Applying Project Management for Founders, Entrepreneurs, and Businesses

Four-Part Virtual Workshop Series  |  Wednesdays  |  12 PM – 1:30 PM

April 22, April 29, May 13, and May 20, 2026

Registration is OPEN for the Southern Virginia Regional Procurement Fair!

A strong understanding of the procurement process is crucial for businesses of all sizes and services! The Southern Virginia Regional Procurement Fair is designed to educate our valued businesses how to obtain contracts in working with large industries and government agencies. This event is the perfect opportunity to get your foot in the door and your business on the map in working with new and large companies.  

AGENDA ITEMS

• Learn how to become a credible vendor to large industries and government agencies.
• Gain insight on the Small, Minority, and Women-Owned Business (SWaM) certification process.
• Learn how to gain access to capital.  
• Network with local vendors.

EVENT DETAILS

• DATE: Wednesday, April 10
• TIME: 2 Sessions, 8:30am-12:00pm OR 1:30-5:00pm (you only need to attend one session)
• WHERE:  Institute for Advanced Learning & Research, 150 Slayton Avenue, Danville, VA 

HOW TO REGISTER

Register Here: https://caesarssupplierdiversity.formstack.com/forms/southernvaprocurementfair?fbclid=IwAR1UyR46K8JkJ5rg7rR8DLjfaxR8Awkcygbo2Qx5d0ifqrkFfiWv3Q-iKAQ

Follow the City of Danville Office of Economic Development’s Facebook page to learn more: https://www.facebook.com/danvilleeconomicdevelopmentandtourism/

Questions? Reach out to Samantha Bagbey, Project Manager, at samantha.bagbey@discoverdanville.com or call 434.793.1753.

Introducing the RISE Collaborative Winter 2024 CO.STARTERS Business Bootcamp cohort!

Congratulations to the 30 entrepreneurs representing 28 businesses who completed the Winter 2024 RISE Business Bootcamp. The RISE Business Bootcamp kicked off in January and concluded on March 5, 2024.  The program included a virtual Meet & Greet session followed by eight, three-hour virtual training sessions and field work assignments each week.

Keep scrolling to learn more about these entrepreneurs and their business offerings.

Agriculture and Food

Health and Wellness

Professional Services

Retail

Transportation and Logistics

Entrepreneurs gather from around Southern Virginia to accelerate their businesses

Business Pitch Competitors

A total of 13 businesses pitched at the event, in the following order:

• RCFlyBy (Drone business based in Halifax, VA) https://www.rcflyby.com/ 
• The Appalachian Glamping Company (Startup concept for Patrick County, VA) 
• Sweetcakes by The Cheesecake Lady (Bakery and catering business in Martinsville, VA) https://www.facebook.com/thecheesecakeladyofva/ 
• Valhalla Organics (Farm and food product business in Halifax, VA) https://www.valhallaorganics.org/ 
• Frankie’s Spicy Farm (Salsa brand in Halifax County, VA) https://www.facebook.com/FrankieSpicyFarm/ 
• Premier Endeavors (Startup custom apparel business in Farmville, VA) 
• LEZEAL Enterprises (Wellness education business in Brunswick County, VA) 
• GW Custom Design (E-commerce custom apparel business based in Halifax County, VA) https://www.etsy.com/shop/GWCustomDesign 
• Toasted by Southern Plenty (Main Street business expansion in Halifax County, VA) https://southernplenty.com/ 
• Succor Solutions (Non-profit disaster relief consulting firm based in Nottoway County, Virginia) https://www.facebook.com/SuccorSolutions/ 
• Harris & Sons Septic, LLC (Septic service serving Halifax County, VA and surrounding areas in VA & NC https://southsideseptic.com/index.html 
• B&C Brewing Co. (Startup brewery to serve Amelia County, VA)
• Factory Street Brewing Co. (Existing brewery and event space in Halifax County, VA) https://factorystreetva.com/

Donate to the Female Founders Fund for Women-Owned Businesses

The Fund is currently at $2,100 as of March 29, 2023. Donations could be made by downloading and completing a sponsorship form or by emailing hello@sovarise.com. Pledges for 2023 are required to be made by Friday, March 31, 2023, at 12:00 noon.

Event Sponsors & Partners

The RISE Business Plan Competition is one of several programs organized by RISE Collaborative that provides access to capital through cash prizes, mentorship, and networking opportunities. The 2023 RISE Business Plan Competition Sponsors include Benchmark Community Bank, American National Bank & Trust, First Citizens Bank, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, Long & Foster Real Estate of South Boston, Va., Letterpress Communications, and the SOVA Innovation Hub. Information about sponsoring future RISE Collaborative events is online at sovarise.com/partners.

