Ninety-six Small Businesses "Open for Business" in 1st Quarter 2021

 The Small Business Project Management Program (SBPM) supported ninety-six businesses, that successfully ‘Opened for Business’ in the first quarter of 2021. Seventy-six of those businesses were new to the County and twenty were existing businesses that expanded or relocated elsewhere within the County.

These numbers reflect a seven percent increase in small businesses opening in the County, compared to the same time last year. The level of small business projects spiked at the end of 2020 and have since remained at over thirty businesses opening each month, which continues the trend of one small business opening in Prince William County every day, on average!

While small businesses still face challenges from the COVID-19 Pandemic, the number of new small businesses opening in the County are steadily increasing. In prior years, the number of new small businesses that opened were, forty-four in the first quarter of 2019, fifty-seven in the first quarter of 2020, and seventy-six in the first quarter of 2021.

“Small businesses know they can rely on the County and network of community partner organizations to provide significant resources, extensive knowledge and a wealth of support here in Prince William. We cannot emphasis enough to customers to seek our advice before deciding on leasing and buying a building, to ensure it will serve their specific business purposes,” shared Wade A. Hugh, Director, Department of Development Services. 

In addition, County services and support are available through the Department of Economic Development, the Mason Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Prince William Chamber of Commerce, Brickyard coworking space, and more.

“Since inception, the SBPM has helped more than 860 customers open for business. Identifying this is a critical time for our business community, we continually work to improve and better integrate our small business assistance services across all our County community development agencies and partner organizations,” added Hugh.

As the second largest County in Virginia, Prince William County’s business economy is predominately mid-sized businesses and small enterprises, with over ninety-five percent of businesses having twenty or fewer employees. The County recognizes real estate decisions are critical to businesses, not only from a financial perspective, but for the ability to attract customers, access a quality workforce, establish their brand, build community partnerships, and operate in a stable and predictable government environment. For more information call (703) 792-6930 or email [email protected].