Category: C-BIZ

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Let’s get together: Tom Tom connects entrepreneurs to, well, everybody

Photo Credit: Ryan Jones

Spring is coming, and so is the Tom Tom Summit & Festival. [UPDATE: Originally slated for April, Tom Tom has been rescheduled for September 21-27, 2020.] Every year, the event mixes music, community art projects, and a plethora of innovative business ideas. We caught up with Tom Tom’s executive director, Paul Beyer, for a look ahead at this year’s fest.

Can you share any success stories coming out of Tom Tom’s business competitions?

Tom Tom’s competitions range from crowd-funded pitch nights targeted toward individuals and very early-stage small business to equity-based challenges seeking to match investors with scalable technology companies. Over the past several years, there have been hundreds of thousands of dollars invested at Tom Tom. Success at Tom Tom can mean a start-up entrepreneur receiving the encouragement to keep going—even if they don’t “win”—or an investment. Last year’s winner of the crowdfunded pitch night was Babylon Microfarms. They have continued to grow, and recently raised $2.3M in capital to expand their business.

What will help Charlottesville thrive in the 21st century on the creative, entrepreneurial, industry, and innovation side?

My dream for 21st-century Charlottesville is one in which we’re able to become a welcoming home to all types of residents—a city that is filled with opportunity, and encouraging to dreamers, creators, and entrepreneurs. In terms of opportunity, we’re beginning to make real strides here with various educational and entrepreneurial programs that level the playing field. In terms of encouragement, that is something that we as a community have to continue to get better at. In a lot of respects, Charlottesville is a very successful and affluent place, and thus it can fall into complacency. We can sometimes be a little apathetic or even negative to new ideas. At Tom Tom we really try to make sure that creators of all kinds are honored and celebrated.

How has Tom Tom been integral to pushing those qualities forward since it was founded?

I think Tom Tom’s best quality is being grassroots, which allows many people to contribute in different ways. We invite people to join our programs or to create their own to accomplish their organization’s goals. I’d like to think that creates a sense of “ownership.” Tom Tom’s goal is to create a platform that can model how stakeholders can work together throughout the year.

How do you see local organizations and artists contributing to business development locally?

One of Charlottesville and Albemarle’s best assets is a vibrant culture and quality of life— which are directly related to the artists and nonprofits in the region. We wouldn’t have anywhere near the level of startup activity if entrepreneurs didn’t want to locate here and stay here. Of course, one of my biggest concerns—one that is shared by many of our neighbors—is that our housing and commercial spaces are increasingly unaffordable, and many artists have been priced out of living here.

What sort of business-related headliners can we expect in April?

We’ll be announcing our headliners in the coming weeks. They include Bruce Katz, author of The New Localism, and The Atlantic’s Jim and Deb Fallows, all of whom write about the conditions that communities need to foster in order to have more vibrant and prosperous entrepreneurial communities. We also have serial entrepreneur Tiffany Norwood and restauranteur/chef (and UVA grad) Tanya Holland heading our way.

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Dollars & sense: The Tax Ladies bring a personal touch to financial services

Libby Edwards-Allbaugh co-founded The Tax Ladies to cater to small businesses. (Photo Credit: John Robinson)

Libby Edwards-Allbaugh, co-founder and co-owner of The Tax Ladies, thinks being a woman in a male-dominated industry is a strength. “This is such a traditional, conservative field,” she says. “The people in accountancy often lack people skills; I felt I could set a more personable tone.”

The Tax Ladies, which she and partner Treat Jackson launched in 2011, specializes in small business clients. While larger businesses can hire staff or engage accounting firms, “there’s a real void for small businesses, start-ups, and nonprofits,” Edwards-Allbaugh says. The Tax Ladies’ tagline: “Your small business is big business to us!”

With the triple challenge of being a SWaM (Small, Woman-owned, and Minority- owned) business, Edwards-Allbaugh says “we spend so much time building relationships to get our name out.” She has taught courses at PVCC, works with the Community Investment Collaborative and SCORE, and participates in the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, in addition to being active in Black Women of the Charlottesville Metropolitan Area. In January, Edwards-Allbaugh was chosen as one of four Community Fellows-in-Residence by UVA’s Equity Center to support her project to expand BWCMA’s Sister-nomic$ financial literacy program to include elementary, middle, and high school girls.

