Shiver in the River is the coolest winter festival in RVA!  You can clean up, walk/run, or jump in the James River -- or do all three!  You and your family can participate in as much or as little as you want, and you can form teams challenging your family, friends and co-workers. 

 

10:00 a.m. Community Cleanup 
Shiver in the River will start with a cleanup along the banks of the James River and in the RVA communities. Picking up litter and recyclables is at the very heart of Keep Virginia Beautiful.  The cleanup is free, and you can earn incentives by creating a fundraising page.

12:00 Noon 5K Walk/Run
The 5K Walk/Run is a fun event for the whole family that will start and end at Historic Tredegar, and take in the beauty of the James River.  Online registration ends on Thursday, February 22nd, but walk up registration will be available at packet pickup on Friday, February 23rd, and on the day of the event.  When you create a fundraising page, your registration fee counts toward your incentive awards. Short sleeve T-shirts are included in the 5K registration.  Please note, race registration fees are not refundable.

2:00 p.m. The James River Jump
The highlight of Shiver in the River is the James River Jump!  This fundraising Jump will take place along the chilly banks of the James near Historic Tredegar. A minimum of $75 must be raised to participate in the Jump and to receive a commemorative long sleeve T-shirt.  Online registration ends on Thursday, February 22nd, but walk up registration will be available at packet pickup on Friday, February 23rd, and on the day of the event.

11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Winter Festival!
There will be music, beverages, food, and more!  

The VMA is a proud partner of this event, so come join us for the Coolest Winter Festival in Richmond!  

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Trying to do more work with less staff?  Before you cut the next check, ask yourself if you're taking advantage of all the resources at your disposal.

If you are having trouble finding and hiring employees, you're not alone. Today's economy may not be the economic boon that we saw in the late 90s or that of the early 2000s with the housing bubble, but it is humming along. A great deal of businesses are seeing economic growth. What are your options if your business is growing faster than you can hire the right employees? You can leverage resources you already have.

First you need to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Where do you need staff and what are the difficulties and finding and retaining those employees? What is your company mission? Where and how do you intend to grow? One answer may be to offload some of your workload to your suppliers.

  

Vendors can link you to educational resources and can often become extensions of your company. They can offer design services, write specifications or analyze past failures.  Many suppliers offer just-in-time inventory with their warehouse inside of your facility. These suppliers will have employees onsite managing inventory and becoming an extension of your team.

Choosing the right vendor does not need to be as difficult as hiring employees. Some purchasing departments have taken years to form layers of process to reduce cost and increase efficiency. But, as any experienced buyer knows, there's more to a purchase than a transaction. The key is not to wait until you have a project or an immediate demand, it's never too early to call a vendor. As the customer, you have all the power in the interaction.

As a business owner, I began analyzing vendors and what they could bring to the table for my company.

For over 12 years, I sold high performance industrial coatings for the Sherwin Williams Company in the Richmond area. As a sales person, I was trained to make myself an extension of my customer's business's.  Now, as a business owner, I look to my suppliers to offload certain functions of my business and leverage those relationships.

  

One of my company offerings is Safety Marking on floors in Warehouses and Factories. Recently we were given a lead by Sherwin Williams to install epoxy egress striping for a factory and warehouse. In this instance, our supplier become an extension of our sales team. With visits to the site, analyzing the concrete and specifying product, they became extensions of our technical team.

Don't be afraid to ask your vendors for help early in the project planning process. Use your vendors to help you analyze past failures and devise solutions for the future. Leverage their design services and have them write the project specifications. Bring in a second vendor to do the same. You are in control! You can end the conversation at any time, but why would you? Keep your vendors in the conversation. Let them know if the project is two years out, or if your building a budget for a project that might not even get approved. The vendors that stick with you and see you through a project, no matter how far out on the horizon, are true business partners and professionals.

  

Gregg Wiggin,  Operations Manager

Greyson Safety and Compliance