Wings of Growth seeks to help new entrepreneurs

Founded in January by entrepreneur Kiley Doll, the nonprofit’s mission is to raise funds and offer mentorships to entrepreneurs starting their own small and medium sized businesses. Doll, who refers to herself as a “serial entrepreneur,” said she has a passion for helping people overcome obstacles to scale and grow their businesses to become financially independent.

A mentorship offers tools, training and programs to help develop and empower entrepreneurs. Previous clients include cleaning, landscaping, bookkeeping and e-commerce businesses and services.

Dolls said Wings of Growth will help other nonprofits and entrepreneurs, especially those she says are stuck in minimum wage jobs.

“I call it the minimum wage nightmare,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of adults that are at minimum wage jobs. Minimum wage jobs are actually created for our high school students, our college students, you cannot raise a family on minimum wage.”

Another population she focuses on are those who are reentering society after spending time in prison or drug-treatment centers. Doll said minimum wage jobs are unsuitable to help them provide for themselves or their families and may end up returning to their previous lives.

She said she believes Wings of Growth can help people become more productive and, in turn, reduce recidivism. She currently works with organizations, including Urban League and VA Cares, which work to help former inmates find employment opportunities once they reenter society. It also works with local economic development organizations such as Culpeper Competes and Be A Culpeper Local.

Doll set a goal for the rest of the year to have 25 clients go through the Wings of Growth system, to show how it can help communities grow and become more productive.

The organization has established a board. Among its members is Reta Smith, who attended the ribbon-cutting to help celebrate the nonprofit. She has 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, management and training across various industries.

Smith said joining the board “… was a great fit. I’ve been through the growing pains and I want to help some folks and hopefully help the community and show our businesses support.”

Amy Frazier, President and CEO of the Culpeper County Chamber of Commerce, said, “Kiley has been working in our community with entrepreneurs and with the chamber in many different ways throughout the years and we’re very excited for her to be launching this nonprofit organization. Her aim is to support small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs and we know there is a demand for that. We’re just excited to see all the good she’s doing and all the businesses that are going to come out of her nonprofit organization.”

Many local officials wished Wings of Growth good luck in their endeavors.

“It’s always nice to have a new business come to town and the two young ladies that opened this business are going to do really well. Both of them are well known in the area,” said Culpeper Mayor Frank Reaves Jr.

Culpeper Town Council member John Russell, who had worked with Doll in the past, complimented her on the launch of Wings of Growth and on identifying a population that could benefit from her skills. He said the organization’s methods can help people who may not have the collateral to start a business right away.

“I think that’s an aspect, the overall arching thing is to help people that can’t get the funding. It’s hard to start a business unless you’ve got some kind of capital or something you can use as leverage to get money.”

Culpeper County Board Member David Lee added, ”I’m really excited for this new business for our citizens of Culpeper, giving a helping hand to folks who need it in the area of entrepreneurship. It’s a fantastic opportunity for so many people and (I) can’t wait to see all of the great successes that Wings of Growth can bring to Culpeper.”

The organization is currently looking for volunteers to help with their efforts, for more information, go to wingsofgrowth.org.