World Wide Water
Nick Nicholas, Owner and Technical Director of Genesis Water Technologies, Inc. (GWT) started working at his father’s company as a sales associate in 2005. After obtaining his MBA, he was promoted to Technical Sales Manager. In that position he led a global technical sales team that designed and engineered customized water and wastewater treatment solutions for industrial, commercial, and municipal clients across the world. Today, Mr. Nicholas has taken over the helm of the company as Technical Director.
The company started with the idea of exporting as key business strategy, but with limited resources export growth was slow. The company initially relied on existing relationships to start exporting. GWT started selling internationally in Saudi Arabia in 2009, but lacked the financial and operational capacity to expand further on its own. The company faced challenges related to exporting such as planning; logistics (managing the right paperwork and other regulatory requirements for certain companies); and qualifying local market distributors/partners.
GWT started working with the Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (an SBA resource partner) to build a robust exporting plan. GWT received a State Expansion Program (STEP) grant through Enterprise Florida and the SBA, which paved the way for rapid expansion. The company launched a digital marketing campaign to include translating its website into 24 dialects and invested in search engine optimization tools to increase traffic to its website. GWT continues to work with the SBDC and other agencies including Enterprise Florida, U.S. Commercial Service and Export-Import Bank to fuel its continued growth.
GWT has experienced consistent growth over the last few years. The company has doubled the number of employees since 2016 through its operations abroad and has experienced an increase in 100% in sales over the course of 3-years. GWT now has exported to 43 countries. The company continues to offer additional product lines such as their recently developed Genclean disinfection product line, as GWT has pivoted in this COVID-19 pandemic era to respond to growing client needs.
Mr. Nicholas was thankful that Genesis Water Technologies was awarded the 2020 National SBA Small Business Exporter of the Year designation after winning the same award at the district, state, and regional levels.
Contact:
Nick Nicholas, Owner/Technical Director
Genesis Water Technologies
55 Winderley Place, Suite 300
Maitland, FL 32751