Grow Waynesboro
Connections Over Coffee: Grow Waynesboro
Connections Over Coffee: Grow Waynesboro
If you stumble into Waynesboro’s newly opened Happ Coffee Roasters on the first Thursday of the month looking for your caffeine fix, you’ll be greeted by busy chatter, laughter, and the exchange of business cards in their newly opened space.
As owners of a small local business themselves, Aaron and Bethany Mallory provide space for local entrepreneurs and those who aspire to become one to mix and mingle at the beginning of each month. “We opened Farmhaus Coffee Co. in November of 2016 with the goal of providing a place for our neighbors to gather, connect, and experience community through the lens of coffee,” the couple explains. In August of 2023, they relocated to a larger space in the historic Virginia Metalcrafters building where they also roast their own beans under their new name, Happ Coffee Roasters. From entrepreneurs to service providers, small business bankers and attorneys to city council members and community leaders – you’ll meet a great variety of stakeholders from Waynesboro’s entrepreneurial ecosystem at the monthly Coffee Chat.
The event itself is hosted by the City of Waynesboro which is focused on investing in their outreach efforts and support for local entrepreneurs by providing access to resources, events, and community. What started out as a coffee meetup with four participants in September 2022 has grown into a 25+ people networking event for entrepreneurs and small business owners and is now a staple event for Waynesboro.
The idea of the monthly Coffee Chat is to support early-stage entrepreneurs in Waynesboro. Grow Waynesboro also provides technical assistance such as licensing requirements, website strategy, and business development to entrepreneurs who are interested in starting or growing their business in the city. The program is often able to offer small grant awards through a group of local service providers that specialize in services like legal guidance, accounting, and marketing. Waynesboro is one of five cities under the Shenandoah Valley Community Navigator program through the U.S. Small Business Administration with the goal of providing more support to historically underserved entrepreneurs.
At the end of 2022, Grow Waynesboro was awarded a Community Business Launch Grant to help future small business owners fill vacant storefronts in historic downtown Waynesboro. During the first half of 2023, dozens of entrepreneurs received business training and technical assistance in preparation for Pitch Night which was held on April 17, 2023. At Pitch Night, eight budding entrepreneurs competed for a total of $53,000 in start-up grants, and the four grant recipients will have their new businesses open by the end of 2023.
There are many elements in Waynesboro’s ecosystem that need to work together in order to have a cohesive business growth strategy. Grow Waynesboro has partnered with some strong players in the ecosystem who already support business growth and expansion, such as the Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund (SCCF), the Community Foundation, the Small Business Development Center, the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), and Blue Ridge Community College.
Grow Waynesboro’s Coffee Chat takes place every first Thursday of the month from 7.30 to 9.30 a.m. at Happ Coffee Roasters in Waynesboro.