The Tax Ladies’ four full-time employees provide more than just tax help–services include accounting, budgeting, systems development, and/or back-office support. For each client, the firm develops a customized plan and charges by retainer (ranging from $69 to $800/month). The usual hourly billing model can discourage small businesses from asking for help, Edwards-Allbaugh says, while a retainer “encourages continual dialogue” and makes The Tax Ladies a true business partner.

Edwards-Allbaugh thinks the City of Charlottesville is “doing a phenomenal job–close to as much as possible” in supporting minority businesses. While The Tax Ladies is based in Albemarle County, the city’s programs “often help with infrastructure and supplies, things that are good for my clients’ businesses.”

As a Tax Lady (and a small business owner), Edwards-Allbaugh has valuable advice for entrepreneurs:

1. “Treat your business like a business.” Have a separate business checking account or credit card– commingling personal and business finances is a common mistake, and can be disastrous.

2. “Get your processes in place. You don’t have to hire a person, but you should consult with someone with expertise to find out what you don’t know.” Skimping on financial advice is also common, and usually ends up costing you money.

3. “You should be able to tell at any time, here’s what I’m making and here’s what I’m spending.” As for 2020 tax advice, Edwards-Allbaugh doesn’t expect big changes this year, given the extensive tax overhaul in 2019. But business taxes are complex, and as in every other arena, information is power. “People cheat themselves more than they cheat the government,” she says.

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Shop ’til you drop: The enduring appeal of Barracks Road Shopping Center

Set in a field in the countryside far from the town’s population center, Barracks Road Shopping Center opened a handful of stores in 1959, anchored by a Kroger supermarket. Sixty years later, the center is the crown jewel of Charlottesville retail, hosting over 80 shops, restaurants, and experiences that attract customers from well beyond the city. Despite the robust growth of online buying, e-commerce accounts for only 11 percent of total U.S. retail spending. Turns out, people still like to shop till they drop.

In the mix

Photo: Stephen Barling

In competition with easy, cheap, ‘round-the-clock online shopping, how has Barracks Road stayed viable, and vital, in Charlottesville? It’s all in the mix, says Dierdre Johnson, VP of Asset Management for owner Federal Realty Investment Trust, as she lists key factors. “Location, an attractive mix of stores valued by the customers, best-in-class merchants in their category, and an amenitized environment,” she says. “We continually evolve with the customers.”

Catering to UVA students, tourists, and townies, Barracks Road hosts a collection of local, regional, and national merchants whose offerings span a range of appetites and budgets. “A person wanting a burger can find a drive-thru option at McDonald’s or a gourmet alternative at Zinburger,” says Johnson. “Fink’s Jewelers carries fine designer selections but Lou Lou has the latest trends for someone on a budget.” Merchant variety means efficiency for the busy shopper, and services such as a post office, Fedex, and dry cleaners allow for checking off lots of errands in one location.

Beyond variety and convenience, however, Barracks Road offers something less tangible and more affecting: an experience. “It’s a ‘lifestyle center’ type of shopping mall, similar to Short Pump Town Center in Richmond,” says Lindsey Sinozich, marketing director at Fink’s Jewelers. Outdoor seating, a fountain, and canopies welcome visitors, while recent fitness studio additions such as Zoom, Orange Theory, and Club Pilates mean that customers can do even more without driving all over town.

In stark contrast with the anonymous, sometimes uncertain online shopping environment, Barracks Road counts on the heightened experience of in-person buying to draw customers in.

“When you make a big purchase, you want to be treated like you’re making a big purchase,” says Sinozich, “so we emphasize having a knowledgeable staff and high level customer service.” Customers often “pre-shop” online and come into stores to try on clothing, shoes, and jewelry, or to get assistance in choosing something unique.

Home décor and gift shop Folly stocks items in a wide price range, including one-of-a-kind pieces like an artistic floral arrangement set in a 19th century French base and glass. “A lot of the things we have here you can’t buy online, or it would take a lot to find them online,” says co-owner Beth Ann Kallen. “For some of our more expensive items, you really want to see it in person.”

