Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 14, 1993                   TAG: 9305140172
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CARD MAKER WINS SMALL-BUSINESS HONOR

Heartfelt, which employs 36 workers, is a 5-year-old maker of greeting cards and pictures. The company has developed a line of framed pictures for Hallmark Cards Inc. to sell at its more than 6,000 retail stores.

Its growth is the result of planning and management, said Gary Agee, an accountant who nominated Metts for the recognition.

Metts was cited at a Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Holiday Inn-Central. He was chosen from a field of nine operators of small businesses nominated for the annual award.

Other awards included:

Bruce Wood, president of the Management Association of Western Virginia, the only nominee for the region's Small Business Advocate of the Year.

Stanley Hale, president of the Southwest Virginia Community Development Fund, who was recognized as Virginia Small Business Advocate of the Year by Allan Fabritz, a Small Business Administration business development specialist. Hale's organization has a revolving loan fund that has made more than $700,000 in loans to small and minority companies and has helped with $2.7 million of loans through banks, resulting in 167 new jobs in two years.

The Roanoke chapter of Service Corps of Retired Executives, cited for being fourth in competition of the 388 chapters nationally. The 24-member chapter, headed by Robert E. Carter, was recognized for the number of its clients and seminars, as well as the quality of its client feedback system and chapter organization.

At the ceremony, Vinton Del. Richard Cranwell said if Virginia does not spend more on advertising "to sell ourselves, other states will get ahead of us. But we can do anything better than they can."

And it's vitally important that small businesses "provide your expertise and your insistence on participation in funding of state programs," he said.

State travel advertising funds were concentrated on Eastern Virginia sites until the General Assembly applied "gentle persuasion for equity in advertising," Cranwell said. As a result of increased advertising of Western Virginia attractions, tourism has increased, he said.

Cranwell also said Western Virginia businesses have the opportunity, as do those in Tidewater, to convert defense-related industry to commercial operations.