Uncategorized – Page 79 – Virginia Main Street

Building Entrepreneurial Economies (BEE) Innovation Day on Oct. 13 — Register Now!

September 9, 2016

The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) will be holding a Building Entrepreneurial Economies (BEE) Innovation Day on Thursday, Oct. 13 in Lynchburg, VA. This event will provide the opportunity for business leaders to share and discuss innovative ideas in entrepreneurship development. Several recent BEE Innovation and Implementation grant recipients will share about their BEE funded projects and how they … More Building Entrepreneurial Economies (BEE) Innovation Day on Oct. 13 — Register Now!

Make Your Downtown an Easy Target for New Business

August 25, 2016

Why should an entrepreneur choose your downtown for a new location? Selling your community to prospective entrepreneurs is challenging without the information they need to make location decisions. Throughout the last few years, Kansas’ Emporia Main Street refined an attractive and easily updateable business investment guide to help make the choice that much easier. The guide sells … More Make Your Downtown an Easy Target for New Business

Revisit Your Community’s Unique Assets

August 24, 2016

The National Main Street Center publishes a Main Street Story of the Week each week. These articles share information, tips and advice from experts around the country. In one of the recently posted articles “Revisit Your Community’s Unique Assets: Connecting Asset-Based Economic Development to Community Transformation Strategies,” the author discusses leveraging unique, local assets to achieve economic … More Revisit Your Community’s Unique Assets

Homegrown Hospitality Development in Downtown St. Paul

August 15, 2016

In early July 2016, ground was broken in downtown St. Paul for a long-awaited $7.3 million boutique hotel that will be called the Western Front Hotel. This project is a result of the hard work and drive of local leaders to take revitalization of downtown St. Paul into their own hands, embracing a community-initiated development … More Homegrown Hospitality Development in Downtown St. Paul

Three Upcoming Opportunities to Rev up Your Downtown Revitalization Efforts

August 8, 2016

Is your downtown ready for new businesses and residential investment? In order to meet new challenges and ensure a strong Main Street, communities need ongoing training. Whether the community is just getting started with Main Street activities or well-seasoned in managing a prosperous commercial district, staff and volunteers need different skills in different phases of … More Three Upcoming Opportunities to Rev up Your Downtown Revitalization Efforts

Leverage your marketing dollars!

June 20, 2016

One of Virginia Main Street’s strong partnerships is with the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC). Through their grant offerings and programs, our local designated Main Street communities and commercial district affiliates can leverage local dollars into more for their project. The Marketing Leverage Program is designed to stimulate new tourism marketing programs through the creation of tourism … More Leverage your marketing dollars!

Crowdfunding for Main Street

June 16, 2016

Are you looking for new and exciting ways to raise funds for a civic project, your Main Street organization or entrepreneurs in your community? The Local Crowd is a new crowdfunding platform that has been developed to help communities raise support for local businesses and projects. The Local Crowd can help you do several things … More Crowdfunding for Main Street

Overnight Success, 20 Years In The Making

May 31, 2016

Guest Blogger Ken Heath, Director of Community and Economic Development, has been working for downtown revitalization since 1994 with the Town of Marion. Read his inspirational words and how it has taken over twenty years to get where the Town is today. Working hard at revitalization every day, and the job is never done. It’s … More Overnight Success, 20 Years In The Making

Hello from Milwaukee: Main Street Now Conference this week

May 23, 2016

Beginning May 23-25, Virginia Main Street (VMS) staff and more than 25 staff and volunteers from the VMS designated communities are in downtown Milwaukee for Main Street Now, the National Main Street Center conference. Main Street Now is the largest nationwide gathering of commercial district revitalization professionals and community leaders in the nation. This year, the conference will bring together more … More Hello from Milwaukee: Main Street Now Conference this week

Small business training resource

May 17, 2016

Sometimes our downtown business owners are busy minding their shop and cannot attend in-person training. Sometimes they have just an hour during lunch break to take advantage of a short class. Knowing these challenges, the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator has teamed up with the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity (SBSD) and Washington County Virginia Chamber … More Small business training resource