Small business owners share success stories from partnering with Genesis Block

Two local organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in American Rescue Plan Funds from the City of Wilmington, which left some with the question of how the money would be used.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Two local organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in American Rescue Plan Funds from the City of Wilmington, which left some with the question of how the money would be used.

Genesis Block is receiving $100,000 of the ARPA funds to create more opportunities for small businesses. The business development company helps local small businesses and entrepreneurs bring ideas to life and expand existing businesses.

“We’re definitely humbled that they come to us because we take on this responsibility of growing their business, building this ecosystem for them so they can definitely have people that are in the same mindset to bounce off of them and build this entrepreneurial hub and grow it in the Wilmington area,” Community Manager Arhema Tilman said.

The organization will use the funds to hire an educational coordinator to perform administrative tasks, help under-served entrepreneurs, and expand their training courses to an online platform. These courses helped people like Brenda Dixon take her business to the next level. A 30-year veteran real estate agent that started Get That Deed, LLC to help long-time renters become homeowners in 18 months or less.

“Genesis Block has helped my business tremendously by giving me the structure behind my passion,” Dixon said. “They gave me the structure that I needed, some of the blueprints that I had missing in my business, and because of the training that I got from Genesis Block, I was able to help twice as many families in 2021 as I did in 2020.”

Now, Dixon is starting her second business that will help entrepreneurs find funding from non-traditional sources. Her passion, similar to the goal of Genesis Block, is to help people succeed and achieve new milestones.

Founder and Co-Owner of Creators Print House Robert Flood says his business has more than doubled in size since working with Genesis Block.

“We had ideas and we had stuff that we wanted to do. We always talked about it, but coming here it helped us exercise our plan and kind of put it down on paper,” Flood said.

Starting in 2015, he and his business partner started with a 1,000 square foot building with no air conditioning to print their products. Eventually upgrading to 1,400 square feet, but after joining Genesis Block they took the leap to 3,500 square feet and are looking to hire more employees.

“It’s a little scary, but we know in order to grow we need to feel a little bit uncomfortable because we figured we had the components to actually grow our company out with that move from here into there and into the future.”