Who are our Black and Brown Businesses?
This page is dedicated to the places, spaces, and faces that we've been honored to meet along our journey! Please check out their stories and learn more about how you can support their work in our community!
Take One Imaging
Before starting TakeOne Imaging, Carlton Melton worked as an audio engineer.
His work included collaborating with names that music fans would easily recognize.
When he returned to his hometown in Staunton, VA, Melton opened up a music studio.
As more musicians started creating home studios, he switched his business model.
Melton shut down Studio C and focused more on creating visual content for musicians.
“Bottom line I thought to myself, ‘I can go from audio to video because the technology is similar,’” Melton said. “I always loved photography, so I started shooting anything and everything.”
Check out his website at https://TakeOneImaging.com
Island Wheels
Eric Vasson has been a chef in five-star restaurants, as well as a chef for the New York Jets and New York Giants.
As much success as he's had in the kitchen, however, he believes he's only the second best cook in his family.
The No. 1 spot went to his grandmother in St. Lucia.
During the pandemic, Vasson found himself stuck in middle-of-nowhere Virginia. He was visiting friends when he was closed out of New Jersey. Watching the movie Chef with that group of friends, the idea for a food truck emerged.
Literally days later, Island Wheels was birthed.
Vasson has cooked all his life - literally since following his grandmother around the kitchen in St. Lucia - but the food truck is his first entrepreneurial endeavor.
Sanaa Designs
As a professionally trained pastry chef, Sarah Jones always viewed her culinary masterpieces as works of art.
During the pandemic, however, Jones began to focus on a different type of art.
The owner of Sanaa Design in downtown Staunton, her amazing artwork speaks for itself.
Jones realized that mise en place – the French culinary term for gathering all the right ingredients – could serve as a philosophy for art as well.
The results are stunning.
Here are some ways that as a community we can support Sarah.
Follow her Facebook page, Sanaa Design
Sign up for the newsletter on her https://sanaa-design.com website.
DJ L3D
I’ve gone from watching Tony Davenport haul around go-go cassette tapes to hauling around DJ equipment as DJ L3D
Tony is a great example of entrepreneurship.
He’s taking one of his great passions, music, and turned it into an LLC.
When we the whole world was forced to shelter in place for a year, Tony took the time to perfect a new craft.
He studied.
And he practiced.
And he’s really good at dee-jaying.
If you have a big event that needs music to set the perfect mood, please consider him. Another way to support is by simply sharing this post so that people looking for a dee-jay know about Tony’s business.
And as good as he is on the turntables, he’s even a better person.
Honey's Sweet Face and Body LLC
It started as a way to bond. It turned into a business.
At first, making a skin care scrub was Nadia Ware’s way of spending time with her niece.
As people kept encouraging her, however, Nadia eventually turned her unique talent into a business, Honey's Sweet Face and Body LLC.
While she continues to work in the corporate world, Nadia realized that to accomplish her goals it would take multiple streams of income.
After purchasing property in a community where her family has deep roots, she’s also exploring property management.
Brisket Taco Co.
Justin McBride took a leap of faith and opened a Black-owned brick-and-mortar restaurant in our community, Brisket Taco Co. I hope our whole community supports him, and this community proves to be a place where minority-owned businesses can thrive alongside every other business together.
The Upside Down
Hey friends, I love this community, and I want to see my friends in this community thrive.
My friend Robert Carter is an military veteran trying to bring a Black-owned eatery into downtown Staunton.
He's so close, but financially he just needs a little help crossing the finish line. You can read his story below.
Simone & Tuesday
Simone is a local entrepreneur. You can check out her website here.
Varlina Jackson went from helping mom to hairstylist.
The owner of V Braids in Terry Court, Jackson never envisioned braiding be more than a side hustle.
And before it was a side hustle, it was a hobby.
Before it was a hobby, it was a chore.
“My mom started doing our hair when she was little,” Jackson said. “Then she got tired of it. She said, ‘It’s three of y’all girls. Y’all should be able to do each other’s hair. She kind of just showed us what to do, and from there me and my sisters we took it on. My sisters know how to braid, but they want to braid like I do. I was like, ‘Sure, I can do it.’”
Jackson grew up in Chicago until she was 7-years-old.
She started taking braiding more in Virginia.
“Coming from Illinois, it was a little rough for us,” Jackson said. “I noticed that I started doing hair around 12-years-old. That’s when I really got into it. I started doing my own hair. I started doing my friend’s hair, like ‘Can you put two braids in my hair? Can you do this to my hair?’ My mom had me doing her hair, my sisters and stuff like that. I just picked up on it.”
Even with the amount of hair she was braiding, Jackson never saw it as a career path.
She had another vocation in mind.
“Straight up side hustle,” Jackson said. “I didn’t know if it was something I wanted to do. I was invested, but just not as invested. I really like it, and I wanted to learn more. I was kind of up and down. I didn’t know really what I wanted to do with myself. It’s crazy, because yesterday I was like, ‘I can’t believe I braid hair. This is crazy!’ Because I didn’t think this is something I wanted to do. I wanted to become a dentist.”
Eventually, someone convince Jackson to invest in her braiding side hustle.
That led to her enrolling in Staunton School of Cosmetology.
“After going to school, I realized I wanted to cater more to my clients,” Jackson said. “They’re mostly just coming to me for braids, and I had already built up a clientele being here. Just my side hustle alone, I’m like, ‘Hey, people are consistent. They must like what I’m doing.’”
Word is getting out.
“I just kept showing up,” Jackson said. “I feel like the school did help, with people just coming through and asking questions. I got myself on Google. Facebook helped. Instagram helped. Plus, I know some people around here. There was a time when I didn’t have business cards, and people would still contact me.”
VBraids
C&E Automotive
His father’s side hustle became his profession.
Charles Johnson, Jr. grew up watching his dad tinker with automobiles. It wasn’t long before he was helping his dad. By the time the younger Johnson was 16-years-old – and ready for his own first vehicle – it became a father-son project.
“When I was little, my dad used to work on cars for our family and friends,” Johnson said. “He’d do brakes and tune-ups, and stuff like that. He’d do his own motor and transmission job, and I always watched him. When I got my first car – it was an ’82 Mustang he got me – me and him put the transmission. That’s when I started getting a passion for it.”
For whatever reason, Johnson’s dad never did open his own shop.
Johnson, however, decided to go the entrepreneurial route, opening up C & E Automotive in November of 2001. The business focuses on paint and bodywork, custom detailing and repair work.
In 23 years of business, Johnson has learned the entrepreneurship comes with risk.
“Being a risk-taker means you have to take risks and not be afraid of the outcome,” Johnson said. “My family had some land out in Stuarts Draft. We were out there, and I was detailing cars with my uncle, and he was like, ‘Man, you need to get a shop.’”
A business, however, is more daunting than a side hustle.
“I was scared,” Johnson said, thinking back, “because my father did.”
Eventually, Johnson did take the plunge, starting his business on North Augusta Street.
In business for over two decades, Johnson has overcome his share of challenges, including a life-altering event in 2015. A difficult event eventually help him rediscover his faith. Years later, Johnson is studying for ministry and even has a vehicle he uses to feed community members experiencing homelessness.
Johnson also wants his faith to inform his business. He aims to do everything with integrity.
“The main thing I could encourage in business is just to keep your integrity right,” Johnson said. “You just have to have that passion and integrity to look people in the eye and tell them I can do the job, or I can’t do the job. Don’t just jump on anything you could do to get money in the door.”