Prince William County Development Services Supports 96 Small Businesses ‘Opened for Business’ in 1st Quarter 2021

Prince William County's Department of Development Services today announced its Small Business Project Management Program (SBPM) supported 96 businesses that successfully 'Opened for Business' in the first quarter of 2021. Seventy-six of those businesses were new to the County, and 20 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 30 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 is steadily increasing. In prior years, the number of new, small businesses that opened were 44 in the first quarter of 2019, 57 in the first quarter of 2020, and 76 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 emphasize 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 95 percent of businesses having 20 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, predictable government environment. For more information, call (703) 792-6930 or email [email protected].

About the Small Business Project Management Program

The Prince William County Board of County Supervisors adopted and funded an initiative to enhance the level of services for small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs in FY2019. The Department of Development Services, in coordination with other County agencies spearheaded the initiative to improve entrepreneurs' and small business owners' experience within the County development process. The Small Business Project Management Program was officially rolled out in October 2018. For the purposes of the SBPM, the County defined a small business as one that employees 35 or fewer employees.