FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Start Small Campbell Grant Program Awards $5K to Local Leadership and Consulting Business 

RUSTBURG: Campbell County Economic Development’s Start Small Campbell Grant Program awarded $5,000 grant to Michelle Cabell, owner of Optimized Leadership Coaching and Consulting, LLC.

Cabell has more than three decades of executive and leadership experience. She aims to motivate women leaders to maximize their influence, effectiveness, and impact on the world. Her services include executive coaching, leadership development facilitation, webinars, personality assessments, and project facilitation.

She was presented the Start Small Campbell Grant award at Campbell County’s Business Appreciation event on May 4.

She plans to use the grant to support marketing efforts to increase business reach and visibility. 

She was very excited to receive the grant. 

“I’m so grateful,” said Cabell. “It is something else when your community gets behind you. Small business is not easy. Statistics are stacked against us. It is really nice that the community pulls together and supports those who are right here and local.”

“This was a huge blessing for me,” said Cabell. 

“I have clients across the country, but I would really like to target Virginia or the local area or the region,” she said.   “There are a lot of businesses here that can use the services that I offered.  So I’m excited to get started attracting from the area as opposed to across the country.” 

Going through the application process helped her with her business planning and forecasting. She found it was well worth it and the people at the Small Business Development Center – Lynchburg Region (SBDC) were fantastic.

One of the courses she took through SBDC dealt with digital marketing.

“It talked about your platform, your Google profile, what it looks like on social media, and what is more applicable to my work,” said Cabell. “They helped me with my target market … with keywords optimization, and where I needed to post.”

“Campbell County is an excellent place for small businesses,” said Nina Rezai, Campbell County Director of Economic Development. “This program shows the County's commitment to business growth. Campbell County wants to attract new businesses, and we want them to succeed! That is why we teamed up with SBDC.

“The next round of Start Small Campbell Grants applications are due by September 1,” said Rezai. “We look forward to supporting entrepreneurs who join Campbell County's small business community.”

Start Small Campbell Grant Program is a $5,000 county grant for new businesses. To be eligible, an application must be submitted, along with a business plan and the completion of two “StartUp Toolbox” courses through the SBDC Region. 

The application deadline for consideration in the next cycle of the Start Small Campbell Grant program is September 1.

The Start Small Campbell Grant application can be found at https://www.campbellvirginia.com/new-business/webforms/start-small-campbell-grant-application.

For more information about the Start Small Campbell Grant Program visit https://www.campbellvirginia.com/new-business/webforms/start-small-campbell-grant-program, call (434) 332-9643, or email cadixon@co.campbell.va.us.

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