Mon Valley businesses get development assistance
The first round of business development grants given out by the Mon River Valley Coalition may be the last such grants given out by the organization, despite the popularity of the program.
According to Cathy McCollom, co-director of the Mon River Valley Coalition, the Sustainable Marketplace for Art, Artisans, Recreational and Trending Businesses (SMAART) grant funds came, in part, through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, and those funds may not survive the budget process.
“The grant source, through the DCED, may be at risk through the budget. I don’t know if it will be funded again,” McCollom said.
Additional funds came from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. McCollom said the coalition will continue to seek private funding for the program if state funding is not available. McCollom said the grant does more than hand local businesses money.
“We modeled it after a program in Oil City. It inspired entrepreneurs and instructed them in developing a business plan,” McCollom said.
The three $10,000 grants were handed out Thursday at a meeting of the Mon River Valley Coalition held at California University of Pennsylvania, where Ray Vargo of the Small Business Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh noted that while three businesses ultimately received grants, many others received valuable information to help their businesses grow through a series of seminars held in local communities.
“We held our first training session in June with about 50 people,” Vargo said. “We believe we must be a community partner.”
Vargo holds weekly office hours Wednesday afternoons at the Charleroi Borough Building, along with daily hours in Washington and Waynesburg.
“The closer you are able to bring the process to the people, the more likely they are to participate,” said Donn Henderson, the Charleroi Borough manager.
McCollom said Henderson first floated the idea of a grant program based on business plans. Henderson said the goal was to fill vacant storefronts.
“A few Years ago I stated a committee in Charleroi called Revive 2016. Well, here it is and here are the results. It takes a long time in government to bring things to fruition,” Henderson said.
Kelly Hunt, the district director for the Small Business Administration, said the local workshops on developing a business plan are a big part of growing businesses in the region.
“Even though some of those people may not have applied for the grant, hopefully we will see them as a new business down the road,” Hunt said.
There were eight applicants for the grants, with three selected, based on workshop participation and the quality of their business plans.
“Writing a business plan is a skill. You can have the best idea in the world, but if you can’t communicate it in writing or in person, it will go nowhere,” said Donna Holdorf, executive director of the National Road Heritage Corridor and co-chair of the Mon River Valley Coalition.
Holdorf commended the winners of the grants for business plans that looked to the future needs of their clients.
Full Armor Fitness, a new fitness center located in Charleroi, used its grant money to add more fitness equipment to its facility and upgrade security so the facility can be open 24 hours a day. Full Armor Fitness owner Samuel Sokol said it would have been another six to 12 months before he could have offered 24-hour-a-day services to his clients if the grant hadn’t been available.
“I’ve had a large increase in membership since we went 24 hours,” Sokol said, noting that a number of his clients work in the gas well industry with unconventional hours.
Keeley Burnside, a massage therapist at Salon and Spa by Chaney’s Natural, said owner Tanya Chaney had wanted to expand the business’s line of health foods after the closing of a health foods store in Charleroi. Without the grant, that expansion of services would have taken much longer, Burnside said, leaving a void in the market for health foods.
The third grant recipient, Steel Dog Construction, is new to the area, though the owners have 10 years experience in interior finish carpentry and related renovations in Seattle, Washington. Their grant was used to develop a professional website and logo, adding to the professional appearance of their company.
Laura Koon, who owns Steel Dog Construction along with her husband Jason, said she hopes funding can be found to continue to program in the future and she is grateful for the local small business development assistance.
“Even though we’ve had a business for 10 years, there’s so much we have to learn,” Koon said.
The Koons said the networking and technical support they have received by participating in the coalition program has been as valuable to their company as the grant.