Carl Bassfield, owner of In-Depth Productions based in Blackstone, Va., provided photography for the event.  As a member of the first business bootcamp offered by RISE Collaborative, Bassfield has been an active participant and contributor to the RISE Collaborative since its launch in 2021. 

Rudy’s Girl Media based in Martinsville, Va. provided videography coverage. Natalie Hodge, owner of RGM and creator of the YouTube series Hometown Hustle, is an avid supporter of other entrepreneurs. Hodge and her team are gearing up for the Season 2 premier of Hometown Hustle on Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at 7 pm EST.

RISE Collaborative looks forward to hosting future events to support local entrepreneurs and businesses.  To find out more about events, resources, and how to get involved, join our email list or contact us at hello@sovarise.com. 

Entrepreneurial Energy: Revisiting the Inaugural CO.STARTERS Cohort in Blackstone, Virginia

Historic Southern Virginia Town Reaping Benefits of Entrepreneurship Training Program

 In April 2021, an entrepreneurial movement started in Blackstone, Virginia.

That spring, nine individuals took part in Southern Virginia’s inaugural CO.STARTERS program, a national entrepreneur training curriculum brought to Southern Virginia by the SOVA Innovation Hub and the Longwood Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and funded by a grant from GO Virginia Region 3. Downtown Blackstone Inc. (DBI) also played a prominent role in setting up the inaugural cohort in Blackstone — a town of approximately 3,300 people located in Nottoway County, Va. — and brought in additional funding through a Community Business Launch (CBL) grant.  

Together, those nine participants took part in the 10-week CO.STARTERS course designed to provide current and future business owners with the tools, knowledge and resources to take their ventures from idea to reality.

More than a year later, Blackstone is reaping the benefits with multiple new businesses setting up shop in and around the historic town. 

“We were really the first in the area to engage with it and use that curriculum,” said Justin Sarafin, executive director of DBI. “I had the luxury of sitting through it and getting a firsthand look at exactly what was being taught. It was great. It really energized those folks in the course.”

The curriculum included instruction on topics from creating a business plan to revenue forecasting, accounting and marketing. Each participant applied the lessons to their own ideas and, by the end of the course, constructed an all-encompassing plan to launch their businesses. 

The culmination of the Blackstone CO.STARTERS program featured a pitch competition where the participants — armed with their newfound business sense and entrepreneurial toolkit — shared their plans with a panel of judges. Winners received prize money to establish their businesses, which was provided through the CBL grant that DBI procured.

“Our winners have gone on to do some great things,” Sarafin said.

“You have five established brick-and-mortar businesses. You can point to places that were once unoccupied that are now occupied. It looks good for the town, and these businesses are still operating. That was the start, and now we’re starting to see the longer-term benefits.”

Justin Sarafin

Executive Director, Downtown Blackstone Inc.

Those winners were first-place recipient Jeannie Nelson, who recently moved her Liberty Hollow Sweets chocolaterie to another Blackstone Main Street location, and second-place honoree Carl Bassfield Jr., who went from freelance photographer to owner of his own media company, In-Depth Productions.

Even those who didn’t come away with the grand prize have used the guidance and insight provided by CO.STARTERS to found or grow their own businesses in Blackstone or to fine tune their ideas. Among the newly launched entrepreneurs are artist Ally Barfield, who creates handmade resin products at RV Mom In Pink, and baker Jan Daniel, owner of Taa Daa The Bakery. 

“I didn’t realize that I had good ideas or that my ideas were valid until I started taking the classes,” Barfield said. “I didn’t know anything about starting a business. The program gave me the tools I needed to make an actual business work. The instructors helped me figure out the financial side of it like pricing products, balancing a checkbook and figuring out taxes.”

All four businesses launched by the initial cohort are still in operation. According to Brandon Hennessey, the director of innovation, research and entrepreneurship at the Longwood SBDC, that’s no small feat.

Entrepreneurial collaboration is a tenant woven into the CO.STARTERS curriculum by design. This is further strengthened by the ongoing work of RISE Collaborative, the Longwood SBDC and — specifically for the South Boston cohort — community economic organizations like DBI and the South Boston Chamber of Commerce. That spirit of cooperation is especially important in the small Southern Virginia communities that are the targets of RISE and the Longwood SBDC’s revitalization efforts, says Lauren Mathena, director of economic development and community engagement at the SOVA Innovation Hub.

