Blackstone
Chamber of  Commerce
Directions

P.O. Box 295
Blackstone, VA 23824

434-292-1677 chamber@blackstoneva.com

Find a Blackstone Chamber Member

 

The Chamber is here to support local businesses - existing ones and potential enterprises. Everything we do is done to strengthen the exposure of businesses in our community. Every day, we refer potential customers to our membership businesses.

 

 

Business information

New businesses have special needs, and we want to help you make a strong start. The Chamber can give you instant access to many business resources. These resources can help new, existing, or expanding businesses develop the strategies to improve productivity, meet challenges head on, and gain an understanding of the always changing business climate.

We welcome your questions! Call us or visit us to obtain a new business packet specially prepared for potential Blackstone businessess.

It is our goal to provide you with timely and useful information about:

  • Developing your new business
  • Expanding or improving your existing business

Economic Development Data

All parties interested in industrial development, please contact the Nottoway County Economic Development Committee at (434) 645-9197 for more information.

Blackstone Industrial Park:
Site Name: Blackstone Industrial Park
Community: Blackstone, VA
County: Nottoway County, VA
Acreage: lots from 9-35 acres
Owners: Town of Blackstone
Cost per acre: negotiable
Additional acreage available: yes
Current industrial neighbors: Reiss Corporation, Taylor Ramsey Furniture, BABS Bus Shop
Zoning status: industrial
Restrictions and/or covenants: none
Topography: level
Wetlands on site: no
Phase I environmental complete: yes
Air permitting status: non-attainment area

Transportation:
Air:
Name and distance to closest commercial airport: Richmond International. Airport, 65 miles Major air carrier: United, American, Delta, USAir, Northwest; & Federal Express, UPS, Emery
Name and distance to local airport: Blackstone Army Airfield - 1 mile
Crewe Municipal - 11 miles

Highway Access:
Name and distance to Interstate: Interstate 85 - approximately 30
miles, junction of Interstate 85 & 95 -
approximately 34 miles
Primary access route to site: Access to site from US Highway
460, multi-lane divided highway

Operating Costs:

Electric:
Utility provider: Town of Blackstone (434) 292-7251
Size of line feeding site: 336
Distance to site: on site
Location, if at site: on front of lot

Water:
Utility provider: Town of Blackstone
Size of line Feeding site: 12 inch
Source: Nottoway River
Pressure: 52 psi
Treatment: Town of Blackstone
Distance to site: on site
Location, if at site: within 5 feet of building
Storage capacity: 1.8 million gallons
Excess capacity: 3.2 million gallons

Sewer:
Utility Provider Town of Blackstone
Size of line feeding site: 8 inch
Lift station required: none
Pressure: gravity
Distance to site: on site
Location, if at site: within 5 feet of building
Excess treatment capacity in MGD: 1.2 million

Solid Waste Disposal:
Operating agency or company: County of Nottoway (434) 645-8696
Distance from site to landfill less than 5 miles
Location of landfill just off US Hwy 460, a multilane, divided highway
Is landfill Title V: yes
Year landfill will reach capacity: approximately 2025
Rate schedule as follows: garbage/trash $27.00/ton
tires/sludge $54.00/ton
pickup box service varies

Local Taxes:
An outline of local taxes including rates and assessment ratios:
Real Estate Personal Property Machinery & Tools
Nottoway County $.54/$100 $3.15/$100 $2.25/$100
Blackstone $.17/$100 $.65/$100 $.65/$100

Assessment Ratio & Fair Market Value - 100%
Please note all taxing jurisdictions that apply to the site:
Nottoway County and Town of Blackstone.

Workforce Characteristics:
Civilian labor force: 6,668 (2000)
Number underemployed: 528 (1st Quarter 2001)
Unemployment rate: 3.6% (May 2002)
Employment by Sector (3rd Quarter 2000)
Agriculture 1%
Mining 0%
Construction 3%
Manufacturing 15%
Transportation 4%
Trade 22%
F.I.R.E. 3$
Services 14%
Government 39%

Workforce within 20 miles of site: 24,282
Workforce within 10 mile of site: 8-10,000 (estimate)

Population (2000)
Nottoway County 15,725
58% White 42% nonwhiteMedian age: 36.7

High school graduation rate: 98.5%
SAT Scores: Math - 500 Verbal - 410 Total - 910

Quality of Life:
Local Cost of Living Index: Nottoway County is not included in a MSA.
Estimated figure is 93.4 (from the Lynchburg, VA MSA)

