Small Business Economy – TheRoanoker.com

The story below is a preview from our May/June 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

Everybody has a seat at this table.

A decade ago, a group of Roanoke industrial manufacturing proponents sat across the table from a contingent of Blacksburg innovators. Some have described that meeting as a showdown between those who wanted to persist in pursuing industrial and large-scale employment projects and those who wanted the region to shift its focus to technological and medical innovation. Maybe it was. But, if so, then the outcome was no worse than shooting the dirt.

That’s because everyone has a seat at this table.

Healthy economic ecosystems need large-scale employers to create new wealth in the community, says then-Botetourt County economic development director Ken McFayden. They also require small businesses — everything from local restaurants to mom-and-pop shops to biomedical start-ups — to circulate those dollars through the local economy.

“Small business is integral to the vibrancy of the Roanoke region,” says Pete Eshelman, Roanoke Regional Partnership senior director of creative strategies. Small business owners live in our neighborhoods. We see them and we say, “that’s our friend down the street.”

A Diverse Mix

A lot of small businesses fall into the service sector, McFayden says, in addition to retail, restaurant and hospitality. Roanoke has become a hub for technology and life sciences founders who are attracted by the Fralin Biomedical Institute, Virginia Tech Carilion Medical School and Carilion Innovation, according to Erin Burcham, CEO and president of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Innovation Alliance.

“It’s really an interesting cross section of small businesses, and they really kind of support each other,” says Roanoke City Mayor Joe Cobb. “It reflects our diversity.”

Our small business owners help define the region. We are welcoming. Creative. Innovative. Diverse. Civic-minded. Connective. Urban. Rhythmic. Artistic. Rural. Outdoors-oriented. These businesses put the magic in the Magic City.

“Drive up and down Williamson Road, and you see the international flair. In terms of small businesses, we have a really diverse mix, from art galleries to local niche like boutique shops,” says Cobb.

“The more diverse and unique offerings we have, the more attractive the community becomes,” Eshelman says.

Filling the Gaps

In March, Roanoke City held a mayor’s summit on the topic of starting and developing small businesses. The purpose of that event was to help entrepreneurs take a seed of an idea and start or expand it, according to Cobb. “What are the steps you have to take and then how do you sustain it?”

Localities should make efforts to understand the barriers small businesses face and provide support systems to help regional small business owners grow, according to Brookings, a non-profit Washington, D.C.-based research organization.

One of those barriers is a lack of capital. While the region’s start-ups benefit from the presence of investing groups like Commonwealth Angels and VTC Ventures, which includes the VTC Seed Fund and VTC Innovations, one of the region’s stumbling blocks is a shortage of private capital, says John Hagy, director of the Roanoke Accelerator and Mentorship Program, part of RBIA. He has facilitated a small business owners’ trip to Durham, North Carolina, to pitch their opportunities to investors, and has plans to make a similar trip to Washington, D.C., this fall, he says.

Another notable barrier has been a lack of real estate suited for tech companies’ specified needs. In order to manufacture their innovative exosome product, biomedical start-up Tiny Cargo sought a building with a clean room. The Roanoke Regional Partnership helped the company’s founders identify a local industrial building that could support the construction of a clean room, preventing FBRI’s first significant manufacturing spin-off from potentially relocating outside the Roanoke region.

The Roanoke region’s many organizations focused on small business growth, networking and education provide other forms of assistance to small business owners. Through regional organizations like The Advancement Foundation, Small Business Development Corporation, Get2KnowNoke, RBIA and co-working establishments, and initiatives focused on improving the region’s livability, there’s a team of small business first responders who are attuned to the barriers and needs faced by founders and ideators in a multitude of small business sectors.

Why? Because small businesses are vital to a city’s economic ecosystem. “If there’s not a small business ecosystem to keep those dollars local, to keep those dollars in the community, that wealth escapes, and then a community is less prosperous,” McFayden says.

An Open Field

Candace Monaghan’s family owns Beaver Dam Sunflower Festival, located in Botetourt County.

Her father planted the sunflowers in 2015. “There was no festival idea. My dad liked sunflowers,” Monaghan says. “Before you know it, there were sunflowers popping up everywhere,” she says.

In 2016, 1,600 people visited the one-day festival.

Monaghan entered TAF’s Gauntlet competition in 2021 because she felt compelled to get the farm’s affairs written out, as a sort of contingency plan “if something were to happen,” she says.

For over ten years, the Gauntlet has inspired entrepreneurs to refine their business’ visions and align themselves with scalable growth models.

Monaghan had never seen a business plan, but she wrote one with the help of The Gauntlet’s mentors. She pitched her plan alongside other business owners during the competition’s final week. And, she won.

Last year, the farm saw 21,000 visitors over a nine-day period. Visitors participated in sunset yoga during the week. They sat down to four-course dinners, hosted by a church to benefit its missions program. A local Future Farmers of America chapter parked cars on the weekend as a fundraiser. Monaghan hosted 115 vendors, who made more than half a million dollars combined. Those funds cycled back through the community.

“Botetourt County is now recognized nationally as a place for sunflowers… It’s a tourism draw, it’s a community get-together, and it’s like an old-fashioned barn raising,” McFayden says.

Risky Business

Want to learn more about how Roanoke’s small businesses thrive through innovation, community support and calculated risk-taking? Check out the latest issue, now on newsstands, or see it for free in our digital guide linked below!

The story above is a preview from our May/June 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!