Rural businesses in need of a helping hand got some financial assistance recently from the federal government.

United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development State Director Janelle Gustafson toured Western Montana last week to bestow several grants to business. Gustafson stopped by Kalispell on Nov. 3 to award Laura Blankenship with a $7,950 grant for her company, Heaven Scent Solutions. The Whitefish-based cleaning products entrepreneur now has a store in Kalispell, and with the help of a new grant, is approaching a distribution deal and planning to hire six new employees.

“She’s got a great story,” Gustafson said. “We really enjoyed speaking with her and this grant is going to help her expand her product into markets she hasn’t been before.”

Blankenship has taken her company from a kitchen startup to a multi-state corporation with products in Chicago and Los Angeles. The new Kalispell location will be a retail storefront for the Heaven Scent product line, while the Whitefish office will remain the headquarters for housekeeping employees that clean homes throughout the Flathead Valley.

She hopes to expand further into Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California, and soon will make a reach for the East Coast.

“It’s always a challenge to make a good idea come to fruition,” Blankenship said. “I’m really proud to be a home-grown company, but getting beyond Montana is going to be a real success.”

Blankenship hopes to use the business as a way to support underprivileged women. If a woman works at Heaven Scent for a year, Blankenship will help them through the process of applying for student loans and grant funding toward a college education. Heaven Scent employs about 13 people, she said, a number that varies based on the season and when second-homeowners are in the area.

Blankenship just wants a chance to help other women with the two key ingredients to her company’s success.

“Teamwork and tenacity,” she said. “I have learned, above all things, that it is a network of people that makes our company who we are.”

Blankenship, who started the company after a three-month stint of homelessness with her daughter after the economic crash, said she enjoys the leadership role and hopes to become a motivational speaker. She’s even writing a book, “How I Made a Million Dollars Cleaning Toilets,” and hopes to bring the cleaning industry back to a respectable service job for women en route to their dream careers.

In the next few months, Blankenship will be reaching out to the Montana Community Development Corporation and Montana West Economic Development to secure more funding for the expansion and new staff.

Heaven Scent Solutions in Kalispell was just one stop along Gustafson’s weeklong road trip through Western Montana. The tour awarded grants to businesses in Hot Springs, Troy, Lolo and Hall.

Heaven Scent received part of the Rural Business Development grant program that totaled $184,000 going to small rural businesses.

“It’s intended to help small and emerging businesses,” Gustafson said. “They indicate that they need some sort of need. This one did.”

Blankenship contacted the Montana Community Development Corporation about her plans for expansion, distribution deal and hopes to hire more staff.

The corporation then applied for the grant at the USDA Rural Business Development program and secured the $7,950.

For more information on Heaven Scent Solutions, call 260-2260 or visit www.yourheavenscent.com.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.