The Pop Up Marion, VA Entrepreneurial Boot Camp

In the wake of the 2008 recession, Marion, VA’s historic downtown was suddenly in deep trouble. 

Local participants at the 2021 Pop Up Marion Entrepreneurial Boot Camp, held upstairs at the Wayne C Henderson School of the Appalachian Arts in downtown Marion, VA

For the previous 14 years, Marion (pop. 5,016 in 2019) had been making steady progress. The upswing began in the mid-1990s when local business owners hired Marion native Ken Heath as the town’s first Main Street director. Ken guided streetscape renovations and helped inspire an arts revival that saw the old high school evolve into a thriving downtown arts center. In 2004, after a long citizen-led effort, downtown Marion welcomed the reopening of its historic Lincoln Theater. 

Following the recession, though, many downtown businesses faltered and closed. Within just a year, vacancy rates topped 17%. By mid-2011, Ken had realized the next wave of downtown renewal would depend upon Marion’s small businesses. He began to ask three key questions: 1) How can we invest in our own entrepreneurs? 2) How can we strengthen their financial literacy skills? And 3) How can we develop our financial capacity and link local business ambitions to a widely shared vision for Marion’s downtown?

“We asked the local community what types of businesses they’d support here in our town,“ said Ken, who is now Marion’s Director of Community and Economic Development. “The next step was to train these entrepreneurs, teaching them everything we can in a compact class that leads to pitching a business plan. Next, we’d sign them up for at least six months with a mentor who can look at the books, listen and observe, and help keep the fledgling business on track.” 

Today Marion’s “Pop Up Boot Camp” is a celebrated five-week annual training event. Completing the program makes participants eligible for $5,000 in startup grant funds and a $15,000 low-interest loan. Financial support has come from the Town of Marion, Wells Fargo, the USDA, and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s popular Community Business Launch program (modeled after Marion’s Boot Camp). 

Ken Heath, Marion’s Director of Economic Development, congratulates Tessa and Nick Brown for their successful completion of the five-week Pop Up Marion Entrepreneurial Boot Camp in August 2021. About a month earlier, Tessa and Nick had founded Broad Street Coffee & Treats. They used their Boot Camp experience to help plan an expansion, adding lunch to their already popular breakfast offering at their downtown destination.

Since 2011, Pop Up Marion has trained 302 people, sold 12 downtown buildings, filled an additional 27 storefronts, created 37 new businesses and 138 new jobs, assisted with 3 facade improvements, and attracted more than $2.8 million in private reinvestment. Downtown storefront vacancy rates are now under 4%.

Early on Marion residents told Ken their downtown needed more restaurants. He encouraged would-be restaurateurs and brewmasters to sign up for the Boot Camp. Today, thanks to a growing presence in Marion by Emory and Henry College and Wytheville Community College, Ken is seeking entrepreneurs who can renovate downtown spaces into mixed-use structures combining retail shops with affordable housing.

October 2021 marked the 10th anniversary of Marion’s Pop Up Boot Camp.“To me, the best thing that’s happened is that our community once again believes in itself,” Ken said. “You can have a pretty Main Street, but if you don’t also have businesses that are thriving and bringing people downtown to shop and eat, what’s the point?”