Epic Entrepreneurs
Welcome to Epic Entrepreneurs! What does it take to build a real and thriving business in today’s world? As entrepreneurs and business owners, we went into business to have more freedom of time and money. Yet, the path of growing a business isn’t always filled with sunshine and rainbows. In this chart-topping show, host Bill Gilliland; author of the best-selling book “The Coach Approach” leverages his decades of experience coaching proven entrepreneurs to make more money, grow the right teams, and find the freedom of EPIC Entrepreneurship.
Epic Entrepreneurs
Financing Growth For Small Businesses with Roberta McCullough
Growth isn’t luck; it’s a set of choices made on clear numbers, the right people, and the right capital. Cliff sits down with Roberta McCullough, COO of Institute Capital, to unpack how a Community Development Financial Institution helps founders in Western North Carolina and beyond move from hustle to healthy scale. Roberta breaks down what CDFIs actually do, why pairing money with technical assistance changes outcomes, and how grants can complement loans when communities are recovering, including businesses impacted by Hurricane Helene in Asheville.
We get practical about finances. Roberta explains why looking at your books once a year is too late, how a simple quarterly spreadsheet can reveal true profit, and when “good debt” makes sense for equipment, a second location, or inventory that drives measurable returns. The conversation dives into team building: hiring for cultural fit as much as skill, finding people who thrive in your operating style, and using delegation to make the business stronger than any single person. You’ll hear candid insights on boundaries, rest, and the calendar habits that keep leaders sharp.
If you’re aiming to double revenue, this conversation shows how to map the path: validate demand, model margins, align capital to productive assets, and tap free support many owners overlook. With a downtown Asheville office and bilingual outreach, Institute Capital is building access for entrepreneurs across WNC while pursuing additional grant funding to speed recovery. Listen for actionable steps, local resources, and a mindset shift that turns growth into a plan you can execute.
If this conversation helps you think differently about finance, hiring, or scale, follow the show, share it with a founder who needs it, and leave a quick review so others can discover it.
Guest info:
Phone: (919) 956-8889, X3320
Email: rmccullough@TheInstituteNC.org
Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/
All the best!
Bill
Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/
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Bill
All right. Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I'm Cliff McCray, filling in for Bill Gillilan with your local business training and coaching firm, Action Coach Business Growth Partners. I'm excited to have Roberta. Is that McCullough? McCullough. McCullough. Okay. Just want to make sure I say that. All right. McCullough with Institute NC on as the focus for our Epic Entrepreneurs podcast today. So, Roberta, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and what primary products or services you offer the community.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Thank you so much, Cliff, for having me. I'm very excited and waiting on this moment. So my name again is Roberta McCullough, and I work for an organization called the National Institute of Minority and Economic Development. Institute Capital, which is what we'll focus on this morning, is the lending affiliate of that organization. As for me personally, I was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. Still have a lot of friends there and associates. So I'm very excited to be able to share just more of what I'm doing. Some people know, some don't. So in terms of Institute Capital or ICAP, as we call ourselves, we are what's called a community development financial institution or CDFI for short. There's a lot of acronyms, nonprofit world. We are a nonprofit organization, and our focus is lending and providing some grants to uh small businesses, you know, across our particular footprint, which we'll just focus on, obviously, Western North Carolina this morning. But we actually lend in five states. So, and we also lend to uh affordable housing developers uh to help them get started with new projects. So have a lot to offer in in the space that we are gonna be talking about this morning, which is you know, economic uh recovery, you know, economic development, community development is what uh I want to focus on this morning. So that's a a tidbit of what we're gonna talk about.
SPEAKER_00:Perfect, perfect. I love that. That's a great intro. All right. So if you had to start your bit, you know, from square one in your business, what would you do differently?
