Join 97.9 The Hill for an exclusive interview series with the Merchants at Midway – a more detailed look at the eclectic variety of businesses located where Chapel Hill meets Carrboro. First up is EmPOWERment, Inc. owner of the Midway Business Center on the corner of Franklin and Graham Streets.
Andrew Stuckey was joined recently by Delores Bailey, Executive Director of EmPOWERment, Inc., as well as Program Manager LaVett Saddler to talk about BrightPath Solutions. It’s a strategic business planning clinic for minority business owners, which starts on April 27th and EmPOWERment is hosting.
Listen to the full conversation or read the transcript below, which is lightly edited for clarity.
Andrew Stuckey: Let’s start with Delores. Many of our listeners already know your voice, but as the Executive Director of EmPOWERment, let’s start with you telling us about the important work that EmPOWERment does in our community.
Delores Bailey: EmPOWERment was developed in the Northside community in 1996, and since that time we have been growing in the Northside area with our three areas of our mission: community engagement, economic development, and affordable housing. One of the fun things that we’re about to do is on May 20th we will celebrate Miss Lillian Lee. And, as we do that, we will also be ready to break ground on the Peach Apartments, which is a 10-unit apartment building for families earning 30% AMI. We are so excited to be homegrown and to be bringing this type of project to Chapel Hill.
Stuckey: Definitely excited to hear about that. But, before we get to that, I wanted to talk about location. Your office is in the Midway Business Center and that’s the namesake of Midway- where Chapel Hill meets Carrboro. Can you tell us about some of the other businesses located in the Midway Business Center?
Bailey: I’m happy to do that. Midway Business Center was produced by EmPOWERment in 2002. It was designed for minority and women-owned businesses who traditionally have barriers to other downtown locations for their business. Currently, we have a cell phone business in our building, we have two hair salons, we have two building contractors, and of course, the EmPOWERment offices are there. We also have Cynthia’s Tailor Shop that’s located in the Midway Business Center, so it’s been growing since 2002. Lots of businesses that have come through and proven themselves by taking some time to grow in the Midway Business Center.
Stuckey: That leads us to the upcoming training that you’re gearing up for this month, the BrightPath Solutions strategic business planning. This is free training specifically for minority business owners that have been operating for five years or less. Is this only open to Orange County business owners that meet that criteria?
Bailey: It is not it. These are going to be virtual classes, so we have the ability to open them up to make a further reach. We are trying to concentrate on Chapel Hill businesses, but the information that people are going to learn through these seminars is going to be so important for any minority businesses that is zero to five years old. So, we are not capping the location.
Stuckey: I know that there are so many barriers and so many things to learn to running a business, particularly in that first five years, and there are even more challenges for minority business owners. What can folks expect to learn if they go to one of these three sessions?
LaVett Saddler: This is actually two and a half days of intense business learning for those business owners that are just starting up. So even if someone has an idea that they really want to move forward and create a business, they are welcome to attend as well, again, all the way up to five years old.
We’re going to kick off this training on Thursday, April 27th at the Hargraves Community Center right here in Chapel Hill from 5:30 – 8:30pm. We’re going to start with a light reception and then really kick off the training going over basic business startup steps. So that really is the focus of the first training. That is an in-person training. And then the next two Saturdays following, participants can join us virtually.
So, this will not be an in-person training, but virtually where they’ll get a variety of training sessions everywhere- I say anywhere from just an overview of marketing. We will also have a lender that will be joining us. This will be a local bank representative that will talk about their business products and lending criteria and will also cover basic recordkeeping. In addition, we’ll do insurance and funding resources. So. it’s going to be a variety of topics covered to make sure our business owners are ready to move forward and be successful in their business ventures.
Stuckey: This sounds so great. This is potentially life changing and even community changing information that people could be getting. I also noticed that there are micro-grants available for participants that complete the training. What can you tell us about those?
Saddler: After participants complete the training, they do have to be a part of all sessions. They are eligible to apply for the micro-grants that we’re offering at EmPOWERment up to $1,000 dollars. So, we help them put together a business plan and then they can submit their application to be considered for the micro-grant.
Stuckey: We also talked about this being a free program, but there’s also limited space. So folks do need to register, right?
Saddler: That is correct. We are asking all of our potential business owners to register, and they can call us at the office at 919-967-8779 and ask for our staff member Sarita, who will be able to help them register for this training.
Stuckey: We’ve been talking about the BrightPath Solutions strategic business planning for minority business owners, and we’re just about out of time! Is there anything that you wanted to mention that we haven’t gotten to yet?
Bailey: I just want to say that this is going to be an ongoing initiative. So, we will have the first one April 27th for zero to five, and there will be another seminar that will start probably June and July for businesses that are five years and older. And, it will go on at least for the next two years. We are happy to say that we have funding from ARPA and from Truist Foundation and from Duke Energy to have this because it’s such an important need to make sure it continues. And so we want everybody of any age group of their business to please, please check out BrightPath Solutions.
Don’t know Midway yet? Be a lot cooler if you did. Learn more about EmPOWERment, Inc. and all of the Merchants at Midway on The Record Shop page. Meet us at Midway!
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