When Patricia Waters talks about Chill Cereal Bar, she talks about grit.
The Asheville entrepreneur says the idea for her business came from her son, Elijah Cox, when he was just 13 years old. One day, he asked to pull out all the cereal at home and suggested they open a cereal bar. For Waters, the moment sparked more than a business concept; it launched an entrepreneurial journey rooted in family, faith, imagination and determination.
She took that idea seriously, enrolling in classes at Mountain BizWorks to learn how to write a business plan and begin building the foundation for a company unlike anything else in the region.
Then came the setbacks.
After celebrating a major milestone — a ribbon cutting with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce — Waters says the business was hit by COVID-19 just two days later. More recently, Hurricane Helene delivered another devastating blow to Western North Carolina’s small business community, especially the microbusinesses that often struggle to qualify for grants and recovery funding.
For a microbusiness like hers, the recovery has been especially difficult. Many grants and relief opportunities are geared toward larger businesses, leaving owners like Waters searching for a path forward. But even in the hardest moments, she has refused to quit.
“I don’t have that give-up spirit,” Waters said. “If we don’t believe in us, nobody’s going to believe in us.”
That resilience is what brought her to NCGrowth’s Western North Carolina contracting cohort, where she is exploring new pathways to stability through marketing support, business coaching and guidance on procurement opportunities. For Waters, access to contracts could mean more than revenue — it could help bring her long-term dream of a Chill Cereal Bar truck to life and create jobs in her community.
Her message to supporters is simple: don’t give up on Western North Carolina’s smallest businesses.
For Waters, recovery is not just about reopening. It is about being seen, supported and given a fair chance to grow. And if determination counts for anything, Chill Cereal Bar’s story is still just beginning.
