Small Biz Focus

This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

With 2020 being an incredibly difficult year for small businesses, it is important for our community to come together and support our local businesses this holiday shopping season and #ShopARL when possible.

As an Arlington resident, there are many ways you can support small businesses this holiday season, the most important to remember is to #shopsmall and #shopARL whenever possible. To help you search for local businesses, BizLaunch has compiled a list of small businesses on our business directory or check out our story highlights on Instagram to see the businesses featured as part of our holiday takeover.

American Express has also developed a handy tool that puts small businesses on the map, literally. When you shop local don’t forget to use #ShopARL, we’ll reshare.

As part of our marketing efforts for Small Business Saturday (November 28), we’re giving Arlington small businesses the opportunity to take over our Facebook and Instagram story feed for an entire day. What is a social media takeover? A social media takeover is your opportunity to highlight your small business on our Facebook and Instagram. All through November and December, small businesses can submit video and photo content to be included in our Facebook and Instagram stories.

More than ever, consumers want to support small and local businesses, and we want to help small businesses reach them. Ready to take over @aedbizlaunch? Follow these three simple steps to help you prepare for your takeover day.

1. Create Your Content: Think about what you what you want to share with potential customers. Your story could include the products you sell, holiday specials, or even your entrepreneurial story. For more tips and ideas of what to include, check out our filming guidelines. Don’t forget to film your video vertically for best results. For maximum exposure submit at least three different videos, each no longer than one (1) minute. Also check out our Instagram for a sample takeover to get your creativity going.
2. Submit Your Content: Have all your content and ready to submit? Use this form to upload your content. Feel free to include additional content such as pictures, logos, etc., that you also want included. The BizLaunch team will reach out to you to schedule your takeover date. Currently, takeovers are scheduled on a first come first served basis.
3. Sit Back and Relax: In reality, it’s only two simple steps, but with e-commerce dominating the retail landscape, here are some simple tips to help your business.

We hope you join us in sporting small businesses this holiday season and we look forward in featuring Arlington small businesses all throughout the holidays.

This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

By Alex Held, Small Business Manager

As one of our inaugural SWaMmy Honorees, Dana Mitchell, Founder of ButtarCup Fancy Face Painting, noted in her recorded speech, livestreamed on October 15 at the inaugural SWaMmy Honors, “COVID-19 and 2020 has been quite mean.”

Many businesses across Virginia have gone to extraordinary lengths to pivot but remaining consistent and apparent in many video submissions submitted by small businesses from across the commonwealth was their passion for their business and the perseverance to succeed.

The SWaMmy Honors was originally envisioned as an in-person awards celebration to be held in May in Richmond. However, like many of the small businesses we serve, we ourselves had to pivot and reimagine the program, but one aspect of the program that remained constant was our desire to promote and recognize Arlington’s and Virginia’s inclusive business community.

Along with our partners, BizLaunch and the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, sprang into action to reimagine The SWaMmy Honors, coming up with the idea to have SWaM certified businesses who had originally submitted a nomination before we were forced to cancel the May celebration and businesses from across the commonwealth the opportunity to submit a short video talking about their passion, how they pivoted and their small business story. The best videos would be included as part of the livestreamed program.

We were touched and inspired by the stories many small businesses shared in their video submissions, that we felt it was wrong to keep it a secret. Therefore to celebrate Virginia’s diverse and passionate small business community, we compiled all the videos which included over 60 minutes of recorded content submitted by businesses into a YouTube playlist to share their stories with the world.

We hope you are inspired as we were by the passion, compassion and perseverance of Virginia’s small business community.

This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

By Tara Palacios

2020 has been a tough year.

Businesses have had to quickly pivot and are searching for new opportunities to grow. Target markets are shifting, and the way customers purchase goods and services are simply not the same. Businesses are looking for new ways to engage in the market and time is of the essence.

Why not give your business a boost this fall by participating in our upcoming FREE virtual program: Boost Your Business on Local Governments. Arlington County’s BizLaunch program and the Arlington County Purchasing Office are partnering to bring you new business opportunities from around Northern Virginia each Friday during the month of October beginning October 9 at 10-11:30 a.m.

The program features business opportunities in Arlington (October 9) the City of Alexandria (October 16), Fairfax County (October 23) and Prince William County (October 30).

Each Purchasing office will share upcoming bids and procurement notices from around the Commonwealth as well as how to do business with their respective jurisdictions. In addition, each municipality will explain the specific process of doing business with their community.

Special guests include Virginia’s Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity (SBSD). The SBSD is currently managing the ReBuildVA Grant Fund which recently changed its qualifications to open the program to more of Virginia’s small businesses. Click here for more information.

We hope you join us during the month of October to discover opportunities for your business into 2021.

This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

By Tara Palacios

Don’t miss your opportunity to learn from some of the regions most experienced business consultants!

Collectively the BizRefresh trainers represent over 100+ years of experience to address key topics impacting your business due to the effects of COVID-19 on the economy. Did we say the cost to attend the co-hort is free? Yes, this 8-week course is at no charge.