Education:
Number of private schools and enrollment 234
Elementary: 1
Middle: 1
High School: 1
Teacher/student ratio: 9:1
% entering college: 95%
Number of public schools and enrollment 2,481
Elementary: 3
Middle: 1
High School: 1
Student Teacher Ration (1998-99)
elementary 13:1
secondary 10:1
Per pupil expenditure (1999-00)....$6893
Percentage of 1996-97 ninth grade membership graduating (1999-00)...65.8%
Percentage of high school graduates continuing education (1999-00)....65.3% % entering college: 80% furthered their education

Colleges and Universities within 80-mile radius and enrollment

Southside VA Community College - Alberta & Keysville - 3,731 - Public
Longwood College - Farmville - 3,353 - Public
University of Virginia - Charlottesville - 21,421 - Public
Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond - 21,523 - Public
Virginia State University - Petersburg - 4,007 - Public
Hampden-Sydney College - Hampden Sydney - 970 - Private
Liberty University - Lynchburg - 8,852 - Private
Lynchburg College - Lynchburg - 2,067 - Private
Randolph Macon College - Ashland - 1,093 - Private
University of Richmond - Richmond - 4,258 - Private
Virginia Union University - Richmond - 1,525 - Private
Randolph College - Lynchburg - 750 - Private
Sweet Briar College - Amherst - 700 - Private
John Tyler Community College - Chesterfield - 5,626 - Public
J. Sargent Reynolds Community College - Richmond 9,397 - Public
Richard Bland College - Petersburg - 1300 - Public

Health Care Services:
Hospitals serving Nottoway County: Beds Location
Southside Community Hospital - 117 - Farmville
Community Memorial Hospital - 120 - South Hill
Southside Regional Hospital - 468 - Petersburg
Johnston-Willis Hospital - 292 - Chesterfield
Chippenham Medical Hospital - 470 - Richmond

Number of medical doctors:
Nine general practice physicians in Nottoway County,
including the Blackstone Family Practice Center,
the largest rural, residency training facility in the state
(affiliated with The Medical College of Virginia)

Number of dentists: Six dentists in Nottoway County

Training:
Southside Skill Center, operated by Nottoway County for training adults; Amelia-Nottoway Vocational School operated by the Amelia and Nottoway County School Systems; Southside Virginia Community College.

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Starting Your Business

Many of us hear the Siren song of small business. Complete freedom. Unlimited opportunity. Dreams realized. But of those who answer it, most don't succeed. Why? What separates those who succeed from those who fail?

Knowledge of the business, sufficient capital, good experience, and a unique idea at the right time are just some of the characteristics of a successful business owner. Although there isn't any way that you can guarantee that you'll become a successful owner, you can greatly improve your odds by becoming well-prepared for the task.

Developing a Business Plan

If you have ever considered or even dreamed of going into business for yourself, you've already engaged in some degree of business planning. Most likely your planning was intertwined with your thoughts about the personal issues that accompany a decision to start your own business.

In its most general sense, business planning is all about taking your dream and turning it into reality. A business plan is the document you create when you take an idea for a commercial endeavor and work through all the factors that will have an impact on the successful startup, operation, and management of the business. Smart entrepreneurs plan, not because accountants or business advisors tell them to, but because they understand that it increases their chances for success. Sure, there are successful businesses whose owners fly by the seat of their pants and never create a written plan. But they succeeded despite the lack of a formal plan, not because of it. How much better might they have done had their good ideas been coupled with some solid planning?

Those who have decided to embark on a new enterprise have probably already taken some steps, however informal, to confirm the viability of the new business. Creating a written plan is the next logical step in that process. For example, a business plan can be the vehicle that carries your new idea from the conceptual and planning phase down the road to the building and operational phases. Or, it may help to establish your business's credentials for purposes of obtaining bank financing or investment by future partners. A plan for an existing business may just deal with a single aspect of your business, such as a new product introduction and its impact on financial management and other ongoing operational issues.

What Can a Business Plan Do for You?
Many people think that the only reason to develop a business plan is to convince potential lenders or investors to provide financial backing. This view is a little short-sighted, however. A well-developed plan can serve as one of your most important management tools. A good plan will provide a blueprint and step-by-step instructions on how to translate your idea into a profitably marketed service or product. Remember that no two business plans will look alike. There are a number of key considerations that will play an important role in shaping the content. These considerations include whether you're writing the first plan for a new business or business opportunity, or a plan that updates or supersedes an already existing plan. Obviously, your business's position in the life cycle will have a significant impact on the type of planning that's needed. An ongoing business might require a plan that relates primarily to a new market that it wants to enter, or a new product that it wants to introduce.

