The 2025 edition of the award-winning “Black in Business” series features folks who scoop sweet treats, cook fiery wings, cut with care, heal with ink and build magical worlds that fit on your shelf.
Marcus Webb remembers feeling his bedroom floor rumble when his dad started his white Porsche 911 Carrera on Saturday mornings.
Webb and his brother, Bryan, would run to the garage hoping to catch a glimpse of their dad pulling the sports car out of the driveway. Watching his dad, an entrepreneur, behind the wheel and driving down his neighborhood road in Bearden inspired Webb to become an entrepreneur himself.
In 2018, Webb and his brother started Goldenseal, a cleaning company that found its footing tidying high school stadiums after football games. This experience led to Goldenseal earning a cleaning contract in 2025 for Covenant Health Park, arguably the hottest ticket in town.
It might seem like his seven-year business arc was just meant to be. But as Knox News has learned in highlighting entrepreneurs across the city for our award-winning Black in Business project, success often stems from a combination of hard work, dedication, the pursuit of excellence and relationships forged with community partners.
Understanding the Black business landscape in Knoxville
Small businesses like Goldenseal make Knoxville shine, providing necessary services to residents while offering a sense of community pride. In many ways, they’re indispensable.
“Every business should exist because it’s providing something people need,” said Dr. Avice Reid, who served as interim president and CEO of the Knoxville Area Urban League before new president and CEO Laurie Shanderson Evans took office July 7.
“Whether it’s going to a restaurant and eating, whether it’s getting your clothes dry cleaned, buying clothes, getting new shoes, that business exists because somebody needs to buy the product.”
For Webb, that need is cleaning fields and stadiums, but the possibilities are endless and unique: DIY terrariums, Philly-style water ice and paramedical tattooing, just to name a few businesses featured in the latest iteration of Black in Business.
But to fully understand the landscape of Black-owned businesses in Knoxville, you should start with the population.
“The percentage of Black folks in Knoxville compared to a lot of other cities, it’s much less,” Reid said. “So, just percentage wise, I would not expect the same number of Black businesses in Knoxville that you would have in Memphis, or you would have in Nashville or even Chattanooga because the people aren’t here.”
Some Black-owned businesses in Knoxville “are very successful and can go anywhere and compete with anyone,” Reid said, while others are mom-and-pop businesses that are small, family-run operations.
“I would love for more resources to be allocated so that those businesses can expand and grow and not be dependent on immediate family members to deliver the services,” Reid said.
Marcus Webb: Entrepreneurship makes ordinary people ‘extraordinary’
You have to work hard in the Webb family. It’s an unspoken rule.
“My dad was the go-getter, the risk-taker, but my mom was the support, the foundation,” Webb told Knox News.
His dad dabbled in several business ventures while Webb was growing up, and his mom worked at Y-12 for 43 years. Their ambition afforded Webb and his siblings insight into a lifestyle most kids don’t often get to experience, he said. Few get to watch their dad drive a white Porsche with black rims.
The entrepreneurial spirit bubbled beneath the surface for Webb. When he dropped out of college, partly to raise his firstborn son, entrepreneurship was on the back burner as he focused on providing for his family while working in sales.
But Bryan, who was working for a cleaning company after a stint with the post office, knew Webb’s sales experience could help them get their own cleaning contracts. Their combined experience made for the perfect business model, they thought, but a year passed without work.
It was at West High School where their niche concept clicked. Webb was tossing a football with his kids on the field one Sunday when he noticed the stadium was still dirty from the Friday night game. He could almost hear the rumblings of his dad’s Porsche.
“The world of entrepreneurship allows the normal person to be extraordinary,” Webb said, and this was his shot to be like his dad.
“The bottom line is everyone who starts a business, that is a niche that needs to be done,” Reid said. “It needs to be filled.”
Knoxville Area Urban League has array of services for Black businesses
The number of Black-owned businesses in Knoxville has changed through the years. There was a time when many more existed in the city, Reid said, but urban removal between 1959 and 1974 swallowed them up, along with Black homes and churches.
Entire Black neighborhoods, such as the Bottom, were destroyed.
“Basically, every service that you needed, there was an entrepreneur providing it in your neighborhood. And that just all went away, and it’s still not built up to that level,” Reid said.
Building back the Black business community takes capital, for starters, said Felix Harris, chief operations officer at the Knoxville Area Urban League. Access to funding is key for folks who want to start a business, but lending disparities persist today.
Thirty-two percent of Black entrepreneurs were fully approved for small business financing, according to data from the Federal Reserve’s 2023 Small Business Credit Survey, compared to 56% of white entrepreneurs.
The Urban League’s small business loan program provides financing for startups in the area, and it’s one of the many ways the organization supports Black business owners in Knoxville.
There’s also CO.STARTERS, a weekend-long bootcamp for entrepreneurs who are exploring what it would look like to start a business or who are preparing to launch a new product. It’s held roughly once a quarter, Reid said, and around a third of roughly 160 participants so far have gone on to start a business.
The organization’s NextLevel program has allowed entrepreneurs to take things – well, to the next level − and focuses on growing established businesses by providing coaching and tools to hone marketing strategies and financial plans. However, NextLevel is now on pause as the Urban League seeks a new funder for the program.
Additionally, the Urban League hosted its first Small Business Legal Clinic in partnership in June.
How to support a Black-owned business in Knoxville: ‘Go visit them’
Since getting the idea for Goldenseal’s stadium market, Webb’s company has secured contracts to clean football stadiums at schools like Austin-East Magnet High School, Knoxville Catholic High School, Grace Christian Academy and Hardin Valley Academy, among others.
After adding a minor league stadium to his resume in 2025, Webb is hopeful that one day Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans, could be added to the portfolio.
“Being a janitor was not on the radar for me at all,” Webb said, but what you’re good at and what you’re passionate about aren’t always the same thing.
Webb is good at running a cleaning company. He’s passionate about being a role model for his three kids and helping foster entrepreneurial spirits in others.
With Goldenseal, Webb is fortunate to have space to pursue both.
“For some people, they have this great idea, and we need to make it work, for all of our benefits,” Reid said. “Not just for theirs, but for us.”
So, when you consider who you want to shop with or hire next, there’s a good chance there’s a Black-owned business that offers the service you’re looking for.
Reid’s call to action is for Knoxvillians to do just that: “Go visit them,” she said. “Help them grow.”
To learn more about the Knoxville Area Urban League and how its services could help you start a business, visit theKAUL.org.
Hayden Dunbar is the storyteller reporter. Email hayden.dunbar@knoxnews.com.
Joanna Hayesis the restaurant and retail reporter. Email joanna.hayes@knoxnews.com.
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