Twelve days after opening its doors, The Nest was already buzzing with activity.<\/p>\n
Some customers browsed handcrafted furniture, artisan foods, locally made gifts and home decor while others lingered in rocking chairs outside. During the monthly Nights at the Nest event, slated for the second Tuesday of each month, neighbors can gather for food, music and conversation, creating exactly the atmosphere organizers hoped to cultivate.<\/p>\n
For Mount Jackson Town Manager Olivia Hilton and Assistant Town Manager Greg Beam that sense of connection is as important as retail sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can meet these artists and these crafters and collectors, and you can have these conversations,\u201d said Beam, sitting inside The Nest. \u201cThat’s building community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community collective<\/p>\n
Located in a renovated storefront at 5986 Main St., The Nest serves as both a retail collective and a business incubator. The concept emerged from lessons learned during the first year of the Mount Jackson Five program, which provided funding and supported aspiring entrepreneurs in Shenandoah County.<\/p>\n
As town staff worked with participants, they realized not every entrepreneur was ready to take on the financial risk of opening a traditional brick-and-mortar business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some folks that are still not quite ready for that, and likely would have benefited from something where maybe they were together, or it was a little bit more of a supportive space,” explained Beam.<\/p>\n
The result was The Nest, a shared space designed to help entrepreneurs test ideas, build a customer base and gain experience before leaping.<\/p>\n
Among the founding Nesters are Joyce Kelley of Two Turtle Doves, Ryan Peters of Home Revival & Decor, Alex Sejas and Abby Dagne of Sunbliss and Michael Cain of Poppy\u2019s Dust. Each entrepreneur received support through the Mount Jackson Five program and now has space to sell products while benefiting from mentoring and collaboration.<\/p>\n
Hilton described the concept as a community collective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real dream is to build that sustainability and to get the name and all the things we needed,\u201d she said. \u201cCollaboration is key. The way that we can collaborate is how we stay sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
To help create that sustainability, Beam and Hilton expanded beyond the founding Nesters.<\/p>\n
The shop also includes products from what they call \u201cFriends of the Nest,\u201d established entrepreneurs in Shenandoah County, including Jon Henry General Store in New Market and Clementine Vintage in Strasburg.<\/p>\n
Name recognition helps draw customers through their own loyal followings and business networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realized part of the thing is we need, when you think about marketing, who are other friends of The Nest that we could include in here,\u201d Beam said. \u201cThey said, \u2018Yeah, we’ll provide you with some product.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Growth<\/p>\n
The approach has already produced encouraging results.<\/p>\n
During its first month, The Nest generated nearly $5,000 in sales, with more than half of that revenue going directly back to the founding Nesters, Hilton said.<\/p>\n
Hilton said the numbers provided reassurance that a business idea can grow without an immediate leap away from steady employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s pretty solid,\u201d she said of the early sales. \u201cIt helps them see, like, \u2018Okay, I don’t have to quit my (day) job yet\u2019, but we can start and keep growing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The model, she added, was intentionally designed to reduce risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes if you jump too fast on your own, independently into a brick and mortar, you drown,\u201d chimed in Beam. \u201cAnd then it kills that spirit of an idea that could have worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Improvements<\/p>\n
The Nest itself nearly remained just an idea shared between Beam and Hilton until they formed a partnership with the property owner, who offered affordable rent.<\/p>\n
“The partnership with the property owner has been a huge win,\u201d explained Hilton. \u201cA lot of people are confused. (They) think we own the space. We rent it. We have a three-year contract, very low, because we brought it back to life.”<\/p>\n
The storefront required extensive renovation before it could open, she said.<\/p>\n
Old walls were removed, outdated lighting stripped away and original hardwood floors were restored. Mount Jackson public works crews helped transform what had become a forgotten space into a bright, welcoming storefront.<\/p>\n
When Beam first showed the building to potential participants, he remembers asking them to imagine what it could become.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a disaster,\u201d he recalled telling them. \u201cBut it needs paint, it needs new lighting, and the floors will be beautiful again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, the building’s history has become part of its appeal and was made possible through a combination of grant funding, in-kind support and cooperation from the building’s owner.<\/p>\n
Former residents regularly stop in to share memories of previous businesses that occupied the space. Some remember buying clothing decades ago, while others recall purchasing hunting supplies when the building operated as a hardware store.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of this community, this coming to life again is retail again,\u201d Beam said. \u201cThis building has good bones, and it’s had a good history, and it’s alive again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Response<\/p>\n
Nights at the Nest have drawn dozens of visitors who shop, listen to music, enjoy snacks and spend time together. Beam and Hilton have watched customers leave, only to return later in the evening after telling friends about the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople come back,\u201d said Hilton with a laugh.<\/p>\n
For Beam, those moments signal something larger than just retail sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more connected and comfortable you feel, and you linger in the space, you’re going to come back,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you’re going to tell someone, \u2018Oh, I went to this thing last night.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Better together<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, town staff envision The Nest becoming a launching pad for future entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
The goal is not to keep businesses there forever. Instead, they hope participants eventually outgrow the space and establish permanent storefronts of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they fly the nest, that’s a dream,\u201d Hilton said.<\/p>\n
That philosophy extends beyond The Nest itself. The town also is launching a new Better Together grant program that will encourage existing businesses to collaborate on events, products and promotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got to be mindful of still supporting our other existing businesses,\u201d Beam said. \u201cYou have to work together with someone and create something new.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Mount Jackson continues investing in entrepreneurship and downtown revitalization, town staff see The Nest as another step toward building a stronger business community.<\/p>\n
Success, they said, won’t be measured solely by sales; rather, it will be measured by whether entrepreneurs gain confidence, whether collaborations form and whether new ideas continue emerging long after the current cohort has moved on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re really, really pushing towards creating an anchor in Mount Jackson,\u201d Hilton said. \u201cIdeally, creating an anchor that ties the whole county together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nest is open Thursday through Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Editor’s note: Changes have been made to this article, specifically to correct the last name of one of the original Nesters and to add a name to the list of original Nesters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twelve days after opening its doors, The Nest was already buzzing with activity. Some customers browsed handcrafted furniture,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,4203,10961,223736,50,223735,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-668199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-local-business","tag-mount-jackson","tag-news","tag-nvdaily","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}