The Vance-Granville Community College Foundation has received a $50,000 grant award from Duke Energy Foundation to support small businesses in the four-county area it ser.
And community college officials have come up with a creative way to make sure that the money is equitably distributed to do the most good.
The VGCC Small Business Center will select grant fund recipients through a series of workshops, one based in each of the four counties the college serves.
Owners of retail shops, restaurants and other small businesses looking to expand, their business, upgrade technology, improve marketing or downtown storefronts are just the kind of participant VGCC’s Small Business Center is looking for.
“We want to see how creative they’ll be,” said Carolyn Perry, director of VGCC’s Small Business Center. The timing right before the holidays could prove extra helpful; some small businesses depend on a brisk holiday sales season to boost their bottom line.
The first workshop will be held next week in Granville County on the South Campus in Creedmoor, Sept. 16-19.
Subsequent workshops will take place in the other three counties served by VGCC:
- Sept. 30 – Oct. 3: VGCC Main Campus, Henderson
- Oct. 7–10: VGCC Warren Campus, Warrenton
- Oct. 14–17: VGCC Franklin Campus, Louisburg
Each workshop session will be comprised of four evening classes for a total of 10 hours of instruction. The sessions will culminate with a five-minute pitch contest, after which five of the session’s 10 participants will receive a $2,500 award to support their small business.
Perry said there are just a few requirements to participate – applicants must be 18 years old and must be residents of the county of the workshop they sign up for. Only one participant per household is allowed and anyone associated with VGCC is not eligible to take part, she said.
If you do a little quick math, $50,000 divided by 4 equals $12,500. There will be 20 awards – 5 per county – which means that each grant will be $2,500.
The first three days of the process will involve coaching and developing a plan that will be pitched on day 4, Perry said, sort of like TV’s “Shark Tank.”
VGCC Dean of Business and Industry Solutions Kyle Burwell, provided details about how the money would be used.
“When you start off with some capital,” Burwell said, you increase a business’s survival rate, not to mention provide stability and create additional employment opportunities. She said it’s a way to help businesses learn how to use funding and market themselves, which creates “a true impact for all of our communities.”
The VGCC Foundation was one of 21 community organizations from across the state to share in $700,000 in this round of funding, said Beth Townsend, Duke Energy local government and community relations manager. Since it was established in 2020, the program has given more than $2 million in grant funds to small businesses across the state.
To learn more about this program and participant requirements, contact Perry at 252.738.3240 or perryc@vgcc.edu.
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