Growing an Entrepreneurial Community 1

“We work with what we have right here to create the kind of business environment where all sizes of businesses can be successful. We lobby for the kind of quality workforce that employers need and to provide the resources and the assistance and services that startups, small businesses, and struggling businesses need to be profitable and to flourish.” — Myrna Ballard, president Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce

The Valdosta and Lowndes County community is often referred to as “Title Town” and the “Azalea City,” but its recognition as Georgia’s first Entrepreneur-Friendly Community is another proud distinction that was received in 2004 by the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD).

The designation is part of a certification program that helps communities analyze their existing entrepreneurial environment and develop strategies to foster growth of small businesses.

“We were the first community to receive this designation in Georgia,” said Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce President Myrna Ballard. “We kind of helped them develop the program for the rest of the state.”

Ballard said Valdosta and Lowndes County were selected because of existing programs in place to grow and support small businesses, including the SEEDS (Sowing Entrepreneur and Economic Development Success) Business Resource Center, and collaboration with the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Valdosta State University.

“We had already put our resources where our mouth is by investing in the programs and staff to create a full-time entrepreneur resource center for our community,” Ballard said. “The designation was also a recognition of our partnership with the SBDC. The City of Valdosta also invests funds each year for the SEEDS Center to ensure that any citizen in this area has access to high-quality services at absolutely no charge.”

Small businesses are the backbone of the country, especially in Georgia where the GDEcD identifies 99.8 percent of businesses are categorized as small (fewer than 500 employees).

“Most businesses, and most job growth, come from the aggregated growth of small businesses,” Ballard said. “The role of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority is to recruit new jobs and new investment from outside our community into our community—and they do it very well. The Chamber’s job is to home-grow businesses; we don’t recruit from outside the local area.”

Ballard explains that creating a pro-business environment is part of the Chamber’s mission.

“We work with what we have right here to create the kind of business environment where all sizes of businesses can be successful,” Ballard said. “We lobby for the kind of quality workforce that employers need and to provide the resources and the assistance and services that startups, small businesses, and struggling businesses need to be profitable and to flourish.”

Each year the SEEDS Center, located in the Chamber’s office, provides free assistance to startup businesses as well as existing and expanding companies in Lowndes County and regional partnering counties.

While the SEEDS Center has served as a “virtual incubator” for more than a decade, there are plans to develop a physical, functional incubator to help small businesses grow and succeed.

According to Ballard, Greenwood Consulting Group was hired to conduct a financial feasibility study to determine where the incubator should be, how much space will be needed, and how the incubator will be funded from development to continual operation.

“Greenwood Consulting completed a financial feasibility analysis in September,” said Ballard. “They have narrowed it down to three potential locations and have run the numbers to determine what it will cost to acquire and remodel and operate each.  The Incubator Task Force will select the location that has the greatest potential for success.”

Ballard says the next step is for the Chamber to develop a business plan.  Greenwood Consulting Group will conduct this phase of the project as well. She anticipates the completion of the business plan in January 2017.

“While the public sector—especially Valdosta State University—is very supportive of the incubator, I think it’s going to be up to the private sector to make it happen,” Ballard said. “There is a great deal of interest out there and I think the business community is intrigued by the possibilities of a one-stop-shop for building and growing successful businesses.”

In addition to the SEEDS Center, startup and existing small businesses are able to use professional business consulting services provided by the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center, located on the campus of Valdosta State University.

According to Lynn Bennett, area director of UGA SBDC at VSU, the SBDC provides continuous support for entrepreneurs from the initial stages with preparing a business plan and cash flow projections to growing a business to the next level.

“There is a growing initiative within the Valdosta community to attract new entrepreneurs,” Bennett said. “The spirit of entrepreneurship is growing and owning your own business can be a reality. The UGA SBDC at Valdosta State University is here to support and assist every step of the way and is a valuable source of continuing education for business owners.”

 Bennett is appreciative of the support the SBDC receives from businesses and organizations that sponsor educational programs for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Guardian Bank has been very supportive in helping the SBDC equip small business owners with the knowledge and training needed to take their small business to the next level, in turn developing our local economy and making this a great community in which to work and live,” Bennett said. “The SBDC and Guardian Bank have a solid-based partnership because we share the same mission to help business owners grow and expand their businesses.”

Guardian Bank recently provided financial support to host a five-week retail course focused on helping businesses improve their retail performance.

“At Guardian Bank we understand that businesses are challenged with economic and regulatory uncertainty and constant change. These challenges can be overwhelming without sound management practices, continuing education, and strategic planning,” said Guardian Bank Chief Executive Officer Parrish Clark. “The partnership between the VSU SBDC and Guardian Bank was specifically formed to help small businesses receive contemporary and meaningful guidance in the ever-changing economic climate.”

It Begins with a Plan

One of the most successful entrepreneurial efforts within Valdosta and Lowndes County is the annual business plan competition, which began in 2006 and is organized by the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce. The Southwest Georgia Bank Business Plan Competition has a goal to encourage excellence in the planning stages of starting a new business.

“As the business plan competition sponsor, we are able to invest in our community by providing capital investment to help start a small business,” said Jud Moritz, senior vice president for Southwest Georgia Bank. “As a community bank, we are focused on helping small businesses start, grow, and succeed.”

Southwest Georgia Bank has sponsored the business plan competition since 2014 and is committed to continuing its support.

“It takes a committed and sustained effort for a community to intentionally build its capacity to nurture and grow businesses that can employ college and university graduates,” said Ballard. “Knowing that Southwest Georgia Bank is in it ‘for the long haul’ with the Chamber by supporting the annual business plan competition gives us confidence that we can sustain this effort.”

