC’s resources and funding connections, they intend to do all the work themselves.

“We just thought, we have 87 acres of fun land. How do we turn that into something that’s an attraction, that holds events like Bristol has and other places like that?” Michael said. “That’s what will help the community. Our ultimate goal is to have art and culture, art and music festivals, fall festivals and weddings. If we can get more lodging here, then that money stays in our community, in our county.”

In 2022 Tanya and Jeff Taylor sold their home and business in Greenville, South Carolina, and moved to “the side of a mountain” near Pennington Gap. Soon afterwards, they launched Stone Mountain Yogurt in 2023 using personal funds. After launch, the Mountain Empire Community College (MECC) SBDC helped them apply for a local grant. Stone Mountain Yogurt’s opening helped spark a surge in the town’s revitalization.

“We were looking for vacation property when we purchased 42 acres on Stone Mountain,” Jeff explains. “Once we built a small cabin there, we realized we were too young to retire.”

In addition to investing in a vacation property, Jeff, who previously worked at General Electric, and Tanya, who had worked at a local bank in Greenville, SC, also felt called to invest “in a small town in need of help.” In exploring Pennington Gap, they found a Main Street that was mostly deserted. Once based around coal mining and tobacco, the town’s economy had faded — and so had the businesses in the town’s main thoroughfare.

“We saw Pennington Gap as Norman Rockwell’s America,” Tanya adds. “We wanted to bring that small town feeling back with a store downtown — and that’s exactly what we did.”

Jeff and Tanya contacted the town manager and the Pennington Gap Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and presented their idea for a new business on Main Street. Both were “helpful and open to our idea,” Jeff explains, which led the Taylors to seek additional funding. They started Stone Mountain Yogurt with personal funds and then later sought out a matching grant after opening to add additional equipment to better serve the community. Jeff found it in the form of the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA)’s Seed Capital Matching Grant, which provides support for economic development projects from funding created from a percentage of taxes paid by coal and natural gas companies in Southwestern Virginia.

However, even though Jeff had previous business experience running a high-end auto detailing business in South Carolina with his son, he still sought guidance in applying for the grant. That’s when the SBDC joined the picture.

“The town manager told me about the Mountain Empire Community College SBDC, so I called Director Becki O’Quinn-Purdie and made an appointment,” Jeff relates.

Becki met with Jeff and Tanya and helped them through the application process. The application was approved and a $10,000 VCEDA Matching Grant was finalized and awarded to Stone Mountain Yogurt in June 2024.

“Becki walked us through details we needed for a matching grant,” Tanya says. “She does a great job answering questions — I can email or call her any time.”

From there, Jeff and Tanya worked with the Town of Penning Gap to find an appropriate location; which turned out to be a 100-year-old building on Main Street. The Town of Pennington Gap provided instrumental assistance with the renovations through a downtown revitalization project along with the HK Lee properties, the owner of the building. The shop’s frozen favorites quickly created a snowball effect all along Main Street.

“When we opened last July, there was nobody on this street,” Tanya notes. “Since then, a coffee/sandwich shop, hair salon, candle shop and arts and craft store opened. We’ve about filled up the street!”

Stone Mountain Yogurt hired its first employee in February 2024, and as Tanya reports, the shop sees new customers every day.

“The SBDC has the tools you need to open a business,” Tanya concludes “I encourage every small business owner to contact the SBDC.”

Douglas Lester got his truck and trailer repair business off the ground with a mobile emergency repair service in 2018. Looking to switch to a brick-and-mortar location for his heavy-duty diesel repair shop, Douglas turned to the Virginia Highlands SBDC for advice.

Douglas knows the value of good advice; an early education in truck repair, the catalyst for starting his business career, began with his dad.

“My dad worked on trucks,” he says. “He gave me advice on how to repair and maintain them. Doing repair work has interested me ever since.”

Douglas started a 24-hour emergency roadside repair service in 2018. As that business grew, he began to look for a permanent location.

“There’s a Petro Truck Stop on this exit ramp of Interstate 81, but all they work on is trucks,” Douglas notes. “I saw a need here for both truck and trailer repair. Interstate 81 is always loaded with tractor trailers — that’s one of the reasons we looked at this area.”

Douglas began a search for property and initially found land that he thought he could build on, but later found a building that had been vacant for several years and it was already set up for truck repair. Securing funds for leasing the building became the top priority.

“I knew I couldn’t handle something of that magnitude myself,” Douglas comments. “I started an internet search on Google and found Cindy Fields’ name at the SBDC.”

Cindy, director of the Virginia Highlands SBDC, connected Douglas with the First Virginia Bank and Trust that provided a startup loan, which allowed Lester Truck & Trailer Repair to move into the new building and hire employees.

“Cindy led us through creative financing that allowed us to transition from a mobile service business into a brick-and-mortar location with 54,000 square feet on 17.4 acres,” Douglas adds. “A country boy from Russell County couldn’t have done all that.”

One thing the SBDC suggested they focus heavily on while developing their revenue projections was customer relations with local fleet companies. Now, (those) customers, like the big trucks that travel the interstate, keep rolling in and really have helped us grow sustainable revenues,

Cindy also assisted in setting up advertising with Google and developing a website, which, as Douglas says, “is how customers find us.”

Douglas also took advantage of SBDC’s training seminars. As business started to grow, Cindy assisted with QuickBooks training and a financial statement review.

“Our year-to-date revenue is $1 million,” Douglas says. “In September we hired our seventh employee and are pursuing an SBA loan through First Community Bank to purchase our building.”

Future plans already include expansion of staff and services. “The next step is an evening shift, hiring more techs, and service seven days a week.”

“Cindy worked with us on a five-year plan and a loan development package” he notes.

Douglas sees an optimistic future for Lester Truck & Trailer Repair.

“I would never have known about the SBDC if I hadn’t found Cindy’s name on the internet that day,” he concludes. “We’ve been blessed — and now we have the SBDC to advise us along the way as our business evolves and grows.” Cindy, has been great to work with us. She has guided us throughout the entire process, through the lows and the highs. We can not express our appreciation enough on her behalf!