News & Events

Weirton – Valley Ventures Inc., which was established a couple of years ago by small businesses in the region as a nonprofit organization aimed toward helping start more small businesses, has an executive director, a plan and a face to put with its name.

 

Lou Stein of Wheeling has been named as Valley Ventures first executive director. He brings decades of business and economic development assistance to the Valley Ventures corporate office that has been opened at 3224 Main St. in Weirton, adjacent to Newbrough Photo. 

 

Stein emphasized that Valley Ventures provides services that are free and strictly confidential to entrepreneurs seeking to start a new business or to current businesses looking to expand. He is prepared to offer business owners direct assistance with business and financing plans, assistance in finding or expanding facilities, and marketing and management assistance.

 

Valley Ventures is establishing a network of professional business service providers, such as accountants, attorneys, insurance agents and others, to help serve small businesses and startups. In addition, a revolving loan fund and a micro-loan fund are in the works to provide another source of funding projects for small business owners.

 

Stein most recently served as economic developer for Monroe County and has owned and operated many businesses on both sides of the river in Belmont and Ohio counties, including a stint as owner and operator of the Ohio Valley Greyhounds indoor football franchise in Wheeling. Stein views business and economic development as a four-legged stool, including business attraction, business expansion, new business start-ups and community development. Stein explains that each leg has a vital importance to a healthy, vibrant business development program.

 

Beyond business attraction, there is serving expansion of current businesses, helping entrepreneurial startups and community development work on quality-of-life projects that enhance a community’s livability to attract more businesses and residents to the region.

 

Some 85 percent of all business growth and job creation in America comes from small businesses, those companies with 60 or 70 employees or less.  Big business and large companies are not generally about creating jobs. Big business is about trying to figure out ways to become more efficient, and that generally means cutting jobs.

 

Stein likes to remind people that 40 years ago, Wal-Mart was one store in Bentonville, Ark. Twenty-five years ago, Hewlett-Packard was two guys in a garage, and just 10 years ago, Google was two kids in a college dorm room.

 

Stein said he knows there are about 3,500 businesses in Valley Ventures service area, which covers Hancock, Brooke and Ohio counties in West Virginia and Jefferson County in Ohio.

 

“If every one of those 3,500 businesses would add one or two workers, that’s easier and more realistic than trying to land one new business with 4,000 employees,” he said. “Everybody wants it to happen. I do not hear any business owner say they have made all the sales and profits they want. Their goal is to expand their market share, to tap into new markets, to expand in new space, and that would result in their ability to add employees.”

 

When it comes to the entrepreneurial spirit, Stein said many people have good ideas, but they are afraid to follow through, often because they did not grow up in a culture where their family owned and operated their own business.

 

“What is exciting about that is that people in our area now know that they most likely will not be working for a company for 30 or 40 years and retire from there. The only real job security is to be the owner of your own business. At least then you know who the boss is,” he said. “There is always risk, but there is risk in every job. When you work for yourself, you have the ability to control your own destiny.”

 

He said having home-grown businesses in a region helps make it more attractive and stable. Home-grown businesses establish roots. They don’t leave the region, and if they develop and expand to other areas, the home office usually stays here, he said.

 

“That is why in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s this valley was so vibrant. Entrepreneurs started many of the businesses we remember that now cease to exist here,” Stein said. That’s why Valley Ventures was started.

 

“We need to once again be starting many new businesses and helping those who are here with their expansion plans,” he said. Stein plans to have a couple of employees in the Valley Ventures office, but he said most of his work will occur at the business places of established firms and in the homes of people looking for help in making their ideas for new businesses become reality. Stein lives in Wheeling and with the office in Weirton, he says he is just a half hour away from either end of the counties he serves.

 

“That is the key. We go to the businesses and entrepreneurs that need help. We don’t wait for them to come to us,” he said.

 

He also plans to use an untapped resource: The business students at area colleges to serve as interns helping in the many phases of business development and getting real world experience for themselves at the same time.

 

Valley Ventures will be holding business basics classes around the area. This 2.5 hour free course known as Fast Start will teach potential entrepreneurs the basics of startup and management of their business to help them decide if they want to take the next step. If they do, they will have Valley Ventures at their disposal, with its free and confidential services.

 

Valley Ventures is planning to be a funding resource through the offering of micro-loans capable of funding as much as 90 percent to 95 percent of a businesses start-up costs for between $1,000 and $15,000 loans. Money paid back will go directly back to the micro-loan account to fund other loans, he said. The micro-loan program helps startups to obtain funding they might not be able to get through conventional lenders, who would consider the loans too risky.

 

In addition, Valley Ventures will establish a revolving loan program funding up to half of business project costs between $16,000 to $50,000. Banks are more likely to participate, Stein said, because the business has collateral to put toward the project. He said seed money for the loan programs will be from public and private sources.

 

For information or to set up a free business conference, call Valley Ventures office at (304) 748-1525. The Web address is www.valleyventures.org and will be fully operational in March.