The place to be

Retail tenants are the lifeblood of any shopping center, and Barracks Road’s merchants are shrewd and experienced business owners. Lease rates for store space in the center are among the highest in Virginia, running over $30 per square foot plus a percentage of gross sales above certain levels, but shop owners say the “traffic” is worth every penny.

“We were initially in a space on West Main, but when we decided we wanted to really build our brand, we knew we needed increased visibility,” says Kallen. “The foot traffic here is huge, and parking is plentiful. We knew that the people shopping here were the customers we wanted to attract.”

Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

The Happy Cook’s Monique Moshier, who has owned the store for 14 of its 41 years in the center, says she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. “Barracks Road is so quintessentially Charlottesville,” she says. “This is the place to be for holiday shopping, and other times of year we have a lot of customers who need quick in and quick out. We’d never consider, say, the Downtown Mall because of the lack of parking there. People are not going to buy heavy, expensive cookware and schlep it to their cars.”

Oliva’s Robert Johnson is one of about a half-dozen independent owners in Barracks Road, and he remembers visiting the center as a boy from Nelson county. His upscale olive oil and balsamics shop is aimed at the center’s affluent, health-conscious shoppers, and Johnson says his customers are loyal.

“We draw from Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, and Culpeper, and we have lots of people coming through going to the airport, or waiting for someone with medical appointments at UVA,” he says. “Charlottesville has a very unique vibe, much more sophisticated than an average college town.”

On trend

Photo: Courtesy Barracks Road Shopping Center

Key to Barracks Road’s long-term success is the center’s efficient management by Federal Realty Investment Trust. “The only constant in retail is change,” says Johnson, “so it’s essential to adapt our offerings.” Federal keeps pace with trends, such as bringing in boutique fitness retailers and “healthy fast-casual” dining options, and adding short-term parking spaces for easy take-out dining.

“The thing I like most about Federal Realty is that they know how to run a shopping center,” says Moshier. “It’s a well-run organization, and from landscaping to snow and trash removal, it’s all done perfectly and on time. They decorate, run community events like the holiday parade, and help us with sales events.” The realty company launched a large-scale facelift for Barracks Road in 2011, just ahead of competitor Stonefield’s construction on Rt. 29, redoing its roofing, facades, columns, outdoor spaces, and more.

In the “clicks versus bricks” contest for shoppers’ dollars and hearts, Barracks Road merchants believe there will always be demand for the in-person experience. “Hopefully retail will never completely die out, because in the end, it’s something fun to do,” says Folly’s Kallen. “Let’s go shopping!”

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Have caffeine, will work: The best C’ville coffee shops for working remotely

Photos: Stephen Barling, Jack Looney, Eze Amos, Tom McGovern

What could be better than getting out of your home office or work site for a few hours, sipping a macchiato, and getting sh*t done in a buzzy coffee shop? Luckily for us, options abound in Charlottesville. Here are our top five picks for the local java spots most conducive to that sweet #teleworklife. (Note: All locations listed offer free Wi-Fi plus outlets to plug in.)

Shenandoah Joe (945 Preston Ave.)

Vibe: Restoration Hardware-meets-“Friends’” Central Perk. Think industrial concrete floors, black, white and beige tones—a super-chill, meditative space to get some work done. That’s Shenandoah Joe’s on Preston Avenue. Take a seat at one of the communal tables, comfy sofas, or oversized armchairs. The cozy yet minimalist-modern space always seems to be teeming with coffee- imbibers, but you can still likely find a place to perch with your laptop. Noise levels are moderate at its busiest. Plus, you are right across the street from what is destined to be another future tele-working hotspot, Dairy Market, so when you’ve worn out your welcome here, you’ll be able to hop across the street.

Mudhouse (213 W. Main St., Downtown Mall)

Vibe: Like walking into a friend’s moody yet welcoming den. The Downtown Mall is where all the action happens, and the Mudhouse is often the center of the buzz. Walk inside and you’ll find a certain gravitas, with well-worn wooden floors and a long, tufted black leather sofa with tables and chairs buttressing one side of the wall. A pillow-strewn window banquette and solitary leather chairs offer additional seating, as does a mallside patio. While the downtown Mudhouse likely sees more of a “who’s who” of C’ville for those remote workers looking to make an impromptu connection, it can also be too crowded for comfort. The local chain’s newest location on 10th Street, just off West Main, is light and airy–ideal for those of us who need a little more space.