“Each of these communities — from Blackstone to Brunswick, Halifax, Farmville, Mecklenburg and beyond — is unique in their economic needs, goals and backgrounds,” Mathena said. “However, they all share a cohesiveness and pride in the success of their communities.

“The CO.STARTERS program provides the tools and knowledge to help individual entrepreneurs take their passions and share them with the world. Something we’ve seen in every cohort is that the individuals truly cheer each other on, and business building becomes a genuine group effort.”

As further evidence of that communal effort, three Blackstone businesses launched from the inaugural CO.STARTERS — and another, Beyond the Plant, which launched in the follow-up fall 2021 cohort — operate within a quarter-mile of each other on Blackstone’s Main Street. Says Sarafin, the economic revitalization of the town’s Main Street has long been a goal of Blackstone and its inhabitants, and CO.STARTERS is helping make that vision a reality.

“Trying to fill vacancies in the district is huge,” Sarafin said. “It is a major goal of the town’s, and we’re part of the process for helping to make that happen. The Blackstone Business Launch, the grant that funded our CO.STARTERS cohort, DBI and all the town’s efforts to increase tourism — it’s all to increase activity and visitation to our community.”

To view the impact CO.STARTERS can have on a community, one needn’t look any further than Main Street in Blackstone. 

“Now you fast forward, and what came out of the program? You have five established brick-and-mortar businesses. You can point to places that were once unoccupied that are now occupied. It looks good for the town, and these businesses are still operating. That was the start, and now we’re starting to see the longer-term benefits.”

Entrepreneur Spotlight: Ally Barfield

From Artist to Entrepreneur

“It only takes one percent of action to start turning a dream into a reality,” Ally Barfield, the owner of RV Mom in Pink, explains as she reflects on her own growth over the last year.

The artist-turned-entrepreneur sells handmade resin products ranging from candle holders to runes, as well as custom dominoes and chess sets.

With a strong work ethic, taught by her mother, Barfield displayed the entrepreneurial spirit at a young age. She and her brother created their own business opportunities by knocking on neighbors’ doors and offering to mow their lawns or weed their gardens for extra money. Today, with the support and strategy provided through RISE Collaborative’s CO.STARTERS program, Barfield is a full-fledged businesswoman selling her handcrafted goods through a virtual storefront and at local venues.

“I started my own business because it’s an opportunity for me to be transparent with my customers and it allows me to be my authentic self,” she says. “I try to be a safe space for diversity by creating custom products for people with unique interests or different religious backgrounds.”

So what’s next for the pink-haired businesswoman?

Barfield is ready to diversify her products and sell in more stores and markets. She recently purchased furniture so she can blend her love of resin art with home decor. She wants to create entire scenes made of resin on tabletops and is still growing her skillset as an artist, including her recent mastery of a new smoke effect for her products. She is even considering scaling up her product line to include full-size countertops made of resin, which can be produced at a fraction of the cost of granite or quartz.

“I didn’t realize that I had good ideas or that my ideas were valid until I started taking the classes. I didn’t know anything about starting a business. The program gave me the tools I needed to make an actual business work. The instructors helped me figure out the financial side of it like pricing products, balancing a checkbook, and figuring out taxes.” 

Ally Barfield

Owner, RV Mom in Pink

Giving back to the community is also a priority in the upcoming year. Barfield offers training courses on how to safely handle resin and avoid toxic reactions.

Armed with supportive family and friends and foundational knowledge of business management, Barfield is ready to take RV Mom in Pink to the next level.

“There are a lot of critics in the world,” Barfield says. “Do what you love, and there will be enough people to see your talent and worth.”

Entrepreneur Spotlight: Jan Daniel

Turning a Lifelong Passion into a Full-Fledged Business

If experience is the best teacher, Jan Daniel is well-schooled.

The self-made entrepreneur and owner of Taa Daa the Bakery in Blackstone, Va., spent decades treating her passion for cake design as a side project alongside a successful professional career in various sectors, from the Navy to graphic design and floristry. When the opportunity to open her own business presented itself late in her career, Daniel proved that great things can happen when passion meets experience.

“I was in the Navy for 10 years, and doing cakes was kind of a creative release,” said Daniel, who, among many other duties, was a supply manager of more than $20 million in goods during her service. “I had the government/corporate side of things, and I enjoyed it and excelled at it, but I also needed the creative release.”

That creative release was one that Daniel began before she got to high school, designing her first cakes at age 12.

“I’m self-taught, and I learned through trial and error,” she said. “I didn’t go to school for it, YouTube was not a thing, and Google wasn’t in existence. Everything I learned, I read. I started doing cakes just for fun, just wondering if something would work and then trying it. That’s how I got into it. It’s something that I always did, and it followed me.”

