Robert “Bobby” Flood loves when opportunity knocks.

And recently, it’s knocked a lot for the co-owner of Creators’ Print House on Oleander Drive, thanks to some local efforts to help minority-owned businesses garner government contracts through tools like vendor certification.

Established in 2016, Creators’ Print House is a screen-printing company specializing in large-format digital printing and embroidery for producing custom apparel, promotional items, signs and banners. Customers include businesses, sports teams, the general public and, increasingly, various government agencies.

“As a business, one way to scale fast is by getting government contracts,” said Flood, a Wilmington native and 1997 Hoggard High School graduate. “So, in 2019, we became a part of a cohort with Genesis Block.”

With the slogan “Conversations to Contracts,” Wilmington-based Genesis Block – the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Girard and Tracey Newkirk – provides business development services that support small business owners, entrepreneurs and early-stage startups.

Some of those services include creating “new models to support diverse-owned businesses in the process of contract access, procurement and capacity building,” according to its website.

“Contracts are huge growth opportunities,” said Flood, who co-owns Creators’ with Daniel Anderson and help from close business associate Yah Battle.

Contract types and sizes vary, said Flood, but all bring the potential for more money and prompt payment.
“Let’s say the county needs 300 embroidered shirts for their employees,” he said, “or another division needs road signage, or maybe someone needs car decals. We now have access to those kinds of opportunities because of our certification.”

By certification, Flood means the Historically Underutilized Business, or HUB, certification, which helps minority and women-owned businesses compete for government contracts. In North Carolina, certification is free and valid for four years.

HUB-certified businesses enjoy benefits such as set-aside contracts, where the government limits competition for certain contracts, and greater exposure to state procurement, where companies are listed in an online registry used by government agencies and others to find businesses for goods and services.

“It’s a lot of paperwork,” said Flood, “but once you get through it, then you’re pretty much good to go. So now you’ve become part of a much larger system to get business.”

Getting that business involves searching the HUB online registry for potential opportunities and receiving email notifications when there’s a possible match between an agency and a company for the purchase of a certain product or service, Flood said.

“Then you can start the bidding process,” he said.

With its extensive entrepreneurial reach, this process is a long way from Creators’ beginnings, said Flood, whose original intent was to start a clothing brand.

“Before Creators’ Print House, my friend and I started a clothing company in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2011,” Flood said.

During this time, the N.C. A&T State University graduate who majored in business administration said he learned “a lot about marketing, branding, designing and finance.”

“Like they say, there’s nothing better than hands-on experience, and I had plenty of that,” said the husband and father of three.

Flood said breaking into the garment industry was an all-in endeavor.

“We actually researched and made the garments,” he said. “Once we made them, we would go out and sell the garments, or we would have people already waiting on us to get them.”

Flood said he even set up a Raleigh storefront to help with distribution.

Sales calls to other cities, including Atlanta, followed until Flood landed back in Wilmington in 2013, where he let go the valves once more to let his clothing brand flow. “We did fashion shows. We did a lot,” he said.

Then, an entrepreneurial epiphany.

“Over the course of time, I’d seen how brands come and go,” he said, “but one thing that doesn’t go is the actual company that’s going to create these types of brand products and garments for these individuals.”

Flood posited that if he could position Creators’ as a one-stop-shop for brands needing a print shop for their products, he could be more profitable.

“I mean, we were making some money, but we weren’t making as much money as we could if we had everybody with their brands coming to us to produce their products,” he said. “At that point, I kind of wanted to pivot and be a print company versus creating a brand.”

Flood hopes this pivot – along with opening up his goods and services to various government agencies across the country and beyond – will help Creators’ continue to scale and find success.

Flood offers some advice to other business owners who are considering courting contracts through government purchasers.

“All it takes is that one time for them to use your product and see that you do good work,” he said, “and the next thing you know, every time you turn around, you got a contract here, a contract there, a contract everywhere.”