Belle Coffee & Wine (407 Monticello Rd.)

Vibe: European-style café meets neighborhood hang space. One of the newest coffee shops on the block, Belle, is just that—a beautiful space. The name, of course, is a play on the neighborhood where it resides, Belmont. Chill out and get some work done amidst Belle’s cool Euro vibes—white and blue tones, blonde wood tables, and a giant map of Belmont on the far wall above a cushy brown leather sofa. Music selections run to adult contempo for the millennial generation with some throwbacks for the rest of us–everything from Bread and Hall & Oates to Haley Reinhart and Lord Huron. Can’t find room inside? Stake out a picnic table on the banana tree-curtained patio or a seat in one of the bistro-style chairs under the yellow awning.

Grit Coffee (2035 Bond St., Ste. #185)

Vibe: Do work, drink coffee, then reward yourself with shopping. While you may think the Downtown Mall location of Grit Coffee would be the best tele-work option out of its multiple local cafes, its stylish outpost at The Shops at Stonefield is even better. The café is outfitted with giant white orb-shaped pendant lights, lots of tables to spread out (but don’t—share that space with your fellow itinerant workers!), a wide, sunny yellow banquette, and stools and bar tables. The buzz is low-key and contemplative—overhead music plays at a gentle decibel. And if the weather is nice, you can grab a seat at one of the purple sidewalk chairs outside. Side note: Grit is ever- expanding—a new café opened recently at the bottom of Pantops and another from the Grit Coffee team is coming to the under-construction Wool Factory.

Snowing in Space (705 W. Main St.)

Vibe: Bold, bright, and colorful West Main Street café filled with murals. Let the artfully disembodied head of Bill Murray (whose film Groundhog Day inspired the coffee shop’s name) spark some work creativity. The Murray mural and frenetic color scheme are the first things that capture your attention when you walk in. Ample seating is available (try to score one of the booths, upholstered in sparkly fuchsia fabric), while the likes of Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Incubus play on the overhead speakers. The café’s undertone of coolness tempers the loudness of the wall graphics–and the music. Snowing in Space may be best for the kind of work that requires free-flowing idea generation and creative thinking, maybe less so for hammering out that tedious RFP proposal or white paper. Grab a can of nitro cold brew coffee on the way out for the all-nighter or early morning work sesh at home.

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Backstory: Leggett’s lives on

Photo: Courtesy of Steve Trumbull, whose third book of historic C'ville photography, "Vintage Charlottesville," comes out late 2019. / cvilleimages.com

THEN: Leggett’s, opened in 1939 // NOW: Violet Crown, opened in 2015

“Quality merchandise. Popular prices.” So went a 1954 ad slogan for Leggett’s, a department store well-known in Charlottesville—and throughout the Mid-Atlantic—for its mid-priced fashions and homewares.

Leggett’s, then a privately-owned retail business, opened its first store in downtown Lynchburg in 1927. It arrived in Charlottesville in 1939, opening at 200-204 West Main Street, according to City of Charlottesville architectural and historic surveys. (Leggett’s later expanded into 212214 West Main Street around 1956.)

The 200-204 West Main property has a long history of department store use; it was also a Hidy & Company, a Robey and Co., an A.D. Cox, and a Sears. Years later, Regal Cinemas took over the location, only to be replaced by Violet Crown in 2015.

In 1980, Leggett’s left the Downtown Mall for the greener pastures of Fashion Square Mall. In 1996, North Carolina-based Belk bought out Leggett’s, and their store—a last vestige of Leggett’s—still remains at Fashion Square Mall.

Photo: Courtesy of Steve Trumbull // cvilleimages.com
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From market stall to bricks and mortar: A food entrepreneur learns the ropes

Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

Riki Tanabe opened Mochiko, a restaurant devoted to the Hawaiian food of his youth, two years ago. And while the business has grown from a farmers market stall to a food truck to a brick and mortar location, Tanabe is not resting on his laurels.