SPEAKER_01:So for someone that's starting a business, um, I mean, it's it's businesses start different ways. Some of them start literally as a hobby and they realize, hey, this is this is gaining traction, this is what I love, this is my passion, and they translate that to uh a revenue-generated opportunity. Others may buy a business that's already existing. But no matter where your uh entree point is, you want to make sure that uh you understand what uh the mechanics of it, the financial mechanics of it, not just focusing on the revenue. But yes, you want to know how much you're gonna make, but you also want to know how much it's gonna cost you to make that money. So it's really great to put things on paper and not just keep everything in your head. As a lender, we find that uh a lot of times some businesses that have been in business for some time or a short time, they keep everything in their head and they don't do their financials to get a visual of where they are. You have to look at your financials more than once a year, not just in tax time, but you really need to do it at least quarterly. Uh for putting the a simple spreadsheet, putting down what you've earned and what you've spent. Because how will you know if you're making a profit if you're not visually looking at you maybe making$100,000 a month, but if you're spending$150,000 a month, then you're losing money. So that's what we see a lot is that you have to really track your your income and your expenses. And it doesn't have to be an elaborate process, but you definitely need to do that.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, okay, yeah, love it, love it. So, what have your biggest learnings been as an owner and employer since you started your business?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I don't own it. Uh no one owns a nonprofit, right? But we uh but certainly I run it as the as a chief operating officer. But you know, even in that field, you have to have an ownership because I do run it as a business. So, in terms of uh employees, if you have them, um, is getting the right people in position. Sometimes we uh with small businesses, we kind of go to people that we know, you know, maybe hiring friends and family. That's not always the best idea, unless they have the skill set that you need. You know, so you want to make sure that you really uh screen those employees for the skill sets that you're looking for. Some things you can teach, but some things people need to walk in in the door with that particular skill to help your business grow. And one thing that business owners don't ever uh think that you have to know it all. I certainly don't, even though I have the role of a CEO, I have people on my team that can do things better than me. You know, because that's what you want, fill those gaps of things that either you need help with or that you're not the strongest in. So that way uh your team, you have everything covered instead of having everybody that can do one thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And then you can also delegate, right? Because you don't want to take care of it.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yes, delegation is the key. It is absolutely the key. That's another, and thank you for bringing that up, Cliff. That's another point that as business owners, you don't have to do everything. As a matter of fact, it's best that you don't do everything. Because number one, if you're doing everything, you can't be sick. You can never have a day off, you can never have downtime, but you have to kind of delegate some, you know, you have to start small because some companies may only have a couple of employees, and that's fine, but you can always get a contracted person just to cover something for a shorter period of time and not necessarily put them on payroll, but you can still get the job done.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, yeah, love it, love it. So, what are some common misconceptions about running a business and how do you address them?
SPEAKER_01:Um, common misconceptions is that uh even though your business hours may be nine to five, as a business owner, you are always on. And, you know, I know some may say, well, she's an employee. How would she know? Well, I happen to be married to a business owner. So so I live, breathe, and work it every single moment of my life. So and and he's never off. It's always, you're always thinking about the next thing and doing the next thing. So you're never off. So uh the real uh the reality, uh set your hours, you know, whatever your operational hours are, but know that there's gonna be some times where you know you're working around the clock. You know, you get some sleep, get rest, rejuvenate. But you know, that's a misconception that people think, oh, when I close my doors at five, then I I can go to the park or whatever. Maybe you can, but sometimes there's some work to do after that. And and I'm sure I'm I'm preaching to the part those that are listening. Everyone's probably shaking their head, like, right, right. Because it's uh, but you know, you have to give yourself some grace and not try to do it all at once.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and take vacations, right? You gotta take some take vacations.
SPEAKER_01:It is absolutely okay.
SPEAKER_00:Turn everything off there, too. Well, try your best to turn everything off on those vacations. No, that's harder said than done.
SPEAKER_01:It's tricky. I know just as a sidebar, uh, when we do go on vacation, I'm like, okay, I've given you the first day and a half to wind down and make your calls and do whatever because it's hard to turn that faucet off. But you got to have a couple of days where you just unplug.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, love it, love it. So, what do you attribute your growth to so far?
SPEAKER_01:Um, I attribute it to going back to the uh employees having the right uh team, having as uh as it's been said, having the right folks on the bus, uh and in the right seats on the bus. Uh, and sometimes it takes time. I mean, we uh our organization has been around for 26 years. We actually acquired it through a merger uh in 2020, right in right at the very tip of the pandemic. Um, and so I had to build my team from scratch, and it's taking from that point to now to get the right team members. And so we now we have a solid team of 10 people on the team that we cover five states. And so because I have the right people, we can do that.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, okay, great, great. And I know you kind of we just kind of actually just covered this a little bit, but uh, how do you properly balance your personal life with the demands of running a business?
