Starting your own business, buying a franchise or forming a nonprofit are challenging tasks. No matter the endeavor, it’s crucial to take some time to prepare and evaluate your goals. Here are a few things to consider: Starting your own busine

• Not surprisingly, a major factor is money, which can be tough to get in this economy.

One is devoting time to a nonprofit. Another bought a franchise. A third started his own business. Months after mass layoffs at Qimonda Richmond, the refugees of the eastern Henrico County memory-chip maker are looking beyond their engineering and manufacturing résumés to find new career paths. The reasons vary.

“Rock for Seeds,“ a fundraiser for Shalom Farms, will be Saturday, July 18, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of Best Buy, 1560 W. Koger Center Drive, Midlothian. The Richmond nonprofit Shalom Farms raises food for local low-income families. The group is part of the United Methodist Urban Ministries of Richmond. The event will feature a setup of the video game “Rock Band,“ where people can play and let out their inner rock star for a $1 donation. All proceeds will go to Shalom Farms.

Circle Center Adult Day Services will dedicate its new home at 4900 W. Marshall St. tomorrow from noon to 3 p.m. The nonprofit Circle Center provides day care for older adults who are frail or functionally impaired, and respite, education and support for their family caregivers. The center was formerly at 3900 W. Broad St. Its new state-of-the-art facility is near Willow Lawn, one block west of Staples Mill Road.

The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation awarded Saint Paul’s College a $120,000 grant for scholarships for the 2009-2010 academic year. The grant will assist 25 female students at the school in Lawrenceville. “The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation has been a bedrock of scholarship support for Saint Paul’s College students for more than 28 years,“ said Dr. Robert L. Satcher Sr., Saint Paul’s president.

WHAT’S HAPPENING The International Hospital for Children, a nonprofit, humanitarian organization based in Richmond, raised more than $485,000 at its fourth annual Treasures in Paradise Fashion Show and Auction. The event, held Nov. 14 under a tent at River Road Shopping Center, drew more than 500 guests. Bon Secours Children’s Services was the sponsor for the evening.

Kay Coles James, who held key posts under Gov. George Allen and President George W. Bush, has been recognized with a $100,000 award to the Virginia-based Gloucester Institute. James is founder and president of the nonprofit institute, which is focused on social, economic and political issues in the African-American community. The Gloucester Institute, which has its headquarters in Alexandria, plans to use the money from the Gerard Health Foundation’s inaugural Life Prizes awards to help renovate dormitories at its conference-center complex in Gloucester County.

BY JAMES E. UKROP AND CHARLES E. AGEE III Every day in communities statewide, Virginians—from single mothers to working families to widowed elderly—benefit from a wide range of health, cultural, and social services. Consider just a few of the thousands of needs met by a group of independent institutions—Virginia’s nonprofit organizations—that together constitute the state’s second-largest employer:

One in 17 employees in Virginia worked for a nonprofit organization in 2005. Collectively, the paid work force of about 211,000 nonprofit employees earned more than $8.2 billion in wages. And that covers only paid employees.

Nonprofits. The word provokes images of feeding the poor, healing the sick, or sheltering the destitute—all true. But nonprofits are big business in Virginia. And, surprisingly, only one in seven is devoted to social assistance. The release this week of preliminary results from an economic impact study of Virginia's and its regions' nonprofit sector by Johns Hopkins University is important to every citizen of the commonwealth. It tells us a heretofore untold story. The nonprofit community is a tremendous financial and employment contributor to the growth and viability of Virginia, and particularly its capital region.