Resource center ready to start helping local businesses

The Mon Valley Alliance is conducting the operation from a renovated bank building in downtown Monongahela.

The Mon Valley Business Resource Center is ready to make impactful change in the area — especially for small businesses.

In 2021, the Mon Valley Alliance partnered with Community Bank to relocate its office and create a business resource center in the former bank building on Main Street in Monongahela.

The site, appraised at $280,000, was sold to the MVA for $50,000 and significant improvements have been made in the past three years. The first floor, which the business resource center will call home, is nearly finished.

MVA CEO Jamie Colecchi said it’s about a $400,000 investment into the center that will be geared toward connecting businesses owners with the tools and resources they need to grow and be successful.

The project was financed with $250,000 in Local Share Account funds, a $50,000 grant from the Washington County Community Foundation and an additional $110,000 paid by the MVA to cover final costs.

Work took longer than expected to finish because the MVA was also hoping to secure statewide LSA funds to extend the project further, but was unsuccessful in securing those funds.

“We did put in a request for state LSA funds for the balance, in hopes of doing more, but it took a long time to get those decisions and you can’t start a project until you get the go ahead from them or else you are ineligible,” Colecchi said. “We waited all of that time and unfortunately were not successful but decided to aggressively move forward to get this done.

“If we had gotten those funds you would see a lot more bells and whistles, and the outside would have been totally renovated as well, but we went ahead with the project and stuck to what was most important.

“All of the money and investment here has gone on this main level inside to make it ADA compliant and amendable to training, meeting and networking events.”

The renovations have transformed the main floor of the building, creating a small, soundproof one-on-one office space, a large meeting room, kitchenette, ADA bathrooms and flex space that can be used for networking.

“That space out there is a bit blank right now, but it’s a flexible space that could be used for an additional office if we need to,” Colecchi said.

Colecchi hopes to start with an art competition that would showcase the Mon Valley and its young artists.

If the MVA finds a sponsor, the art competition would affect the business resource center’s ability to offer programs for local business owners as well as benefit a winning school’s art program.

It’s just an idea for now, but since bringing on Cait Lee full-time as the MVA’s director of business resources, ideas keep flowing.

Lee, a small business owner and Fallowfield Township resident, started working with the MVA in February as a consultant.

After realizing what she brought to the table, they felt she would be the perfect person to get the business resource center up and running.

“I like to think she appreciated the work we are doing and are going to do and we have been fortunate to bring her on staff to be the director of business resources, which is really the person in charge of the services that will come out of here,” Colecchi said. “I think this place is going to be a vision, it’s going to be a spark.”

The resource center hopes to bridge a gap in the services that businesses need to be successful and to serve as a tool in providing education, training and services to businesses in the area who are growing or hoping to expand their reach.

“There are just not a lot of providers down here,” Colecchi said. “When you have a presence, more gets done, more trust is developed and I think it is going to be successful. Cait is a small business owner herself and understands these things, so I think she’s a great fit.”

Lee has her own remote business where she provides grant writing services. She sees the business resource center as a way to propel economic growth.

“I think the center is exciting because it can be a catalyst for greater change,” Lee said. “I’m excited to be a resource and advocate for businesses.

“I think a lot of the time business don’t know what they don’t know unless you are tapped in to those networks. A lot of times they don’t know what is available to them, so resources go unutilized, which is a missed opportunity.”

Based on information from the WCCF’s recent needs assessment, she said resources are available across Washington County for businesses, but there’s not proper marketing so they are not easy to access.

“People don’t know what they don’t know,” she said. “I know enough, but I also know there are things I don’t know enough about, so I know we need to make connections, with accountants and HR professionals to really build a network of support around each business owner.”

Lee is currently working to map resources available to business across the region.

“We don’t want to step on toes or take anyone’s place,” she said. “I think there is enough need across this sector that everyone can exist.”

She said sometimes it’s about finding the right program, company or service to meet their specific needs and being able to access it.

“I think of this from when I first started, and I had no idea who did what,” she said. “That can feel overwhelming. So I am looking across the system and everyone who serves our region in terms of developing business, categorizing the services they offer and want to build relationships with them so it can be a warm handoff to connect people, and not just sending an email to get people connected.

“If you don’t have those relationships with these organizations or that rapport with business owners and other players, we won’t ever bridge these gaps within the business community.”

Colecchi said building those relationships is important for the success of the center and surrounding businesses.

“The key word there is warm handoff, that sticks with me,” Colecchi said. “I work in this field of helping businesses and when you pass them along, sometimes that call doesn’t get made and they don’t get connected to that resource. But a warm handoff, like Cait explained, we’re going to talk to the resource provider and make that connection directly so there is not a cold call and then silence, so that service can be realized and taken advantage of.”

To get a better idea of where to start, the MVA launched a small business survey two weeks ago to hear directly from business owners what they need or would like to see offered.

A brief survey aims to collect information about businesses and interest in capacity building supports and resources that will be brought to the region.

It will remain open until Oct. 1 to allow Lee and other MVA employees to gather input.

Data collected from this survey will be used to inform and secure resources, services and opportunities for small businesses in the area.

Lee hopes to have a soft launch of programs this fall.

“We’re not exactly sure what those programs will be yet, that’s why the survey is important, but even getting preliminary programs in here, workshops to test things out with folks and things to that end will be great,” she said. “We want to be responsive. Whatever the survey results show, we will use that to form a plan to do what we need to do.”

Colecchi hopes the business resource center will help businesses look ahead to their futures.

“Everything so often is reactionary, but planning for what is next, that is an element I hope we can bring down here, help with planning and capacity building,” he said.

The Washington County Chamber of Commerce plans to help the MVA spread the word about the survey, and Colecchi is hoping other local chambers of commerce will get on board, too.

“We are a lot of time known as the industrialists, developers,” he said. “To the small business community, we have to earn and build that trust.”

He believes Lee and the MVA are ready to get to work to make it happen.

“I think we are lucky to have Cait on board to lead this charge and share the vision we have to bring it to fruition,” he said. “This is a vision that is within our bounds at the MVA and MVAF and I think we have no choice but to be successful, I really do.

“We are doing it right and we are going to lead by example to serve the small business community the way they deserve to be served.”

To participate in the survey online go to monvalleyalliance.org. A link to the survey can be found under the “Business” tab at the top of the page.

For information on the business resource center, email Lee at clee@monvalleyalliance. org.