Start a New Business in Virginia

The State Corporation Commission of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the state's central filing office for corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and Uniform Commercial Code liens.

It’s guide to starting a new business provides you with all the information, forms, and fees you need to plan and start your new business.

Office of the Clerk
1st floor
1300 E. Main Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Phone: 804-371-9733

Virginia Secretary of State Business Services website

The Virginia SBA is supported by main district offices in Richmond, Virginia and Washington, DC. They provide services including funding programs, counseling, federal contracting, certifications, and disaster recovery. They can also connect you to partner organizations, lenders, and other community groups that help small businesses succeed.

The Richmond office serves 92 counties in Virginia, excluding Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Falls Church.

The Washington, DC metropolitan office serves the District of Columbia; Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland; and Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties and cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Falls Church in Virginia.

Examples of educational programs and events include The Cyber Summit, Financing Your Small Business, Tax Free Retirement Strategies for Small Business Owners, and How to Manage Your WordPress Website.

Richmond district office:
400 North 8th Street
Suite 1150
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Phone: 804-771-2400

Virginia Small Business Administration SBA Richmond website

Washington, DC district office:
409 3rd Street South West
Floor 2
Washington, DC 20416
Phone: 202-205-8800

Virginia Small Business Administration SBA Washington, DC Metro website

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur or an existing business owner, the Virginia SBDC offers no-cost individualized advising, from startup to established businesses.

Startup business resources:

• Requirements for going into business

• Licensing and regulatory information

• Financial statements and cash-flow management

• Business plan development and implementation

• Target markets

• Advertising and promotion

• Sales and distribution

• Accounting and record keeping

Business growth resources:

• Business planning

• Financing sources and capital formation

• Marketing issues and techniques

• Strategies for growth and expansion

• Government procurement

• Export assistance

• Personnel management

• Market research

• Innovation commercialization

10306 Eaton Place
Suite 180
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Phone: 703-277-7703

Virginia SBDC website

SCORE Virginia provides free counseling and business mentoring services as well as seminars and workshops on a variety of topics relevant to the small business community.

The organization’s volunteers are successful real-world business professionals with experience in areas such as accounting, finance, human resources, consulting, import/export, law, operations, production, retail, wholesale, manufacturing, sales, marketing, management, business plan preparation, strategic planning, and many other business disciplines.

SCORE Virginia provides:

• volunteer mentors who share their expertise across many industries

• free, confidential business mentoring in person, via email or by video

• free business tools, templates, and tips

• inexpensive or free business workshops and webinars

SCORE Blue Ridge serves Western Virginia.

SCORE Central Virginia in Charlottesville serves the cities of Charlottesville and Fredericksburg and the surrounding counties of Albemarle, Culpeper, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Madison, Nelson, Orange, Stafford and Spotsylvania.

SCORE Richmond in Midlothian serves the Greater Richmond area.

SCORE Williamsburg serves the Greater Williamsburg area and recently opened an additional office in Newport News.

Central Virginia main office:
300 Preston Avenue
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902
Phone: 434-295-6712

Richmond location:
P.O. Box 2515
Midlothian, Virginia 23113
Phone: 804-350-3569

SCORE Virginia website

NAWBO Richmond provides a strong voice and vision for women business owners and corporate partners in Central Virginia. Through events such as the Women of Excellence Awards and monthly meetings, NAWBO Richmond’s programs are designed to:

• create business opportunities within the community

• build strategic alliances through partnerships and networking

• educate the public about women-owned businesses

• influence public policy

• promote leadership within the civic and business communities

Membership is open to all women business owners as well as individuals and non-for-profit organizations who work with women and support the NAWBO mission. Membership is also available for students and retirees to encourage involvement throughout your career from start to finish.

NAWBO Richmond
P.O. Box 73201
North Chesterfield, Virginia 23235

National Association of Women Business Owners NAWBO Richmond website

NAWBO Greater DC
PO Box 8173
Reston, Virginia 20195
Phone: 703-646-0224

National Association of Women Business Owners NAWBO Greater DC website

The Women's Business Center (WBC) of Northern Virginia offers free and low-cost workshops, training programs, and free one-on-one technical assistance counseling to women, minorities, and socially disadvantaged clients.

