Urban League is Helping take Chattanooga Area Businesses to the 'Next Level'

Three years ago, Darian Paris decided to focus his residential and commercial construction business on building affordable new homes to help meet the growing need for such housing for many low- and moderate-income Chattanoogans.

"I've been funding my projects out of pocket because I felt the need to address this issue, but I was able to build the next home only as I sold the last home I built," he said.

Paris has managed to build new 1,200-square-foot homes priced under $200,000 and the houses typically sell in the current market within two or three days. But like most minority-owned small business owners, Paris didn't get bank loans for his business even though homebuilding is a capital-intensive business that usually doesn't pay off until the house is built and sold.

"The lack of access to capital definitely limited my ability to grow," said Paris, who built three houses amid the pandemic in 2020.

But Paris hopes to more than double his homebuilding activity this year by changing his approach to financing using tools he learned in a programs created by the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga (Chattanooga, TN) to help minority-owned small business owners like Paris.

Known as "NextLevel," the 7-month training program for small business owners helped Paris recognize the need for him to change some of his accounting practices to help him secure bank financing to build more homes and grow his business.

Paris, who was among a half dozen business owners who graduated from the NextLevel program last week, called the training "an overwhelmingly positive career move.

"In just a few months, I have learned so much about developing strategic goals, managing money, leveraging my resources and connecting with others in order to succeed and to support other business owners," he said.

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