Aspiring entrepreneurs have a new source of help to launch their venture: the YWCA Lower Cape Fear’s Living the Dream Center for Entrepreneurship. The program will focus on micro-businesses, defined by the YWCA as businesses with no more than five employees and requiring less than $50,000 to start up. The center is also available to help support growth for existin ...

Tiffany Cripps aims to grow the reach of her self-care products and services business with a stand-alone location and additional retail locations.  Health Begins From Within is a one-woman company run by Cripps, who is working out of her Wilmington home. She said she hopes to take advantage of local resources being offered for Health Begins From Within as one ...

Seeing a need for a collaborative space that promotes business growth and community, Michael and Julie Donlon are opening Blue Mind Coworking in Wilmington. The coworking space aims to open March 1 at 301 Government Center Drive, occupying 7,500 square feet of a suite on the second floor of the building. “Once you’ve experienced first-hand the many person ...

The region’s newest coworking space and business accelerator, Genesis Block, is accepting applications for its first small business accelerator cohort. Small, minority and women-owned businesses can apply by Friday for the opportunity to be chosen to participate in the 16-week, Back on the Block Minority Accelerator program. “Our program is designed to dr ...

Wilmington’s Genesis Block is one of eight recipients in the state of an NC BEC ECOSYSTEM grant, with the goal of elevating Black entrepreneurship in North Carolina. Genesis Block, a community collaborative and coworking space that opened in downtown Wilmington this year, received $50,000, said Andrea Cook, director of NC IDEA Foundation, in an email. Recipient ...

Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington has won a grant from NC IDEA to support a new program for local startups and entrepreneurs. NC IDEA announced on Thursday the 17 organizations in the state chosen from 65 applicants that are recipients of the NC IDEA ECOSYSTEM grant. NEW partnered with the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Center for Innovation and ...

Hostess Cakes brought D.J. Oates to North Carolina; fire kept him here, where he founded Optimum Fire & Security six years ago.   Beginning with two employees, he has built the business to more than $5 million in annual revenue and 36 employees working in more than two dozen states on federal, commercial and residential jobs.   The company’s federal ...

Genesis Block will officially open its doors later this month with a jobs and investment strategy to help grow the minority-owned and women-owned business community in the Cape Fear region. The community collaborative is focusing on a three-year goal to help spur companies that will create 400 jobs and add $13 million in investment in the area, said Tracey and Girard Ne ...

Husband-and-wife team Ronald and Karen Pinney have been creating beach-themed decor for about five years.   Despite the COVID-19 pandemic impacts, business for the couple's home decor and furniture operation, 341 Repurposed, has been booming, so much so that they’ve had to add a storefront and new workspace to keep up with the orders coming in.   Bo ...

No matter how big your home is, the coronavirus pandemic could be making it feel smaller after six months of working, learning and mainly just staying at home.   Inspired by his work with Wilmington’s Cargo District and its use of containers, Bryan Kristof has been working on a new company that offers a potential solution: backyard flex spaces made of shipping ...