BizRefresh Session 1: Know Your Why

Rita Ricks has successfully led Virginia’s Scaling 4 Growth initiative which is an intensive executive-level training to help accelerate the growth of Virginia’s small businesses. Rita is experienced in leading businesses to success. In our first session, business coach Rita Ricks will help you get to your why, helping you develop a resilient vision, mission and strategy.

September 10 | 10-11:30 a.m.

BizRefresh Session 2: The Economist Viewpoint

Exclusive invitation to hear Anirban Basu, the nationally renowned Economist from Sage Policy Group. Mr. Basu will discuss the impact COVID-19 has had on the regional and national economy. Local businesses and organizations are invited to participate in this important discussion which will provide keen insight into our future economy as we begin to strategize during and post-COVID-19.

September 17 | 2-3:30 p.m.

BizRefresh Session 3: Demystifying Your Target Market

Greg Payne is the President and Principal Consultant at Emerging Market Enterprises. Greg is experienced in helping clients navigate private capital, acquisitions, client management and project execution. He has a passion to help small businesses and nonprofits grow and scale their businesses when facing challenges. Greg, will do a deep dive to help you better identify your target market, target customer and market size while also framing the competition.

September 24 | 10-11:30 a.m.

BizRefresh Session 4: Is Your Business on Brand?

Carla Uriona is the Chief Content Officer and Founder of Arlington-based Factor 3 Digital. Carla led the first design team at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she helped Pew launch its first-ever data visualization products. Carla has spearheaded 360 rebranding projects, mentored writers on how to create for digital, and worked with many organizations transitioning from print to digital.

In this session, Carla Uriona, Founder Factor 3 Digital, will help businesses craft a powerful marketing message that not only matches their brand but also resonates with their target market.

October 1 | 10-11:30 a.m.

BizRefresh Session 5: Maximize Your Digital Presence

In this session, Carla Uriona, Founder Factor3 Digital, discusses how to develop a powerful digital marketing strategy building on lessons learned from the previous session ensuring your virtual storefront harmonizes with your brick and mortar store.

October 8 |  10-11:30 a.m.

BizRefresh Session 6: Back to Basics — COVID-19 Style

Carl Hairston is a 30-year Banking Executive in the D.C. metropolitan area. He has led innovative teams in the Mid-Atlantic to provide small businesses access to capital and financing opportunities. Carl is currently leading banking efforts at First Citizens Bank serving as their Area Director.

October 15 | 10-11:30 a.m.

BizRefresh Session 7: Business Sustainability Planning

Building upon lessons learned in the previous session, Carl Hairston Area Executive at First Citizens Bank, returns to discuss how to reassess your current business plan for resiliency and best practices in financial record keeping.

October 22 | 10-11:30 a.m.

BizRefresh Session 8: The Pitch of Your Perfection

In this session, acceleration guru Will Fuentes of the Maestro Group will discuss the art of perfecting your sales pitch during COVID-19. Information on sales trends and how best to communicate to close deals during the current health pandemic are key. Three participants will have the opportunity to present their pitch at the culmination of this final BizRefresh session.

October 29 | 10-11:30 a.m

This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

By Tara Palacios

It appears as if COVID-19 is going to be with us for the better part of the year, and possibly into 2021.

Since the Stay-at-home orders were issued in March, the Palacios Family — like many families across the U.S. — have been looking closely at the way we manage our household and developed new efficiencies like never before. We’ve repurposed our work spaces in anticipation of a virtual fall and identified simple tools to help us with this transition.

Just as we have been making our workspaces more productive — now is the time to look under the hood of your business to ensure the engine is running smoothly and continues to run smoothly as we move through the current health pandemic.

A definite area of importance is to make sure your business has access to personal protective gear, masks, sanitizers and the sanitizing products for the workspace as well as ensuring social distancing of at least 6 ft. Those PPE business needs are a reality of 2020; however, you will also want to make sure the engine is running well under the hood.

5 Things to Check Under the Hood of Your Business:

Reevaluate your vision, mission and goals

COVID-19 has changed the way we do business.  Have you had the opportunity to reevaluate and modify your company’s mission and vision to reflect the differences the health pandemic has impacted on our society? Are your vision, mission and goals the same?

If the vision and mission of your business is different, how have you communicated your messaging to your key stakeholders and customers? If your vision, mission and goals are the same, should they be changed to reflect a different business environment?

How is your business structured?

What type of business structure are you? (E.g., Sole proprietor, LLC, Partnership, Incorporated etc.) When was the last time you reached out to your accountant or attorney to ensure your business structure still matches the vision and goals of your business from when you first started? Have you grown your business or are you the same sized-business as you were 2, 5 or 10 years ago? Make sure your business structure aligns with the structure and offerings of your business in 2020.

Do you have the same customers or target market? 

Is your business stagnant or growing? Do you have the same customers or has your target market shifted due to a decrease/increase in demand or because of a change in technology? Are your customers buying your product or services the same as they did in 2012 — or are you finding most customers are now online versus buying from you in-person?

Audit your customers and ask them directly how like they are to engage in business with you. A fall survey is a great way to make sure that you are offering the best services and products you possibly can as we move into 2021.