SPEAKER_01:That that's a great question. You you have to really have a cutoff point. I've I've known, I know a lot of entrepreneurs, uh, because I'm clearly in that space from a lending and from a personal life. Um, and I have learned from them in that you have to literally block time off on your calendar and have a, and it's really good to have a cutoff at the end of the day, saying, you know, after eight o'clock or after nine o'clock, I'm not gonna do anything else because you have to to to wind down. And, you know, some people have spouses or children or caring for parents or whatever the case may be. So it's really about balancing and and it's okay if uh you don't get everything done that day because there's tomorrow. Not that that sounds like it and it's not procrastinating, it's just being realistic, saying, what can I get done today? And just refresh that list every day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. Yeah, and we talked about a little bit about this earlier, but let's dive into it a little bit more. You know, what qualities do you look for in employees and how how do you foster a positive and productive work environment?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I've been fortunate, Clip, to I've been a management for some decades. And I well, I've learned along the way, at first, I was always looking for just skill, skill, skill, and not really paying attention to personality and a cultural fit. I mean, like a work culture. So I I've learned over the years to to pay more attention to make sure that uh with the current team that I have, that is this person a cultural fit, a work cultural fit for the organization, knowing what we do, because sometimes people have excellent skills, but they might not really like to honestly be around people. I mean, I've seen that. Well, they'd rather be in the office with the door shut and just work, work, work. Well, that's not a cultural fit for how we operate. It may work in other places, but it doesn't work for us. So it's really a matter and a matter of just understanding their working styles. So I pay a lot of attention to that. Uh, and and that has proven to be um the best approach, at least for our organization. Because even though it's a nonprofit organization, we we wear a lot of hats. And so you have to be, you know, there's some flexibility that has to be part of that person's uh culture. You know, if they just like, no, that's not my job, then this is not the job for you because sometimes we have to pivot and do things that may not be part of that description.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, no, I I agree with you on that. Like I had a prior, prior position, prior prior job I was at actually, where um there were people that I was actually managing, and some of them I had big problems with. They would come into the office, and as soon as they come into the office, they close the door and stay in there door closed all day. And I'm very much a people person. Like, I like to have people come into my office. Let's sit down, let's chat. What are things that are going well in the company? What are things that aren't going well? I, you know, I want to have these discussions. When you have people that come into the office, they just want to be just shut off. That's not a good fit for me.
SPEAKER_01:It's not a great fit at all.
SPEAKER_00:No, no.
SPEAKER_01:And it's actually kind of it affects morale, you know, because it, you know, the team may be like, well, what's going on? You know, why is this person you know not engaging? I mean, we all have jobs to do, but um, but it has to be a camaraderie among your team and among your employees where there's a problem.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with that. All right, so let's go ahead. Yeah, that's all the questions. So let's go to the quick fire round. So I'm just going to bring the energy real quick. I'm gonna give you a couple of quick little words, and you just tell me the first thing that comes to mind when I tell you this about the business. Uh so education.
SPEAKER_01:Necessary.
SPEAKER_00:Necessary, okay, all right.
SPEAKER_01:Planning. Paramount. Planning is key. Inspiration. Useful. Useful in the future. You have to be inspired or you or you're stuck.
SPEAKER_00:And commitment.
SPEAKER_01:Number one requirement above all. If you commit it, everything else will come.
SPEAKER_00:Beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, I love that. All right. So, yeah, that's a quick fire around. So, what words of advice would you offer other business owners or other people in topic, you know, I know you're not necessarily a business owner, but people in the top positions who are looking to grow further.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I would say it and if someone uh to be clear, if someone's in owning a business and they want to what expand, is that what you're asking?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, they're looking to grow their business even more. So you know, let's say they're looking to double the revenue in the next three years or whatever the case may be.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, okay, excellent. So I would say, I mean, obviously, I'll put my lender hat on for a moment, and I would say that consider the fact that if your growth requires additional capital, um, talk to a lender, it doesn't have to be us, but talk to a lender and see if that uh is what you need to grow your business. People think that debt is not a good thing. Well, there's good debt and there's bad debt. And if you have a plan for that, uh for that uh debt that you're acquiring and as to how it's gonna make money for you, then that's a very good thing. Because sometimes businesses think, okay, I'm gonna take money from what I have to do this next thing. And that can work some in some cases, but sometimes it requires an infusion of capital uh to grow. So I would say just determine if that growth, uh if you need capital to make that to make that happen, if you need equipment to make it happen, or whatever your if it's a product or service, just what it is that you need to get to that next level. It may be a second location. Well, that more than likely will require some capital. Um, so I would say that. And I'll add something in the end too. But go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. All right, perfect, perfect. Yeah, now this is uh highlight portion. So anything you want to uh you want to say to anybody listening?
