Business founders in the Va. spotlight for 2012

2012 will officially be the Year of the Entrepreneur in Virginia.

"We want to hold these entrepreneurs up as role models, especially to folks like recent college graduates who may be looking to start a business," Gov. Bob McDonnell said before signing a proclamation Wednesday.

Despite the declaration, the state won't add any incentive programs during the coming year, said Jim Cheng, Virginia's secretary of commerce and trade.

Any programs will be funded out of the governor's office, which plans to hold a business-plan competition, further roundtable events, a college "elevator pitch" competition and monthly office hours where McDonnell will meet with entrepreneurs.

The activities would focus on helping businesses use the programs currently in place, Cheng said.

"We think the state's role is connecting the dots and providing the network to build stronger companies," said Cheng, who, in 1994, founded CHM, a government-contracting company that had grown to 550 employees and $90 million in annual revenue when he sold it in 2005.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who also spoke at the event, said the state wants to promote all manner of businesses, but especially companies in areas such as advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, life sciences and agriculture.

"We believe in rewarding people who take risks, and these entrepreneurs take risks every day," Bolling said.

Approximately 100 entrepreneurs from around the state attended the kickoff event, which included a town hall and remarks by Shawn Boyer, founder and CEO of Henrico County-based Snagajob.

Boyer said too many people look at a company after 10 or 15 years and think it was an overnight success.

"But when you dig in — and I know it's true for us — you see the struggles and challenges that the company went through," he said.

Boyer said the online job-search company and software developer, founded in 2000, struggled through the crash of the Internet bubble in 2001. Boyer's parents, who owned a retail shop in Williamsburg, invested virtually all of their life savings in the company.

Finally, in April 2004, Snagajob posted an $1,800 profit. Boyer said that positive number gave him the confidence that the business model could work for him as well as for customers.

Today the company employees 300 people and was named last year as the best small business in the country to work for by the Great Place to Work Institute.

"We're very proud and protective of the culture we have," Boyer said. "But what I might be most proud of is that five people have left in the past two years and started their own companies."

David King, whose family runs King Family Vineyards in Crozet, said after the news conference that the winery has recently expanded. It now has 23 acres of grapes and 12 full-time employees; two of those workers were hired this year, King said.

"Agri-tourism is a big focus for us, attracting people from New York to Atlanta to Virginia wineries," he said. "The wholesale business is not that big or profitable yet for most of us."

King said 90 percent of his winery's sales are direct to consumers, either at the vineyard or through wine clubs.

Dr. Lucy Gibney of Norfolk became an entrepreneur after discovering that her child has severe food allergies. She now sells cookies that are gluten-free and made without milk, eggs, peanuts or tree nuts.

Gibney said she has worked closely with the state taxation, agriculture and business-assistance departments while expanding her company.

"In each of those departments, there is more than one person who knows me quite well," she said. "And the help I've received from them is not a drop in the bucket. It's coordinated and targeted to me. The help involves letting me hire more employees and ship more goods, so that's good for both me and the state."

During a panel discussion, entrepreneurs discussed their backgrounds and why they started small businesses.

Doña Storey, who has started several businesses in Hampton Roads that work with the federal government, said she learned entrepreneurship from her farther, a Filipino veteran of the U.S. Navy.

"I watched my dad become a multimillionaire, but I also saw him try two businesses that didn't work," she said. "He shut them down after a year and moved on to the next thing. He wasn't afraid to fail, and that's so powerful as an entrepreneur."