Benefits of a Written Plan
Everyone who opens his or her own business has a plan, however informal. The camera store clerk who decides to open a photographic studio may not have a formal, written plan outlining the steps to be taken. Hopefully, however, at some level she has organized the relevant information, performed her own analysis of the market, and decided that she can make a living by starting out on her own. Perhaps she has been moonlighting by photographing weddings and other special occasions, and the demand for her professional services seems sufficient to support her without the camera store job. What steps did she take to reach that decision? Hopefully, at a minimum, she sat down and tried to compile a list of what it would mean to leave a salaried position and take on a free-lance career. At the top of the list would be a comparison of the net income from free-lancing to the net salary. That would involve estimating the number of jobs she could reasonably expect, the cost to provide the required services, and the prices she could charge. The irregular timing of payments versus a steady income might present personal cash flow problems. The availability and cost of benefits would also rank high. So would all the intangible factors that differentiate self-employment from employee status.

However, even if our hypothetical camera store clerk had a well-thought out plan entirely in her head, at some point she will need to communicate it to others, such as suppliers, professional advisors, and perhaps a banker from whom she wants to obtain a line of credit. Having a written plan is an essential communication tool, since it's not practical to explain your operations in person each time someone needs to know who you are. Moreover, the odds are that our budding entrepreneur has not thought out every significant aspect of her future business. Going through the process of creating a written plan can help her to be sure she hasn't missed any significant factors that can cause her fledgling business to do a quick nose-dive.

If you're just starting out in business, a written business plan can help you organize all the pieces that will have to come together to make your business a success. A business hoping to expand its operations in some way can achieve the same benefits. A well-established business trying to grow out of a business-as-usual rut can use a plan as a modeling tool to examine various options before committing to one.

Many small business owners feel that they can keep track of everything without the need to write it down. A written plan, after all, is really just the embodiment of the internal planning that every business owner does anyway. However, the structure a written plan provides makes it more likely that you will consider all relevant factors and that nothing important slips through the cracks.

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Obtaining Financing

"Money is always there, but the pockets change." - Gertrude Stein

The perception that many small business owners have is that financing means taking whatever money you can get; the faster and easier you can get it, the better. Unfortunately, this approach doesn't take into account the fact that getting money for your business involves a variety of considerations, financial and nonfinancial, good and bad.

Finding "smart" money. Small businesses usually need more than just cash: they need "smart" money. By smart money we mean financing that helps your business in the way that you want it to, where the financier provides not only capital, but support and expertise to your business. Smart money could be an SBA guaranteed loan that allows you to keep your ownership interests intact until your business reaches the stage at which you want to sell shares of the business. On the other hand, money that comes from letting your brother, Stanley, become a partner in your business because you need his $10,000 before the end of the week might be far more costly than you ever imagined.

The problem in locating "smart" money is that the capital market for small businesses is imperfect and consists of a great variety of underpublicized and poorly organized financing sources. Whether you are trying to locate a bank that is willing to lend money to your small business or whether you are looking for a business "angel" who will contribute needed equity capital, your quest for financing will require that you devote the same attention to obtaining capital as you give to decisions involving the business's basic product or service.

Financing Options according to the general age of your business and whether you are looking for long or short term financing.

Start-Up Business -- Long-term financing - Primary Sources

  • Personal financing
  • Insider (family/friends) financing
  • Angels
  • Equity financing
  • Leasing
  • Credit unions
  • SBA LowDoc

Start-Up Business -- Short term financing - Primary Sources

  • Personal financing
  • Insider financing
  • Credit cards
  • Credit unions
  • Trade credit
  • Banks
  • SBA Microloans
  • SBA LowDoc

Start Up Business -- Long term financing - Secondary Sources

  • Business alliances
  • SBA regular 7(a) program
  • Venture capital
  • SBICs
  • State and local public financing
  • Franchising
  • Asset-based financing

Start Up Business -- Short term financing - Secondary Sources

  • SBA CAPlines
  • Consumer finance companies
  • Commercial finance companies
  • State and local public financing

Growing/Mature Business -- Long term financing - Primary Sources

  • Debt financing
  • Equity financing
  • Bank lending (secured and unsecured)
  • Leasing
  • Business alliances
  • Venture capital (and SBIC)
  • Limited private offerings
  • SBA Section 7(a)