That outlet became a lasting one for Daniel throughout a professional journey that has been as successful as it is diverse. Even as her career path wound from food and beverage, to floral design, to communications and marketing, she continued to design cakes on the side. And when Virginia’s “Cottage Law” passed in 1999 – allowing for the sale of prepared foods made in-home – she turned her baking hobby into a baking business.

“There’s a risk if you don’t pursue your passion. If you don’t try it, you’re going to beat yourself up for the rest of your life going, ‘I wonder what would have been.’ Now I don’t have to wonder. That’s how I ended up where I am.”

Jan Daniel

Owner, Taa Daa the Bakery

“That’s when Taa Daa really launched,” Daniel said. “I baked for years, though it was still on the side, but it got to the point where I was in the kitchen anywhere from 35 to 40 hours a week in addition to working full time.”

However, after splitting 75-hour weeks between her day job and her kitchen, a friend suggested she commit full-time to her baking business and bring it to Blackstone. At the time, the Southside Virginia town of 3,300 didn’t have a bakery, and Daniel’s friend worked to convince her that her talents would be a good fit.

“I said no for two years, because I was living in North Chesterfield and I didn’t feel that Nottoway could support what I was doing,” Daniel said. “Then we finally came out to take a look [at where my building is now]. I looked in the window, and I said I could open a grab-and-go bakery here and still do cakes. I thought, I’ll try that – and that’s how I landed here.”

Four years later, Taa Daa the Bakery is booming. With Facebook as her primary marketing hub, Daniel crafts custom cakes, cupcakes, pies and other baked goods for all manner of celebrations and events, and even just the occasional cravings. She still does it all by herself, and she says the autonomy in owning her own business has been an added perk of taking the entrepreneurial leap.

“Plus, my employee meetings are fun,” she quipped.

Daniel’s one-woman show should not be underestimated, though. Her various career pursuits provide her with the experience and wisdom to manage all facets of her business. In addition to baking, she runs Taa Daa’s social media and marketing, keeps her books and makes her own deliveries. However, even with her skills and expertise, Daniel saw the opportunity to grow when she found out about RISE Collaborative’s CO.STARTERS program in 2020.

“It sounded more like it was for folks who hadn’t started the process yet. I was already paying meals tax, but still, I wanted to go network and I wanted validation I was doing the right thing,” she said.

Daniel signed up for the inaugural CO.STARTERS program in Blackstone in 2021, and while she was the only one in the cohort with an established brick-and-mortar location, the 10-week program provided her with ample networking opportunities with her fellow entrepreneurs. It also led to an opportunity for grant funding, which she used to purchase an additional mixer for her bakery.

Now a proud, if not atypical, member of the Blackstone CO.STARTERS cohort, Daniel remains active in her community’s entrepreneur scene. She is a regular participant in the locality’s monthly Rise & Shine meetups and has even brought along freshly baked goodies to the meetings. It’s part of a lifestyle that took several decades and several careers for Daniel to find, but it’s one she has no regrets in pursuing.

“There’s a risk if you don’t pursue your passion,” she said. “If you don’t try it, you’re going to beat yourself up for the rest of your life going, ‘I wonder what would have been.’ Now I don’t have to wonder. That’s how I ended up where I am.”

Entrepreneur Spotlight: Carl Bassfield Jr.

From Freelance Photography to Full-Fledged Production Company

Carl Bassfield Jr. established In-Depth Productions in 2019 with an iPhone and a wedding gig. 

“This isn’t the first business I’ve attempted to start,” said Bassfield. “It’s the first successful business.”

Before the idea for In-Depth Productions took root, Bassfield cultivated his love of photography by snapping church photos on Sundays with his pastor’s camera. He searched for creative nature shots in his rural Southern Virginia surroundings and documented his growing son on his iPhone. While working as a military contractor at Fort Pickett, filming and editing simulations, Bassfield connected with an industry mentor from California, who took his talent seriously. 

Shortly thereafter, Bassfield heard about CO.STARTERS, a program for aspiring entrepreneurs that was part of the Downtown Blackstone Inc. (DBI) Community Business Launch (CBL) and is managed by the SOVA Innovation Hub, the Longwood SBDC, and GO Virginia Region 3. The program provides support, skill-building, business ideas, grant opportunities and networking events for individuals interested in starting a business. 

“When you start a business, you want to do everything by yourself and everything right now,” said Bassfield. 

However, CO.STARTERS taught Bassfield an important lesson: You have to take the steps one by one. Or, as he said, you have to “reel it in.” 

