Earlier this year, nail technician Britney Robinson decided
to strike out on her own and do things her way.
For instance, many nail salons don’t permit clients to bring
their children. It’s a situation she has sympathy with as a “mom-preneur,” as
she puts it, with children ages 4 and 1.
“I know how difficult it is for women to have self-care days
when there’s no child care available to them,” she says.
On Sept. 6, Robinson celebrated the opening of her own nail
salon, Nails by Binq, on East Midlothian Boulevard in Youngstown, by holding
what she called a “business shower” for the business, which opened in February.
“It’s like a bridal shower or anything else,” she says. ”You
help start that journey off.”
Among the “gifts” Robinson received as she prepared for the
birth of her business was a $1,000 grant she won a year ago from the Youngstown
Business Incubator’s WE Grow program.
WE Grow, targeted to women who have been in business three
to five years, is the newest of three programs that now operate under YBI’s
Women in Entrepreneurship initiative.
YBI launched Women in Entrepreneurship in 2015. Since then,
more than 200 female entrepreneurs who provide products and services have
participated.
...
TaRee Avery, owner of
Dough House Cookies, benefited from the connections she made through
participating in WE Create and We Launch in 2017. Primarily selling through
farmers markets, Gilchrist and Heidi Daniel, then the executive director of the
Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County and part of the Women in
Entrepreneurship program steering committee, suggested she operate the food
counter at the Canfield Branch Library.
After two years,
Avery chose not to renew her lease at the library and is preparing to open a
small storefront operation at the commercial kitchen she now leases from
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. Through Women in Entrepreneurship,
Avery learned about a small-business loan program that provided financing for
her expansion.
For Avery, who came from higher education, which is “really
structured,” the hardest part of launching her business was navigating a
completely new industry, she says – issues such as understanding what documents
to keep, managing finances and operating separate business and personal
accounts. “I spent a lot of time in Stephanie Gilchrist’s office and with the
YBI team,” she says.
To read the full story from the Business Journal, click here.
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