Business plan competition winners have included financial management, technology, healthcare, educational services, and management consulting companies.

Azalea Health, founded by Baha Zeidan, Doug Swords, and Dan Henry, was the 2008 business plan competition winner. Today, Azalea Health has 77 employees in three Georgia cities.  

The 2008 business plan winner was Azalea Health, a technology company formed by Valdosta State University alumni Baha Zeidan, Doug Swords, and Dan Henry. The company provides innovative health-related software products and services to increase the efficiency and profitability of healthcare businesses.

In eight years, the company has expanded to 77 employees in three Georgia locations—Valdosta, Macon, and Atlanta—and serves customers in more than 40 states.

The company’s growth has not altered its original mission.

“Since the beginning, Azalea Health has been focused largely on serving the rural market of medical providers,” said Swords, vice president for Revenue Cycle Management. “We were one of the first Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems in the nation to incorporate Telehealth technology into our platform to help our providers better service the underserved rural markets.”

The process of writing a business plan was beneficial to the early development of the company and its continued growth.

“Baha, Dan, and I can honestly say Azalea Health would not be where it is today without the support we have received from the local community,” said Swords. “The business plan competition helped us shape our plan and vision and allowed us to secure the initial funding we needed to begin operation.”

Zeidan explained that it wasn’t just the initial funding from the business plan that was helpful but the advice and guidance received from local businesses and organizations.

“When we first started talking about different ideas we knew we wanted to do something in health care since we were all working in that area,” said Zeidan, Azalea Health CEO. “We went to the SBDC and took classes, and they told us about the business plan competition.”

The three entrepreneurs agree that writing the business plan gave their company a strong foundation.

“It is not for the faint of heart. You have to have your mind focused and know what you are doing,” said Henry, director of development. “The business plan competition helped solidify all the ideas we were having, and I attribute a lot of that success to going through that process.”

Innovate Engineering Solutions

Bill Kent, president of Innovate Engineering Solutions, is pictured at the site of the City of Valdosta South Troup Street Enhancement Project. The project includes new sidewalks, curbs and gutters, bicycle lanes, underground storm sewer and drainage inlets, driveway aprons, and water and sewer mains and service connections.

 A Kansas native, Bill Kent moved to Valdosta 23 years ago and held the position of traffic and drainage engineer and assistant engineer for the City of Valdosta and assistant vice president for ASA Engineering and Surveying. At the age of 42, he began to think about opening a civil engineering firm.

Kent started writing a business plan and developing the concept for Innovate Engineering Solutions, a firm that specializes in land development planning, civil engineering, site design services, environmental engineering, and construction management.

“Writing a business plan wasn’t a big leap,” he said. “Being an engineer, everything I do is planning. We start at the beginning and know what our goal is at the end, and we develop a plan on how to get there.”

Innovate Engineering Solutions won the 2010 business plan competition and continues to be an economically vibrant business.

“Entering the business plan competition was about discovering where I was as a business and where I wanted to be in a specific amount of time,” said Kent. “I attended classes through the SBDC, and they helped me gather data on competition in the area and expected revenue.”

Kent explained that starting a business in Valdosta and Lowndes County has its advantages.

“We are set up very well with one of the best chambers in the country,” Kent said. “They were extremely helpful and provided information and guidance throughout the startup process. If they couldn’t answer a question, they would point me in the right direction.”

Kent said most of his projects are in South Georgia, but Innovate Engineering Solutions has completed jobs throughout Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, and Alabama.

“Our primary work is civil and environmental engineering, which includes a lot of issues like wetlands, special permits, and determining if there is hazardous waste contamination on the site,” said Kent, who earned a master’s in civil engineering from Kansas State University. “Before a bank will loan money for a project they want an environmental study to get assurance and clearance that there won’t be any environmental issues with construction.

Enay Coaching

Members of Enay Coaching Charlie Davis, Elton Dixon, Sloane Royster, and Damian Grey hosted Camp TIMBER in partnership with Wiregrass Georgia Technical College. The summer camp promoted science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum for children ages 10 to 14.

Elton Dixon and his wife, Adrienne, started Enay Coaching to provide business training and education to schools, businesses, and organizations to help elevate teamwork-minded, purpose-focused engagement among the current and future workforce.

Before winning the 2015 Southwest Georgia Bank Business Plan Competition, Elton and a team of friends (Damian Grey, Charlie Davis, Carl Collins, Sloane Royster, and Chioma Madueke) volunteered at local schools, which is where they discovered their passion and vision for the company.

“We discovered that we were very passionate about our purpose, and as a result, we were able to get lots of experience, quality outcomes, and connections,” said Dixon. “In other words, we proved to ourselves and our supporters that we are fully committed to what we are doing.”

This summer, Enay Coaching worked in partnership with Wiregrass Georgia Technical College (WGTC) to develop Camp TIMBER, a course designed to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum to children ages 10 to 14. . Activities also included a ropes challenge course, teamwork hike, and wildlife presentation.

“The objective was to give students the opportunity to use the principles we teach as they take on various problem-solving challenges in an immersive setting,” said Dixon. “I have been connected with Bill Tillman, director of Economic Development at WGTC, ever since the business plan competition, and he was a natural partner for the Camp TIMBER project.”

According to Dixon, Enay’s future plans include expanding tutoring services, delivering more programs at local schools, and developing strategies to increase parent involvement in schools.

Dixon said winning the business plan competition has allowed Enay Coaching to further market and demonstrate its services to the local education and business community.