Backroad Purpose

backroadpurpose.com
Year Founded: 2017
No. of Employees: 2
Top local officials: Caleb and Emilie Nelson, owners

Entrepreneurs are often on the move, and Caleb Nelson is no different. Well, maybe just a little.

In 2017, Nelson and his wife, Emilie, took to the open road to spend more time together and explore the country, so they turned their mid-size SUV into a live-in camper and embarked on nearly a year of adventure.

Backroad Purpose was born while on the move, which included a stop in Tennessee to see relatives where Caleb Nelson converted a 35-foot-long school bus into a tiny home. A Wilmington-based business, Backroad converts old school buses into RVs, with the end products affectionately known as “skoolies.”

Unlike most commercial RVs and campers, skoolies are fully customizable, and Nelson said he goes out of his way to ensure he meets his customers’ preferences and needs. Generally, school bus owners show Nelson pictures of what they want, or they work with Emilie on design, and Nelson said he makes it happen.

Initially lacking many of the skills needed to turn a bus into a home, Nelson learned them on his own or studied YouTube videos. Small jobs soon became bigger jobs, and before long, Backroad Purpose was backed up with orders.

With buses still rolling in for conversion, Nelson said recent growth comes down to the numbers.

“Our first bus we converted for ourselves in our parents’ driveway,” he said. “Fast forward years later and we are in a 3,000-square-foot shop with over 15 buses completed and about eight more to come within the next few months.”

Whereas most commercial RVs with similar features as those that Nelson installs in his skoolies can sometimes cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Nelson often charges significantly less, he said, partly because he is careful with the materials he uses, and his overhead is low. He works on Backroad’s vehicles in a facility on Princess Street in Wilmington’s Soda Pop District.

Nelson said the next steps in his business include “figuring out processes and scaling.”

But while he’s doing that, he’ll also be tricking out a purple, 1958 London double-decker bus into a Harry Potter-inspired Airbnb that will eventually find a home in Kodak, Tennessee – just one of Nelson’s more recent “custom rigs.”

The Port City, he said, has everything he needs to fuel Backroad.

“Wilmington’s manufacturing and maker environment has this up-and-coming artsy, edgy vibe with a feel that everyone wants to build each other up,” he said. “Wilmington has been such a blessing to us. The small-town business community has been exactly what we have been looking for.”