Small Business Development

Ready… Set… GROW  Your Small Business in Chesapeake

The Chesapeake Economic Development department wants to assist our business partners with meeting their business growth initiatives, and help them succeed in the global, multi-cultural business market by providing technical, educational, and financial resources so these businesses can compete more successfully for federal, state, local government and commercial contracts.

Chesapeake’s Ready… Set… GROW program is staffed with a Certified Business Advisor dedicated to offering mentoring/coaching opportunities for the development and growth of entrepreneurs.

  • A visual toolbox to quickly get an overview of the most important areas on which to focus (business concepts, organization, customer relations and operations)
  • Diagnostic of decision-making challenges (barriers to growing the business)
  • Map of opportunities to pursue (what are the opportunities for growth?)
  • Competency evaluation (what skills are needed for growth?)

Other assistance provided by the Certified Business Advisor include (but are not limited to) start-up resources, marketing/brand strategy development, budget models and business plan development. These resources are designed to help your business focus on key areas such as business concept, organization, customer relations and operations.

Chesapeake’s outreach efforts make it possible for minority-owned, women-owned and veteran-owned businesses to network with key industry partners from the public and private sectors. By partnering with local, state and federal agencies, we are also able to offer educational and training workshops. Individual sessions are available by appointment in office space specifically designated for use by regional and state agencies, such as George Mason Procurement and Technical Training (GMU-PTAC) and the Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center (HRSBDC).

The Ready… Set… GROW program targets small businesses to help them achieve the next level while at the same time helping them learn new concepts and ideas, set goals…and achieve them! Not just today, but by taking actions that will benefit businesses now and in the future. Such assistance strives to promote growth, increased productivity, expansion, and improvements in daily business management and operations.

Our goal is to help businesses identify opportunities and build strong ties in the business community. We want to help your business promote and celebrate collective achievement and success!

Advancing Women in Business Program

As the 2014 Small Business Association recipient of the “Women In Business Champion” award, Chesapeake’s Ready… Set… GROW program also provides resources to advance women-owned small businesses (WOSB).

The Advancing Women in Business program partners with organizations such as ODU Women’s Business Center, SBA, WID (Women in Defense) and WIPP (Women Impacting Public Policy) to foster support in the areas of business development, networking and contracting opportunities to help ‘level the playing field’ for women and diversity candidates.

As an advocate for the certification of WOSBs, Chesapeake is also a partner with WPEO-DC/WBENC, which provides certification at the corporate level and helps to match diversity talent with global job opportunity.

For additional information on how we can help you grow your small business, contact Angela Barber at 757-382-8040.