“You have to be humble,” he says. “You have to be realistic about your expectations.”

Tanabe spent years working in hospitality before deciding to launch his own business. He’d cut his teeth at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, and he’d spent 17 years at Charlottesville’s Albemarle Baking Company, working as a pastry chef and learning what he could from master baker and co-owner Gerry Newman.

After nearly two decades, Tanabe wanted to do something for himself. He got the idea to open a restaurant serving Hawaiian comfort food: fried chicken, teriyaki beef, macaroni salad, and Spam musubi, for example.

But Tanabe had much to learn about running his own shop. He decided to seek help from the Community Investment Collaborative, which encouraged him to generate a proof of concept before diving into the game chef’s hat first.

“We asked, ‘How can you start smaller, can you start as a food truck?,’” CIC President Stephen Davis says. Starting with lower overhead, he says, means “you can sell your food profitably and [then later] take on the bigger rents.”

Still, when Tanabe moved out of his food truck and opened his restaurant in The Yard at 5th Street Station last fall, challenges remained. He hadn’t realized how fully he’d need to commit to the nearby community. He overestimated sales. He underestimated costs.

Tanabe says he and his CIC cohort obsessed over rent: specifically, how to keep that expense down. Since opening his brick and mortar location, though, he thinks about rent differently. “I could have paid twice as much on rent because sales would be higher,” he says. “When I talk to other people who want to open restaurants, I say, ‘If you really want to do this, go where you get the most traffic.’”

As he’s done since he started his Mochiko journey at the farmers market, Tanabe has committed himself to learning on the job. He now better understands costs— “compared to labor, rent is insignificant,” he says. And he continues to discuss ownership issues with other entrepreneurs and would-be restaurateurs.

“I never cared much when I was an employee,” he says. “You’re on a different level—you talk about what everyone did on the weekend. When you’re an owner, you talk about the nuts and bolts of running a business: sales or managing labor, what accountants do you use, and how much are you getting them for.”

TANABE’S TAKEAWAYS

Tanabe offers three tips to help entrepreneurs enter the market.

1. Reconsider rent: “A lot of the people in CIC, when they talk about opening a restaurant, they talk about the concept of rent. You can’t look at rent as the only factor—it’s not even the biggest expense.” Paying a higher rent can be worth it if results in more traffic and higher sales, he says.

2. Connect with community: “It is more than just your technical skills and ability to manage the restaurant. It involves knowing the community, getting their support, and learning how to leverage that support.”

3. Channel Kendrick Lamar: “Be humble. A lot of restaurant owners think people will flock to them and everyone is going to love their food. That might be true. But when you hear it from friends and family, of course they are going to say that.”

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Social experiment: TheSheLab cultivates connection

Photo: Heather Dodge Photography

Valeria McFarren and Lily West met five years ago when both moved to Charlottesville, bonding as they learned their way around town and raised young children as professional women with busy husbands. Even as they prospered, McFarren, founder and principal of communications firm Chaski Global, and West, chief operating officer of the UVA Alumni Association, realized they wanted something more. “We talked about building a community of women,” says West, “to explore how to navigate the personal and professional spheres in our lives and to honestly assess where we were in both.”

When McFarren hosted a dinner for a group of professional women in town for a Presidential Precinct event two years ago, she and West found themselves surrounded by a similar sentiment.

“These women had different backgrounds— some worked in business, some as policy advocates, some for nonprofits—but we all really yearned for deeper relationships with other women who were going through the same things,” says West. “We stayed late talking about how to balance family, how to build careers, how do our partners play into this, how does money factor in, and no one wanted to leave.”

The experience spurred the pair to action, and they convened a board of 13 founding members to launch a women’s growth network called TheSheLab in the fall of 2018. The name is inspired by the idea of a laboratory where ideas are formulating and the work is ongoing, and the group aims to serve women who are changing their communities in ways big and small.

“We’re starting here in Charlottesville, but we want to create an organization that has chapters in multiple cities and can replicate the types of relationships we’re trying to build,” West says.

