Lowe’s support of Small Business Saturday is even more special during a year when the home improvement retailer sought innovative ways to help small businesses. First, Lowe’s Small Business Grant Program created $55 million in grants. Then, Lowe’s launched its first virtual pitch program, Making It… with Lowe’s, to identify diverse products from diverse small business owners.
You could say supporting small businesses is in our DNA. After all, Lowe’s first opened as a rural small business nearly a century ago. Lowe’s partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in summer 2020 came as small businesses, the backbone of our communities, faced unprecedented challenges amid a global pandemic – challenges that have historically affected diverse small businesses disproportionately.
Throughout this trying time, Pros have helped keep us safe in our homes by through both maintenance and repair – and by helping us transform our homes into offices, classrooms and playgrounds.
To celebrate Small Business Saturday and all the small businesses who have found a way to keep their doors open and their staff employed, we proudly introduce two Pros, each who received a $20,000 grant from Lowe’s Small Business Grant Program. Congratulations, Derik and Rohan! And congratulations to the more than 2,000 recipients of Lowe’s Small Business Grant Program.
Derik Harris, owner of Second Look Construction
Charlotte, North Carolina
Derik Harris, 50, bought his first home at 26. While he worked as a manager at UPS, home improvement was his passion, and he taught himself the trade through books. He got so good, friends began to ask for his help. Then one day, he was laid off, and his hobby turned into a career. In 2002, he founded Second Look Construction in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he says his life has never been the same—for the better.
Harris steadily grew the small business and now employs two full-time workers and six subcontractors. He’s worked hard to take care of family, friends and community, giving back his time and expertise. When the pandemic hit, his business came to a halt. His wife, a salon owner, couldn’t work either. “It was very scary,” said Harris. “As an entrepreneur, you go into solution mode and try to figure out what is the next step.” That next step came when an associate at Lowe’s told him about Lowe’s Small Business Grant Program. Harris applied and received a $20,000 grant.
That grant was a lifeline, Harris said, and he would have had a hard time retaining employees without it. “The money was incredibly important, not just to the business, but to the families of those I employ,” he said. Harris said they seemed to turn a corner and things are steadily getting better, but he is extremely grateful the help arrived when it did. “Thank you for looking out for small business,” Harris told Lowe’s. “What you’ve done for small businesses, it means a lot.”
Rohan Freeman, owner of 7 Summits Construction
Hartford, Connecticut
Rohan Freeman is a successful small business entrepreneur and an avid mountaineer who has scaled some of the world’s largest mountains spread across all seven continents, so he’s used to taking on big challenges. But when COVID-19 came along, the pandemic nearly pushed his business off a cliff.
Born in Jamaica, Freeman’s mother immigrated to the United States when he was a boy. Freeman was good in school and became a track star at the University of Connecticut where he earned a civil engineering degree. He started his own small business, 7 Summits Construction, where he specializes in helping nonprofits that serve local communities. “I saw a lot of parallels between owning a small business and climbing,” Freeman said. “You have to be really ambitious.”
He’s grown his business to six employees and nearly 20 clients. When the pandemic hit, Freeman remembers long sleepless nights worrying about how to keep his doors open and his employees on staff. Most of all, he worried for their families. “We were turning over every stone,” he said.
Freeman was able to secure a $20,000 grant that kept their business afloat long enough to bridge through the toughest months. “You could hear a collective sigh of relief among everyone in the business,” he said. “From my employees and me, we can’t thank Lowe’s enough for everything. You are not just helping a company, but a community.”
To date, Lowe’s and LISC have awarded grants to more than 2,000 small businesses. Additional grant recipients include:
- Kessler Baking Studio is a bakery in a 1920s bungalow just outside of downtown Dallas, Texas. Owned by “The Bow Tie Baker,” Clyde Greenhouse has been satisfying the community’s sweet tooth for over six years. He used the grant to pay his team members and was thankful to not have to lay anyone off.
- Harmony Harvest Farm, a family-owned, 20-acre specialty cut flower farm, grows flowers for florists, weddings and various events, in addition to delivering to floral enthusiasts across the United States. The farm used its grant to purchase seed and payroll expenses.
- Andarrio Johnson is a chef whose catering business declined quickly when the pandemic hit, as clients began to cancel wedding and corporate events. To make ends meet, he began working as a personal chef and applied for a grant to help sustain his business.
