Fairfax County officials on March 12 launched a new portal, Fairfax CORE (Connecting Opportunities & Resources for Entrepreneurs), which provides information and support to business owners of all ages.
“In addition to the step-by-step guidance on everything from business planning to funding capital or securing permits, Fairfax CORE can connect entrepreneurs directly to the best source of support for their specific needs,” said Supervisor Daniel Storck (D-Mount Vernon), who chairs the Board of Supervisors’ Economic Initiatives Committee.
“It is a searchable resource navigator with more than 115 organizations that provide free – particularly as an entrepreneur, that word ‘free’ is powerful – sources of counseling, support, education and even events [where] they can connect with not only Fairfax County, but also the towns of Clifton, Herndon, Vienna [and] the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church,” he added.
Meaghan Kiefer, division director for small and local-business development with the Fairfax County Department of Economic Initiatives, began her presentation by showing supervisors a promotional video for CORE at the Economic Initiatives Committee’s March 12 meeting.
An advocacy team has worked closely with Fairfax CORE since December 2022 to shape its brand, find content and help it connect with resource partners, Kiefer said.
That team consists of George Mason University’s Women’s Business Center of Northern Virginia, Financial Empowerment Center at South County, the Vienna Department of Economic Development, Mason Small Business Development Center, Southeast Fairfax Development Corp., Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, Fairfax City Economic Development and the town of Herndon.
To find more information, see the Website at www.fairfaxcore.com.
“We’re looking for that feedback,” Kiefer said. “We are still creating content and we’d like to know what additional information would be helpful.”
“We’ll be doing a lot of tracking,” said Rebecca Moudry, director of the Fairfax County Department of Economic Initiatives. “We have talked about some next steps for search-engine optimization for ongoing Web reviews.”
The vast majority of Fairfax CORE’s events will be free, but some that are more labor-intensive – such as teaching QuickBooks bookkeeping software – charge fees that go directly to the organizations promoting the activities, Kiefer said.
County officials are enthused about launching the new portal, Moudry said.
“One of the challenges that we hear all the time from entrepreneurs and small businesses is, ‘I didn’t know where to start, I didn’t know where to go,’” she said. “We’re really excited about this compendium of new resources. The motto of Fairfax CORE is to help entrepreneurs find the right resources at the right time.”