Membership is free, and members receive a monthly newsletter keeping them informed about upcoming speakers and events and links to useful articles. TheSheLab hosts lunch and breakfast speakers at Common House, featuring women in diverse fields sharing their experiences and describing how they operate in their various spheres of influence. An October event panel included Christina Diiorio (of YayLunch!), Sarah Abubaker (of ReRunner), and Linnea White (of Darling Boutique and Boss Babes Cville) speaking about pursuing both personal and professional goals.

TheSheLab’s vision statement stresses “female empowerment and equality above all else,” and their approach forms a series of concentric circles. Women enrich themselves as individuals, then extend their impact to a group network, and finally head out to influence the world. “It’s about making connections to achieve balance,” says West.

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Outdoors, again: High Tor fills a local need for secondhand gear

Photo: Eze Amos

When Erin James was pregnant with her first child, she and her husband Seth Herman were amazed by the amount of hand-me-down baby stuff that came their way. In local secondhand stores, too, the used baby gear abounded. At the time, they were looking to start a business that would set a positive example for their kids. “What is it that adults need, and could buy used?” Herman remembers thinking. Soon, they had the answer—outdoor gear. “We wanted spending time outside to be a core value of our family,” says Herman. Helping people reuse stuff would be an environmental contribution, too. High Tor Gear Exchange, an outdoors-focused consignment shop, opened in February 2018.

Among the hurdles to starting the business, says James, was finding the perfect space. “We went to a lot of outdoor gear shops—in Asheville, Roanoke, and Ithaca—and took note of where they were located,” says James. They settled on a spot in McIntire Plaza, near other secondhand stores (ReThreads and Circa) plus a climbing gym, Rocky Top Climbing, that would dovetail with their customer base.

A microloan from the Community Investment Collaborative helped out with renovating the space. “The next biggest hurdle was that we needed to introduce ourselves to the community so we could open with inventory,” says Herman. Community presentations and weekend open houses—complete with coffee and donuts—helped bring in early consignors.

Since opening, High Tor has received more than 16,000 items from 1,200 consignors. Herman and James are proud to have kept that much stuff out of the landfill and to have paid out $110,000 in checks or store credit to their consignors. They feel good about their presence in the community, too—Herman has spoken to Darden students about sustainable business, the store’s been nominated for local readers’ choice awards, and they’ve hosted speakers and workshops.

They give lots of credit to their employees, who keep the doors open while Herman and James raise their two kids and hold down fulltime day jobs—she in Albemarle County Public Schools, he at Sun Tribe Solar. “We’ve been blessed with incredible employees coming out of the Outdoors at UVA program and the rock climbing club,” says Herman. “Since they’ve worked at the shop, we’ve had this incredible tie to the university and outdoor community.”

What’s next for the young company? “Profitability is something we had to home in on the last few months,” says Herman. “We’ve been working with the Deaton Group”—a local consulting firm—“and they’ve helped us to understand our efficiencies [and] improve our overall process. We’re really committed to creating the best experience for consignors and customers.”

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It’s a match: A little green helps grow local businesses

Photo: Zack Wajsgras

For small business, money is manure– it fosters growth. Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development has launched an innovative program to provide financial fertilizer for budding businesses, encouraging them to put down roots here in hopes they bear fruit– i.e., tax revenues and jobs.

The new program, called Cville Match, uses funds from the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority for grants to Charlottesville-based start-ups that have already received federal and state grants, through initiatives like the Small Business Innovation Research program. Cville Match funds, however, can be used for any costs that contribute to the growth of the business, and individual grants can be as much as $25,000 over a two-year period.

Why give money to companies that have already gotten money? Because it increases the odds of success. Getting one of these state and federal grants, explains OED director Chris Engel, “is a pretty rigorous process”–a vetting the city doesn’t have the resources to do. Engel says the Charlottesville area “usually has four to five of these grants [recipients] a year,” so the idea behind Cville Match was to help ensure those companies succeed– and stay in Charlottesville.