If you are thinking of starting a business or have a business that has been operating less than two years, you can receive free one-on-one business counseling with a WBC expert counselor.

6564 Loisdale Court
Suite 600
Springfield, Virginia 22150
Phone: 703-768-1440

Women’s Business Center of Northern Virginia Community Business Partnership website

The Women's Business Center (WBC) works to educate, inspire, and support women entrepreneurs as they launch and grow influential, profitable businesses.

As part of the Old Dominion University Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE), the mission of the WBC is to enable women's entrepreneurship by providing low to no cost tools for women to successfully own, operate and grow their small business, thereby creating economic opportunities and job growth in the Hampton Roads community.

Women's Business Center
112 Bank Street
Norfolk, Virginia 23510
Phone: 757-683-7150

Women’s Business Center Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship website

The U.S. Small Business Administration helps small businesses get the funding they need. Funding resources include:

• Loans: Start or expand your business with loans guaranteed by the SBA.

• Investment capital: Find an investor for your business. Investors make both debt and equity investments.

• Disaster assistance: Get help after a disaster with low-interest disaster loans.

• Surety bonds: Protect your work and your client with an SBA-guaranteed surety bond.

• Grants: Look for government grants that help businesses do scientific research and development.

U.S. Small Business Administration SBA Funding website

Darden hosts a number of centers and institutes, like Strategy, Ethics, and Entrepreneurship, that address issues in business and society.

Strategy equips students with the framework, concepts, and tools required to think strategically about the total enterprise, including how to create value for customers, analyze industry structure, and identify sources of uniqueness and competitive advantage.

Ethics emphasizes harms and benefits analysis, rights and duties analysis, principles and rules, and moral and institutional leadership.

Entrepreneurship is about developing the entrepreneurial mindset: doing more with less as well as doing more with what you have. Key concepts include idea generation, prototype development, obtaining funding, team building, business planning and risk management.

UVA Darden School of Business
100 Darden Boulevard
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Phone: 434-924-3900

University of Virginia UVA Darden School of Business website

The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's mission is to:

• develop experiential learning opportunities to complement and expand traditional academic offerings

• drive the growth of the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem

• empower students, alumni, and community members as they create new ventures

The SOAR Initiative provides a holistic model for startups and empowers individuals who do not currently have adequate access to entrepreneurship training opportunities. This includes refugees and immigrants, those currently in a low socio-economic status, and those living within rural and emerging communities.

George Mason University School of Business
4400 University Drive
Fairfax , Virginia 22030
Phone: 703-993-1880

George Mason University Costello College of Business and Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship website

The J. Lawrence Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship at Washington and Lee University is an interdisciplinary center intended to help students from across campus learn how to turn their creative ideas into successful business ventures.

The Connolly Center provides students with the necessary tools to develop business plans that are both executable and fundable, and an extremely supportive alumni community gives their time to help shepherd students' ventures from concept to business plan to launch and beyond.

The Connolly Center's affiliated faculty teach a variety of entrepreneurship courses including strategic management, technology and entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and the entrepreneurship capstone. In addition, the Center hosts a variety of events throughout the year. Programs like the Entrepreneurship Summit are open to all students regardless of major.

204 West Washington Street
Lexington Virginia 24450
Phone: 540-458-8400

Washington and Lee University The Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship website

Virginia Business is the only publication dedicated to covering economic activity in every sector and every region of the state.

Virginia Business is the only publication dedicated to covering economic activity in every sector and every region of the state. Since its creation, it has established a reputation as a “must read” for anybody who wants to stay abreast of commercial events in the commonwealth.

The magazine attracts a diverse group of business leaders who predominately hold managerial and financial positions and fill a host of C-suite positions.

P.O. Box 14513
Richmond, Virginia 23221
Phone: 804-225-1366

Virginia Business website

Large or small, every company and organization has a story to tell, and Coastal Virginia CoVaBIZ is the place to tell it. CoVaBIZ tells your stories, share your concerns, address issues that you think are important, and supports the companies and organizations that make the Coastal Virginia region special.

1264 Perimeter Parkway
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23454
Phone: 757-422-8979

CoVa BIZ Magazine website