Instead of launching photography, videography and music production services right away, Bassfield opened In-Depth Productions with a focus on photography, specializing in weddings. Now with a studio in Blackstone, Va., two employees and a number of subcontractors, Bassfield has grown his business organically, adding videography services by request and, more recently, working with clients on original soundtracks, films, and voiceovers. 

A second lesson from Bassfield’s time in CO.STARTERS emphasized the importance of developing a support network. As a member of CO.STARTERS’s inaugural cohort, Bassfield formed lasting relationships with his peers and instructors.

“The people in the class were very diverse. Everybody was doing something completely different, but there were opportunities for everybody to work together and network,” he said. “You end up keeping in contact with each other and becoming accountability partners.”

Since the program concluded, Bassfield has photographed his peers’ business events and provided editing services. His relationships with instructors Brandon Hennessey and Katherine Beale of the Longwood SBDC have also provided ongoing support. When he opened his studio, Beale offered a number of interior design suggestions, and recently, Bassfield reached out to Hennessey for tax advice.  

As Bassfield scales In-Depth Productions, he returns to the lessons he learned from CO.STARTERS on a daily basis. Identifying his ideal customer and figuring out how to market his business strategically has been a game-changer.

“I know that nine times out of ten, my ideal client isn’t going to pick up a newspaper,” he said. “The majority of my clients are online. They’re social media users. I’ve taken my advertisements out of the newspaper, and I get a newspaper to do my advertisements through their Facebook page.”

In the next five to 10 years, Bassfield has big dreams for his business. He hopes to open multiple locations and employ a regular staff, spending his own time photographing destination weddings. He has already booked an October wedding in Trinidad and Tobago. 

As In-Depth Production grows, Bassfield works to support fellow innovators with business ideas. He recommends CO.STARTERS to those who are ready to make their idea a reality. 

“CO.STARTERS is a huge investment in self — one that’s very necessary, especially if you want to become an entrepreneur,” said Bassfield. “Everything is relevant. You’re going to use all of the information that they give you.”

Our latest Rise & Shine virtual meetup featured entrepreneur and CO.STARTERS completer Mikita Smith, who learned later in her professional career the value of hitting “pause.” She now runs a business helping fellow professionals do just that.

The founder of Beautifully Unbalanced, a self-care and wellness coaching business, Mikita has spent her professional career helping others in her community. Prior to becoming a business owner, she was a nurse for more than a decade but eventually felt called to help others outside of that profession and prioritize herself in the process.

“I thought, ‘There has to be more,’” she said. “I felt like I was really missing my purpose and what I wanted to do. I wanted to make an impact. I wanted to help people transform and change their lives.”

To change the lives of others, however, Mikita first needed to change her own. She recognized in herself the need to pause, assess, and slow down a pace of life that had led her deep into burnout. To start, she took up gardening – “Something I never thought I’d do because I usually kill everything I touch,” she said – and found it to be a relaxing outlet. She grew herbs, brewed them into tea, and found a new passion. 

However, that passion – much like Mikita’s herbs – continued to grow, and what was born from that initial pause awakened into an entrepreneurial spirit. After launching a self-care-focused podcast called “Thyme for Tea,” Mikita began to entertain the notion of starting her own business helping others along the path of self-care she found for herself. With an idea and a wealth of passion for the project in hand, she turned to the CO.STARTERS program offered by RISE Collaborative. Months later, Beautifully Unbalanced was born. 

“One of the things from CO.STARTERS was to ask what you think you’re good at,” she said. “It was funny because everyone I went and talked to, they said, ‘You’re always positive. You never seem to have a bad day.’”

Fueled by that optimism and guided by the CO.STARTERS roadmap, Mikita launched her business and has since helped many others regain balance and fulfillment in their own lives. She offers a range of coaching options, from a two-hour “Breakthrough Journey” to a guided six-week intensive. 

She has also continued to produce her podcast – which now tops 30 episodes – and has woven that and a blog into the framework of her business.

“Starting CO.STARTERS gave me a great way to look at a business plan, understand who my audience was, and then narrow it down to just a little bit more detail about who those audience members are,” she said. “When I do things and post things, I generally want to make sure I’m posting as if I’m [marketing] directly to one person. I built an avatar around this person, and I speak directly to them. Whoever reads it, if it’s a message for them, it will feel like I’m actually talking to them.” 

“I feel like CO.STARTERS gave me the foundation to do that. And not only did it give me that foundation to create my business plan, it opened up my mind to all the other possibilities.”

Missed the Rise & Shine session with Mikita Smith?

Watch it here.