Growing/Mature Business -- Short term financing - Primary Sources

  • Debt financing
  • Asset-based financing
  • Bank lending (lines of credit, short-term commercial loans)
  • Trade credit
  • Factoring
  • Commercial finance companies

Growing/Mature Business -- Long term financing - Secondary Sources

  • Initial public offerings
  • Franchising
  • Angels
  • SBA Section 504 (Community Development Companies)
  • Insurance companies
  • Commercial finance companies
  • ESOPs
  • SBA International Loan Program

Growing/Mature Business -- Short term financing - Secondary Sources

  • SBA CAPlines
  • State and local public financing
  • SBA Export Working Capital Loan Guarantee Program

One of the most important points for entrepreneurs to remember is that there is no cookbook recipe to follow for obtaining small business financing. A chart that helps you identify certain traits about your small business can give you some guidance as to the types of financing you can realistically expect to obtain, but attempting to slot your business into a rigid financing "profile" can limit your own creative thinking as well as the impression you give to potential financiers.

Your task is to present the most attractive overall portrait of your particular business by emphasizing its strong points and explaining its weaker traits. One business may have an extremely valuable asset, e.g., a technology patent, but no track record; another business may have a sizable initial equity investment but lack short-term cash. With small businesses, the risk to investors and creditors is so high that each financial trait is exaggerated, and any shortcomings must be balanced by a compensating advantage. You need to be flexible in considering how the strengths and weaknesses of your business can be presented so that you can have access to as many different sources of financing as possible.

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Marketing Your Products and Services

For most small businesses, highly effective marketing is a make-or-break necessity. It's really impossible for you to be successful without good marketing and sales techniques - that's what brings the dollars in the door. You've got to let people know about all the wonderful things your business can provide to them, which means that your business must first provide those wonderful things that people are willing to pay for. And that, in turn, means knowing who your customers are and getting so close to them that you can virtually anticipate their needs and desires.

Marketing Challenge
What do we really mean by "marketing?" To many time-starved business owners, marketing means two things: advertising and selling. However, we think that ultimately you'll be more successful if, every so often, you try to look at the "big picture" by taking the time to thoughtfully analyze your products or services and your business as a whole in relation to your competition, your customers, and to societal and regional trends and conditions.

We might say that the key to successful marketing is answering the following question for your business: How will you communicate a meaningful difference about your business idea (product or service) to the people who might be most interested in buying it?

Building a Successful Marketing Plan
Every business, small or large, will be more successful with a business plan. And the key component of a business plan is the marketing plan. A good marketing plan summarizes the who, what, where, when, and how much questions of company marketing and sales activities for the planning year:

  • Who are our target buyers?
  • Where will we implement our marketing spending plans?
  • When will marketing spending plans occur?
  • What sources of uniqueness or positioning in the market do we have?

Remember the Basics

  • Quality  - do it better.
  • Promotion  - buyers must be aware of and motivated to purchase your product.
  • Price - do it cheaper or provide better value.
  • Distribution - make it easy to get, to get fixed, or to get more of.

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Business Checklist

Owner's Checklist for Starting a New Business

Background work
___assess your strengths and weaknesses
___establish business and personal goals
___assess your financial resources
___identify the financial risks
___determine the start-up costs
___decide on your business location
___do market research
___identify your customers
___identify your competitors
___develop a marketing plan

Business transactions
___select a lawyer
___choose a form of organization (proprietorship,         partnership, or corporation, for example)
___create your business (register your name,         incorporate the business, etc.)
___select an accountant
___prepare a business plan
___select a banker
___set up a business checking account
___apply for business loans (if applicable)
___establish a line of credit
___select an insurance agent
___obtain business insurance

First steps
___get business cards
___review local business codes
___obtain a lease
___line up suppliers (if applicable)
___get furniture and equipment
___obtain a business license or permit (if applicable)
___get a federal employer identification number (if         applicable)
___get a state employer i.d. number (if applicable)
___send for federal and state tax forms
___join a professional organization
___set a starting date

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Resources & Links

  • Local Business Licenses may be obtained by contacting:
    Commissioner of Revenue -- Nottoway County
    Nottoway, Virginia 23955 -- (434) 645- 9317
    Fax (434) 645- 8667
        OR
    Town of Blackstone -- 100 W. Elm Street
    Blackstone -- (434) 292-7251

Small Business Incubator Programs

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