VA Black Business Directory Offers Guide For Holiday Shopping

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — The Virginia Black Business Directory has released a holiday gift guide for shoppers who want to support Black-owned businesses in the state during the holiday season.

The digital guide includes lots of holiday gift ideas that can be purchased online. The guide also has information about special discounts at stores and businesses across Virginia.

The mission of the Virginia Black Business Directory is to bridge the gap in wealth by connecting minority-owned businesses to consumers through community collaboration and the development of networking initiatives that build revenue.

"As a result of the pandemic we were unable to host a Holiday Expo or networking event," Ernisha Hall, co-founder of the Virginia Black Business Directory, said in an email to Patch. "The magazine was the next best option in helping to fulfil our mission and helping Black-owned businesses keep their doors open."

The holiday gift guide features an interview with Renee Ventrice, co-owner of Cork and Keg Tours in Ashburn. The company takes customers on tours of many of the wineries and breweries in Loudoun County.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Ventrice has been hosting virtual wine tastings of Loudoun wines using Zoom. For in-person tours, Cork and Keg Tours has installed a partition in the Mercedes van between the driver and the customers who go on tours of wineries and breweries.

SEE ALSO: Virginia Black Business Directory Expo Coming To Fredericksburg

"You may try my business because I'm Black," Ventrice says in the interview. "But you will come back to my business because I'm the best."

Ventrice also emphasizes that she wants to make sure everyone who might hesitate to support a Black-owned-business "knows that my business is one for everyone."

In January, Ernisha Hall and Tracey Hall, who live in Fredericksburg, launched the Virginia Black Business Directory, an online platform that lists Black-owned businesses in Virginia and the Washington, D.C. area.

Ernisha Hall said that many businesses listed in the directory have reached out to inform them that they have seen an increase in business since signing up with the directory.

They also organized the inaugural Fredericksburg Black Restaurant Week in early September and the Virginia Black Business Directory Expo in Fredericksburg in October.

The Virginia Black Business Directory is already working on its 2021 annual statewide expo, which the founders are planning to hold in September as a two-day event.

For more information about the Holiday Gift Guide, visit the Virginia Black Business Directory website and Facebook page.