Our February Women of Color Feature Series continues with inspiration and motivation from some of our Black women entrepreneurs as they share what drove them to start their own businesses. Join us throughout February and the entire year for encouraging and enlightening guidance from our Women of Color WBEs and leaders.
Here are some of the many WOC WBE business leaders sharing their origin stories.
April Roy, FemPAQ Inc.
I started femPAQ after a girls trip to L.A. where my bestie unfortunately got her period unexpectedly. We couldn’t find a quick convenient solution to help her to feel comfortable on her travels back to NY. After much research and understanding why there wasn’t a solution for an unexpected problem like your period, we became more than a product but a movement to create period equity and to end period stigma.
Stephanie Swain, Swain Consulting, LLC
To help companies reduce their taxes while they hire those less fortunate. We want to allow them to put the savings back into the company via continuous training for staff or prepare for exit strategies.
LaTosha Ward, BID – Business & Individual Development
I started my business because I wanted to see more African Americans and Women in the field of Strategy and Technology.
Jiljuana Coleman, Jamerson Strategic Consulting, LLC
I have a physical disability that’s not as obvious as some disabilities. I struggled to try to be my best self while constantly feeling incapable of measuring up to able-bodied colleagues. Fast-forward to my childhood dream of entrepreneurship. I started my company for two reasons. The first was to create a fostering environment for me to showcase my skills without labels. Second, to provide opportunities for my community to gain access to wealth and a new perspective of what’s possible.
Jessica Johnson-Cope, Johnson Security Bureau, Inc.
I inherited my business. I represent the third generation of my family to help keep NYC safe.
Diane Winston, Winston Strategic Partners, LLC
Out of necessity: My position as Director of Communications for the Information Technology Division for AXA Equitable was eliminated in a corporate downsizing after 9/11. The best thing that could have happened to me. After 20 years with Citibank and 18 months with AXA, I finally landed the opportunity of a lifetime: to do the things I am wired to do for a whole bunch of different clients in different industries: learn their business and solve the challenges their people face moving through the transitions required to change. Love it!
Do the inspirational forces driving these amazing WOC resonate with you? Share this post on social and add what encouraged you to start your business! We can’t wait to hear more motivational reasons to begin an entrepreneurship journey and become WBENC-Certified from our WBENC WOC Network and all of our WBEs.
About the WBENC Women of Color Program
The Women of Color Program
is an outreach and development program designed to build and strengthen a dynamic ecosystem for women of color entrepreneurs. WBENC launched the Women of Color Program in 2017 to create an effective and successful business ecosystem designed to engage, advise and drive the growth of women of color women-owned businesses. Since then, hundreds of women entrepreneurs have attended in-person and virtual sessions at WBENC events, designed to address the challenges faced by many women of color business owners and provide resources and programming to address those challenges.
