For small business owners, good help is vital. As a sole employee, it’s essential. For an entrepreneur like Renee Perkins, who runs not one but two businesses on her own, assistance has been a lifeline.

Renee is the founder, owner, and operator of the Red Roof Home and the Tazewell Test Center, two drastically different businesses. The Red Roof Home is a lodging establishment, while the Tazewell Test Center is a proctoring hub that administers professional exams and employee certifications.

With two businesses, Renee has her hands full. But luckily, she says, she’s not alone: She has the Director of the Southwest Community College SBDC in her corner.

“Margie [Douglass] is just a wonderful person,” Renee says. “She’ll go out of her way to help you with whatever it is you need to do. It’s so great knowing you can just pick up the phone and call. You have a resource for whatever comes up.”

The initial partnership between Renee and the SBDC began in 2017 when she was navigating the early stages of planning for the Tazewell Test Center. That process was well underway until an unexpected project came her way, causing her to change course. That project was the future Red Roof Home, which Renee won at auction.

“The house basically fell into my lap,” she says. “I started thinking about the possibilities — what I would need to do with it and what I could do with it. I had already started working with the ladies at the SBDC for the test center, but once I discussed with Margie what I had in mind for the home, the test center went on the back burner.”

Renee began renovations on the Red Roof Home in January of 2018 and, with assistance from the Southwest trio of Margie, Brittani Clarke-Cayman, and Misty Brandy, hosted her first guests by August of that same year.

But even as Renee’s shift from the test center to the Red Roof Home turned into a full-time endeavor, she still aimed to one day follow through with her initial business plan. When she was ready, the SBDC was waiting to help her get started and to provide encouragement along the way.

“There were times when I was going through the test center working on my business plan where I decided I was going to give up,” she says. “You can’t be an expert on everything. I was already operating the Red Roof Home so, when it came to those financials, I was just ready to throw my hands up. But Brittani said, ‘Renee, you’ve worked so hard. You’ve come so far.’

“Misty told me she’d developed a spreadsheet and that — if I wanted to send her my numbers and give her an idea of what I foresaw happening with my business — she would plug them in, and we would come up with the numbers together. At that point, I was just ready to stop. I was too overwhelmed, but I gave her those numbers, she plugged them in, and it was like a miracle.”

That miracle led to the Tazewell Test Center’s grand opening in September 2021 and the realization of a dream deferred. Renee has since heard from mayors, business owners, and officials from state agencies, all requesting her services to certify new hires or recertify current employees.

Certainly, it’s a lot to handle. But even as a solo business owner, Renee has found she isn’t alone.

“Margie, Brittani, and Misty encourage you to stick with it, and I love that about those ladies,” she says. “I can’t sing their praises enough.”