SPEAKER_01:Um I would say uh as a business owner, whether you're in business for a long time or fairly new, is please look into the resources that are available uh in your community. I mean, it there's a lot of free resources uh for you that um if you're looking to grow or start your business through uh through organizations like ours, through CDFIs that we offer technical assistance, through small business centers, through uh uh small business um technology and development centers that are on university campus, small business centers are on community college campuses. But there are all these kinds of organizations that can provide technical assistance at no cost to a business, doesn't matter where you are on the stage. So look into those resources, and the probably the best place to start to get a full list of that is with the Secretary of State office for the state of North Carolina. They are incredible. We have a very close relationship with Secretary Marshall and her team. They they provide so many resources, uh, and they have a list of everybody that I'm talking about, so you can know kind of where to go. But uh, I would say utilize what's uh available to you because your tax dollars have already paid for it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's for sure. All right, and then yeah, find it. What's what's the next big thing for uh the NC, the Institute NC?
SPEAKER_01:Uh well for for uh for ICAP, the next big thing that we oh, and I should say, and don't let me leave this out, Cliff, that we actually are located in downtown Asheville at 46 South Market Street. We have an office right in the heart of downtown, right across from the foundry, diagonally across from YMI Cultural Center. So stop by and see us. Uh, Aaron Soto is my team member, that man's at office. He is a great guy, and he is more than willing to help any business in any level. Um, we are hoping to deepen our relationship in Asheville uh to help with the recovery from Hurricane Helene. Uh, the city has grant funding that they are looking for sub-recipients like us. Uh, so we're gonna apply. So yeah, wishes well, because if if we're approved as a sub-recipient, then we'll be uh providing additional grants to small businesses. So you all stay tuned and make sure you you uh come and check us out.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, no. And and shouts out to Aaron Soto. He's yeah, I actually met him at the Asheville Business Summit. Uh he's actually the one who got me in touch with Roberta here today, and he's he's awesome. Um he's a great guy. Yeah, he's a great guy. If you go and stop by, you know, there on Market Street, you'll have a good time with him. He's a great guy. He's really, really easy to talk to.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so when you talk about right seat, right bus, he's the guy. And just for the record, for those I don't know who all the listening audience is, but uh Aaron is uh bilingual in English and Spanish, so he can help a broad uh selection of people.
SPEAKER_00:Very nice, very nice to throw out there. All right, perfect. And lastly, what's the best way for someone to find and get in touch with you? You kind of already put uh physically out there, but uh any other ways to get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, um, you can reach out to me. My email is a little bit long, but I'll give it to you anyway. It's um r McCullough, and I'll spell it out for our listening audience. It's R M C C U L L O U G H at theinstitutenc.org. That's rmcullag at theinstitutenc.org. My number is 919-423-1025.
SPEAKER_00:Perfect. And any social media.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we are on uh LinkedIn and we're on Facebook. If you just look up Institute Capital, we'll pop right up and feel free to give us a call. And I I should give uh everyone Aaron's number. I told Aaron I still don't have his number memorized, it's terrible. I know me better at that. Uh, but his number is 828-329-5446.
SPEAKER_00:Perfect, perfect. And what was that address again on Market Street?
SPEAKER_01:It's 46 South Market Street, and that's right in downtown Asheville, Camp Method.
SPEAKER_00:Perfect, fantastic. Yeah, thank you so much for being a part of the community and for all you're doing. We certainly wish you continued success.
SPEAKER_01:Uh thank you so much, Cliff. I appreciate it and have me back anytime. Uh I love this. This is this is amazing. I love it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this is great. This is great. Yeah, well, appreciate you coming on. I'll go ahead and end it up. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Cliff. Have a great day.