By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Economic & Community Development Institute (ECDI) out of Columbus, Ohio, hosts five Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) in Ohio. The center in Portsmouth, Ohio, covers areas in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, and decided that it would be a good idea to spread more into Northeastern Kentucky.
“We offer free business services similar to what the SBDC (Small Business Development Center) does,” Bonnie Barker from the Portsmouth WBC explained. “But we don’t have such a tight hold on our grants, so we are able to go after other funding to offer different things. So, even though we still offer free one on one consultations and training, we have access to other capital through ECDI. We are able to get other grants to offer other services. So, one of the things we’ve done is this bootcamp and pitch competition.”
“We were awarded a 1.5-million-dollar grant for three years previous to this to do this competition in eight counties in Southern Ohio and one county in West Virginia,” Barker said. “Then we went after grant number two to bring that into Kentucky, but we didn’t get that grant. But some of the locals rallied and asked, ‘Is there any way we can still bring it here?’”
“Crystal Branham and Brittany Rayburn were both just like, ‘Let’s see if we can get it here.’ My organization said they would give them the curriculum and they allowed me to facilitate it myself. Usually, we bring other people in to do that,” Barker said. “But if I was willing to do it myself, then they were willing to do it that way.”
“We were able to raise that prize money with Crystal and Brittany’s help,” Barker continued. “It took about a week and a half because our community really rallied.”
The result of all their efforts was the Ignite Appalachia Bootcamp and Pitch Competition.
The competition event was held over the course of six weeks in Commercial Bank’s conference rooms, with one location in Grayson and the other in Olive Hill.
“That’s because it was for both Grayson and Olive Hill, for new businesses and expansions,” Barker said.
“This was the first year we did this,” she added. “And we had eleven sign up, and eight made it through the bootcamp. This is a pretty rigorous process, and we put them through a lot.” Participants, she said, are expected to have a full business plan within four weeks.
“That’s a lot of work,” she said. “And they are only with me two hours a week. But we do offer one-on-one sessions, and everything is free to the participants. So, several of them utilized that and some did not.”
Barker said she couldn’t thank Crystal Branham and Brittany Rayburn, along with Jonathan Lewis from Commercial Bank, enough for helping to make the bootcamp a success.
“The only criteria were that it had to be a new business physically in Carter County or a clear expansion of an existing business. We did have two expansions, and they were very clear,” she said.
After all of the hard work by everyone involved, the winners of the competition were Christian Baker (first place), Vanessa Ingle (second place), and Allen Wilson (third place). Winners received $5,000, $2,000, and $1,000, respectively. Sponsors of the event included Commercial Bank of Grayson, Olive Hill Tourism, Grayson Tourism, Paws Inn Keeper, and Michelle Wilhoit Insurance.
Barker said she felt the program was a success because of everyone in the community who helped to make it possible.
“Programs like Ignite Appalachia are only possible when communities rally behind local entrepreneurs, and Carter County did just that.”
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