Cerillo, a Charlottesville-based company that designs and produces innovative lab equipment to help researchers collect large amounts of data, is a local SBIR grant recipient. CTO and co-founder Keith Seitter says the unrestricted Cville Match grant “allowed us to file a patent, which is really critical for us–it covered the filing fee and hiring a patent lawyer–and to attend a conference to meet with our customers and help target our products to their needs.” Launched in April 2016, Cerillo now has three full-time and two part-time employees, “and the Cville Match grant was a real incentive to stay in the city,” says Seitter.

In a small city with little room for large industrial parks or business expansion, says Engel, small businesses can help build the economic base without putting pressure on residential or public space. Cville Match is one of a range of city programs–including Growing Opportunities, the Downtown Job Center, and Advancing City Entrepreneurs–aimed at supporting local small businesses.

So far, Cville Match grant recipients come from a variety of sectors, from biotech startup Cerillo and medical device company SoundPipe Therapeutics to women’s footwear makers OESH and indoor farming outfit Babylon Microfarms. Every one, says Engel, “will have an economic impact, through the company and its employees and through the companies that support their business.”

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It takes a network: PVCC program connects people with jobs—and the resources to help them succeed

Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

This area’s affordable housing crisis is often in the news, but what about the other side of the issue–a sustainable income? Businesses can do their part by hiring local residents, who with some assistance or training could step up to a better-paying job. The challenge is, how to find those people, match them with the right jobs, and get them the training they need.

That’s the mission of Network2Work@PVCC– the employment version of ‘it takes a village.’

Here’s how it works: Employers who have jobs paying a minimum of $25,000 ($12.50/ hour) that don’t require a college degree list their positions in the Network2Work database in one of four categories: health care, hospitality/services, transportation/logistics, and construction/skilled trades.

N2W then reaches out to its “connectors,” a web of more than 250 individuals working in local advocacy groups, fraternal organizations, churches, veterans’ programs, and so on–the kind of plugged-in people who “know everyone” in their community, and can help identify and refer potential candidates. Once the connectors identify potential candidates, N2W helps these job seekers figure out what stands between them and that particular position. Affordable transportation? Reliable child care? A driver’s license? Training? Then the program’s staff taps into its network of about 50 nonprofits and human services agencies whose assistance can help them meet those needs.

Every job seeker gets coaching and a final screening from volunteer human resources professionals to make sure they are application-ready. There’s no hiring guarantee—but when program graduates submit an application, N2W director Frank Squillace sends the employer an email flagging this candidate as someone who has already worked hard to qualify and succeed.

The beauty of the program is that it taps what’s already out there. Businesses have positions to fill–but, faced with legal restrictions and online hiring processes, employers appreciate knowing that N2W candidates have already been vetted. Government and nonprofit programs can help people overcome barriers to work, but “people need guidance through the system,” Squillace says. N2W’s staff and volunteers provide the ongoing support and encouragement that can make success possible. “And, he notes, “it’s all funded by philanthropists, grants, and local donors.”

What started as a pilot program in fall 2017 is already proving its worth. N2W began with four employers and now has 90, representing 100 positions (a position could represent several jobs, as in server or maintenance worker) and about $8.6 million in wages, according to Squillace. Businesses that have hired qualified employees through N2W range from Walmart to Farmington Country Club, and also include Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, Linden House, UVA Medical Center, Design Electric, and L.A. Lacy.

Piedmont Housing Alliance, a nonprofit providing housing, counseling, community development, and management services to low-income communities in this area, has hired maintenance and administrative staff through the program. “Our partnership with Network2Work helps us address the affordable housing shortage here,” says Deputy Director Karen Klick, noting that its housing counselors also serve among N2W’s connectors.

More than 90 percent of N2W’s graduates have found jobs, two-thirds of which pay more than $25,000 a year; 39 percent of graduates are single mothers. And N2W staff follow up and support graduates for a year after hiring.

N2W is the brainchild of Ridge Schuyler– author of the Orange Dot Project report on poverty in the city, founder of the Charlottesville Works initiative, and now dean of Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Division of Community Self-Sufficiency Programs, of which N2W is one. Its innovative approach has already attracted attention outside our area; Squillace says state officials have expressed interest in taking the N2W model to other community colleges around Virginia.

It’s an exciting possibility, says Squillace: “We’re changing the face of poverty.”