Businesses earn awards at competition

Infinity Dancewear, Gotcha Covered Linen & Party Rentals and Happy Feet Early Learning and Child Center also will be provided mentoring from the SBIF’s funding partners for one year, according to Valerie Harper, small business director for the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC).

Specific funding amounts that each business will receive have not yet been itemized because their awards are a combination of cash and in-kind services, said retired banker Carolyn Shough, the forum’s chairwoman.

The annual competition was open to for-profit, start-up small businesses, as well as businesses less than three years old, in Martinsville and Henry County.

Infinity and Gotcha Covered are the new businesses.

Infinity will open soon at 115 E. Main St. in uptown Martinsville. The store will sell dancing-related items such as clothing, shoes and accessories, and it will provide services such as shoe and costume fittings, pointe shoe ribbon sewing and delivery, according to Shough and Harper.

The store’s award will be used toward inventory purchases, marketing assistance and a booth at Fast Track 2016, the annual Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce trade show to be held March 1-2 in the vacant former Sears department store building at the Village of Martinsville, Harper continued.

Stacey Davis owns Infinity. She said she is thrilled to be able to start a business.

The SBIF funding was “one of the final steps I needed to get my dream business off the ground,” Davis said. “I’m excited and I can’t wait to serve the dance community!”

Gotcha Covered will rent table linens, runners, chair covers and sashes and other decorative items for special occasions, Harper said. Its unique services will include in-person – as opposed to online – color-matching consultations and delivery options, she said.

David and Rebecca Watson, who own Gotcha Covered, said the mentoring they will receive will be just as valuable as the money because, as first-time business owners, they will need the guidance.

Shough said the Watsons got the idea for their business from needs they experienced when they got married. They had to go out of town to get the types of items that they will be renting, she said.

Gotcha Covered will use its award to pay for equipment, business training classes and bookkeeping classes, Harper said.

The Watsons are working out of their home, Shough said, but displays and samples of Gotcha Covered’s products and services will be available at Memory Lane Photography at 4036 Appalachian Drive in Fieldale. Potential customers can stop by or call Memory Lane to schedule an appointment with the couple, she said.

Happy Feet, at 37 Ellsworth St. in Martinsville, is a full-service day care center providing both before- and after-school services. Its award, which will help pay for bookkeeping services, marketing assistance and equipment, is the center’s second through the SBIF competition, Harper said.

Shirley Williams, owner of Happy Feet, said the latest award will help her business tremendously.

“Keeping up with financials and continued marketing are crucial pieces as I try to maintain and grow the daycare,” she said.

The SBIF is a partnership of area public and private organizations with a common goal of encouraging small business development and job creation locally. Contributing members for 2015 were the city of Martinsville, the chamber of commerce, the EDC, HD Web Studio, the West Piedmont Business Development Center and Patrick Henry Community College.

There were seven applicants for the 2015 Business Plan Competition, Shough said. In determining the winners, she said, representatives from partnership members reviewed the applications and business plans and analyzed ideas for the businesses and how well those ideas were thought out.

“Some (of the applicants’ business plans) weren’t very complete,” she said. “A business plan tells what you’re going to do (in running a business). If you can’t say what you’re going to do, how are you going to do it?”

Shough said she believes Infinity and Gotcha Covered will be successful, and Happy Feet will continue to be successful, because they meet needs of the community, and she has confidence in the businesses’ owners.

The next business plan competition will be start around September or October, she said.