Megan Burrows is a daughter, sister, wife, mom, friend, creative, yogi, and plant lover, and within the past year has added entrepreneur to her title. When she decided to switch from a comfortable 9-5 job to the risky world of entrepreneurship, it meant sacrificing a lot of perks. She traded consistent working hours for a non-stop work week, vacations for a never-ending to-do list, and the peace of mind of knowing what she was doing for constant fear of failure. As scared as she was to take the leap, she knew her current job wasn’t igniting her passions or creativity. With the help of family, friends, and community partners, she had the courage to step out on her own, chase her passion, and open Burrow and Vine in Downtown Staunton.
Come the beginning of 2022, Megan had begun making connections with the Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC), where she got involved with their grant program and worked out her business plan. Afterward, the SBDC connected Megan with SCCF’s loan program to set up her financing, “Finances were a really scary thing to me, and I felt like I didn’t know enough to be handling them,” Megan said, “But, the SCCF loan team helped me walk through everything and reassured me that I had the tools I needed to get it done. The whole process felt so ‘me-first’ instead of ‘business-first’ which I really appreciated.” She also credits her mentor, Diane McCarthy, at the SBDC for helping her work through her imposter syndrome and cheering her on.
Megan closed on her loan with SCCF in the spring of 2022. Her loan allowed her to open the doors to her new space, get merchandise up on the shelves, and propel her from her previous day job to a new world of entrepreneurship! “Taking out a loan was scary, but I made sure I had all of my finances in order first, as best I could, and that was incredibly helpful,” Megan said.
Burrow and Vine still has a similar feel to Megan’s original business plan, but is more plant-focused in her Staunton space, “As a plant lover, I realized downtown Staunton has all these great retail shops, but nowhere to buy houseplants! So, that became my niche.” Alongside various house plants, Megan sells plant accessories and tools, home decor, artwork, macrame, and more! She also hosts creative workshops, classes, and yoga sessions (more of her passions) monthly on the second floor of her shop.
Megan celebrated Burrow and Vine’s six-month anniversary in November 2022. As she reflected on the first year of her entrepreneurship journey she said something that made our ears perk up, “In the beginning, failure felt like the feeling I have right now. But right now, I don’t feel like I’m failing. My fears were always about time and money. Living through what I was afraid of, and realizing I didn’t die, has made me realize my fears really weren’t as bad as I made them up to be in my head.”
Inspired by her outlook we asked, what is next for Burrow and Vine? “You know it’s funny you ask that because just today I was asking myself ‘why am I doing any of this?’” She told us, “It’s conversations like these where I start talking about my future plans of opening another space, adding lines of revenue, and finding new ways to build community and I realize that’s why -the constant growth and evolution to fill community gaps in needs and interests.” Megan is becoming a driving force in Staunton for building community and connectivity. She led the initiative for the 2023 Queen's City Women's Day in Staunton, to celebrate and support women-owned businesses, and is starting a monthly morning speaker series to bring artists, makers, creators, and the like together to hear from inspiring creatives and entrepreneurs!
We love to watch entrepreneurs as the wheels in their heads start turning, thinking of new ideas, problems, and solutions. Megan also shared her advice for budding entrepreneurs, “Make sure you create your personal board of directors, the people who you know to turn to when you need financial advice, marketing help, or something else outside of your expertise. It’s rarely your family and friends; it’s not their business and you can’t expect them to be experts at something they’re not. You need people who are willing and able to help because otherwise, it gets lonely.” In other words, it takes a village (or a valley!), something we always try to convey to entrepreneurs; that you can’t and shouldn’t have to do it all on your own.