E.G. Woode.
We provide a sustainable platform where entrepreneurs leverage the capital and assets of our institution to rebuild commercial corridors within their neighborhood.
Support Our Initiative.
E.G. Woode is a flexible real estate platform of business development that enhances businesses and communities by using a collective approach to stimulate growth, extend opportunity, and provide technical assistance. This approach has two primary objectives:
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- Providing the resources to identify, acquire, and redevelop commercial real estate for the use of small businesses.
- Enabling small businesses to access support services that would normally not be readily available to them on their own.
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A key aspect of this approach is the concept of collectivism. By bringing individual entrepreneurs and compatible members of a community together in a way that allows them to act with the purpose and power of a single, large organization, we are enabling them to gain access to resources that are normally inaccessible to them independently.
For example, an entrepreneur in an underserved community, due to a lack of credit or other qualifications, may not have the ability to raise enough capital to acquire and reconstruct the property that they need to set up his or her business. A collective approach allows such an entrepreneur to collaborate with other similarly situated entrepreneurs to create a single, larger business entity that could obtain a loan that meets all of their needs, and/or acquire a building they could all share in a way that would be far more cost-efficient than each entrepreneur attempting to obtain a space independently.
It is also important to emphasize the collective nature of E.G. Woode’s structure. Each member entrepreneur/small business has a controlling interest in E.G. Woode. Fifty-one percent of E.G. Woode is owned by its member/owners. Forty-nine percent is available for outside investors and collaborators. What this means is that should an individual member’s business fail, that member will still own a part of E.G. Woode. Their ownership interest, while it carries no economic value, enables E.G. Woode to assist the entrepreneur in resetting their business activities and reignite their entrepreneurial spirit. Essentially, the success of the individual is the success of the group, and vice-versa.
That is why E.G. Woode also facilitates access to business support services for its members. This includes:
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- Classes on small business best practices.
- Mentorships with experienced experts from relevant industries.
- Centralized accounting, inventory management and banking.
- Financing and fundraising assistance.
- Design and marketing services.
These services and operations of E.G. Woode are managed and provided by a dedicated team of manager and staff.