Access to Capital 

How much buying power do you have for your business as of August 2020? If you need cash do you have enough money to pivot, target a new client-base or move your services online? How much would these investments cost and how much do you need to be a key player in your industry? Reach out to your financial institution and have them do a financial audit of your business.

If you have a relationship with your bank this is a great way to identify new products and tools that can help you manage opportunities and continue to build your business. If you don’t have a relationship with a bank, begin to build one now for future possibilities and direction.

Identify your Top 5 Opportunities 

As we say goodbye to 2020, (…believe me a lot of us can’t wait to see the back of this year…) what are the remaining 5 opportunities you can identify to help grow your business? There are still four solid months left in the calendar year. What are the opportunities you can squeeze in quickly to help grow your business and give you a giant positive leap into 2021?  Brainstorm with your team and find the opportunities.

In BizLaunch, we continue to keep the under the hood dialogue moving forward. We have two free workshops coming up this month you can participate in. We hope you join us.

• BizTalk: Pivot! Adjusting to Uncertainty
• BizTalk: Is Your Website Awesomesauce or just Meh

This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

The GRANT provides immediate financial assistance to Arlington’s small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arlington County today announced 394 businesses are receiving the Small Business Emergency GRANT (Giving Resiliency Assets Near Term).

The GRANT program provides financial assistance to Arlington’s small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The GRANT funds were designed to bridge the gap to provide near-term relief for businesses and nonprofits, some of whom have experienced delays or limitations with federal relief initiatives.

Businesses and nonprofits considered for the GRANT had to be located in Arlington County, have fewer than 50 employees, and demonstrate revenue losses of 35 percent or more as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The GRANT is being made on behalf of Arlington County, the Arlington Industrial Development Authority and the Ballston, Crystal City and Rosslyn Business Improvement Districts (BID). The GRANT will provide a total of $2.8 million in funding.

This amount includes an increase of $1.6 million from CARES Act funding that the Arlington County Board approved yesterday — more than doubling the funding available for applicants. Based on the available funding, 394 businesses (53 percent of eligible applicants) will receive a financial grant. Businesses across the County, in a wide variety of industry sectors and geographic locations, received grants.

Award amounts varied, up to $10,000 per business. More than 37 percent are restaurant and food service businesses and nearly 26 percent are personal service businesses, approximately 10% are health and medical businesses and 10 percent are retail businesses. Recommended grantees are concentrated along the major commercial corridors. Nearly 44% of awarded businesses are in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor (Zip Codes 22201, 22203 and 22209) and 20% are along the Route 1 Corridor (Zip Code 22202). Approximately 13% are in the Columbia Pike Zip Code area.

“With our small businesses among those most affected by the pandemic, the Board thought it was important to provide more funding for GRANT,” Arlington County Board Chair Libby Garvey said. “This new funding will make it possible to provide much-needed funding to more than 50 percent of the eligible applicants. For those that do not receive funding, we still offer business and financial planning assistance. We hope that our small businesses will seek our advice if they would like, and will continue to pursue other avenues of support. We want all our businesses to be able to recover and thrive again as we continue our phased reopening.”

“Throughout the pandemic, we heard over and over again that financial assistance was what our business community needed most,” said Telly Tucker, Director of Arlington Economic Development. “And we’ve kept in constant contact with all our businesses to provide a variety of resources to help, from these GRANT funds to individual meetings to sessions on how to effectively pivot operations in order to continue through the last few months. As we now look forward and begin to reopen, we’re hopeful these GRANT funds will help those businesses hit the hardest — those that would be unable to continue operations without this financial aid.”

Applications were evaluated through a competitive process. More than 1,100 applications were received for consideration. Applications were evaluated based on criteria that considers the impact to employees, business operations and the Arlington business community.

GRANT funds must be used for employee salary and benefits and other business capital and operating expenses directly related to the immediate impacts of COVID-19. Recipients are required to submit a final report to Arlington Economic Development and provide documentation of grant use.

A list of the GRANT recipients is available on the Arlington Economic Development website.

This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

By Alex Held, BizLaunch

Calling out to all our cool quarantine kids, we’re still #BizStrongArlVa and because Arlington loves its small businesses, we wanted to share with you how you can show your favorite small business some love.

https://twitter.com/AEDBizLaunch/status/1248619723907981312

On April 10, BizLaunch and the Arlington Restaurant Initiative along with community partners such as the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, Rosslyn BID, Crystal City BID, Ballston BID and the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, kicked off a day long tweet storm highlighting local businesses and providing timely information. Throughout the day residents tagged their favorite local business using the #BizStrongArlVa and small businesses highlighted their products and services, unique ways in which they have pivoted and special hours and pickup or delivery options.

#BizStrongArlVa
Pick your #bandana or #necktube color and let your personality shine #arlingtonva! ——@ReadyArlington @ArlingtonDES @ArlVAChamber @RepDonBeyer #supportsmallbusiness #saveyourlocalgearshophttps://t.co/aBRfN2xtBs pic.twitter.com/bPq5CMUxDB

— Casual Adventure (@VACasualAdv) April 10, 2020

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