CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – Small businesses are staples to communities, but they aren’t easy to run.
For local business who participated in the Launch Christiansburg business program, it has helped them guide their new businesses.
Sandy Perrine owns Allegheny Fine Gardening.
“It’s just a really detail-oriented approach to gardening,” Perrine said. “My clients aren’t typically buying all their plants from Lowe’s. They’re ordering online or they saw something in an exotic garden, and they have got to have it.”
She is a small local business owner and recently participated in the Launch Christiansburg business program to hone her skills as a businesswoman.
“It was about 6 months into starting the business when I saw the advertisement for Launch,” she said.
She said she learned the aspects of a business that not everyone thinks about.
“We covered marketing, we covered, hey, are you actually going to be able to do this idea?” Perrine said. “I went from ‘Ahhh, what am I doing here?’ to ‘Oh. This is what I’m doing here, and this could really work, and this is a really good idea.”
After the 11-week program finished, Perrine pitched her business to a panel of local small business experts. She won the top award of $5,000 for her business idea.
“I was not thinking it would be me,” Perrine said.
She said that money has been able to help in so many ways.
“I did a branding session with Waters Production, and I have been able to buy some pretty cool tools that were on my bucket list that just make my job easier.”
Small Business Solutions Manager Miles Campbell helps head the Launch program. He said the help Sandy was able to get is the exact goal for the program.
“All of it comes together in a nice order to where you hit the right information at the right parts of when its actually relevant to you,” Campbell said. “In small business, especially, every single dollar counts, and when you have got something that you are trying to start up, the initial investment can be the hardest.”
For Perrine she said she hopes this program continues so more potential business owners and entrepreneurs can utilize it.