In March, Valhalla was nominated for the Tampa Chamber of Commerce's Small Business of the Year Award in the Start Up category by the SBDC.

The award is based on four criteria: ethical business practices, business goals and planning, operational management, and innovativeness. Unlike other awards, it's merit based rather than based on the popularity of the business.

We recently discovered that Valhalla is one of five other businesses that will move on to the final phase of the competition, a site visit! The first phase was a series of essays and then a presentation and interview.

Danielle was especially grateful that Melanie was there for the presentation because she has an extreme fear of public speaking and really froze up during the presentation but Melanie saved the day and performed perfectly. Actually, she KILLED IT!

We may need some help with thee final phase from our members but we not exactly sure what the site visit will include but stay tuned. We should find out on August 1st what to expect and then we'll discover who the winner is in September.

We're hoping you are excited to experience the journey with us. You can help by cheering us on and helping us celebrate our victories to have gotten this far.