The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to women small business owners and entrepreneurs across the U.S. Reports show that 64% of women-led bu
The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to women small business owners and entrepreneurs across the U.S. Reports show that 64% of women-led businesses declared their business operations as strongly affected, with more than 90% of women entrepreneurs reporting a decrease in sales during the pandemic.
Now, more than ever, more women business owners are looking for reliable COVID-19 funding to help their businesses survive and rise up from the storm. Because of the She Boss Up Relief Fund, there’s hope for women in business to get the funding they need to thrive and win. The She Boss Up Relief Fund was created to help women entrepreneurs whose businesses have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many of them have been struggling over the last six months to keep operations running and manage costs, leading to layoffs and close-downs while also trying to adapt to the unprecedented shutdowns and market disruption. We love to see women win, and that’s why we decided to build a fund to help keep their businesses going, empower and elevate them to dream bigger and live bigger and make their world a better place.
Our Grant Awardees Announcement is Here
She Boss Talk is proud to announce the award of grants to 12 extraordinary businesswomen out of the 300 applications we received. Since October is National Women’s Small Business Month, there’s no better way to stand together and mark this celebration by lending a hand to women who have been struggling due to the pandemic.
Join us as we celebrate these 12 women as we look forward to raising more money and building a fund to help 1000 women business owners get relief. These are women with inspirational stories that deserve the grant awards to keep pushing their dreams.
$500 Grant Award Winners
Congratulations Lauren Wells – $500 Grant Winner
Founder of LCFitnessity, LLC, New York
Lauren Wells, aka LC, is a Holistic Health & Fitness coach. She helps women adopt holistic & realistic lifestyle habits to get fit, lose belly fat and eat more plant-based foods. She is great at simplifying the complexity in today’s health & fitness world. By doing that, Lauren helps women feel mentally, physically, and spiritually confident. She focuses on their gut health as the source of overall well-being.
How the She Boss Up Relief Fund Will Help Her
When the gyms closed, her business took a standstill for a few weeks. When she found out this was going to go longer than anticipated, she did her best to move clients online. Some of her clients lost their jobs, and some just didn’t continue to move forward with training virtually. She applied for unemployment to sustain herself. Lauren Wells aims to create an online platform to offer Nutrition and fitness support with membership perks, recipes, fitness classes, workshops and more.
Learn more about her business at LCFitsYou and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Congratulations Rhea Hood – $500 Grant Winner
Founder of WNW Strategies Inc, Lumberton, New Jersey
Rhea Hood is an IT and project management professional with over ten years of experience working in the private and public sectors. She runs WNW Strategies Inc., a nonprofit in the State of New Jersey that is a recognized 501(c)(3). The mission of WNW Strategies Inc. is to provide temporary and long-term support for disadvantaged youth and elderly in the suburban New Jersey region who find themselves homeless, regardless of the reason or circumstances, by providing access to a holistic array of services.
How the She Boss Up Relief Fund Will Help Her
Like many other nonprofits during the COVID pandemic, she has had to redefine her
model of business, refocus on her mission, and find innovative methods to engage and serve her constituents. The grant award will continue to motivate her to serve as a mentor, both at DCMA and with her volunteer efforts while boosting her nonprofit to continue impacting young people’s lives by providing access to a holistic array of services that promote health, independence and self-sufficiency.
Learn more about Rhea Hood and her nonprofit at WNW Strategies and follow her on Instagram.
$100 Grant Award Winners
Congratulations Felicia Wright – $100 Grant Winner
Founder of Mygani LLC, Jacksonville, FL
Felicia Wright is a proud mum and the Mompreneur and Branding Strategist of Mygani LLC, a social creative enterprise that creates inspirational platforms and products for women + girls of color. As a woman of color, she knows first-hand the challenges they face in their personal and professional journeys. Her goal is to instill the value of self-confidence in girls + women of color, regardless of their hair texture or skin complexion. In the midst of Covid, Felicia Wright decided to pivot and re-launch Mompreneur Marketplace™, a virtual platform that allows moms to share their stories about motherhood, business, and how their current situation is affecting them.
How the She Boss Up Relief Fund Will Help Her
The Mompreneur Marketplace™ recently partnered with River City Live, a local Jacksonville TV Show viewed daily by over 10,000 people. The grant will help her achieve her goal of being intentional about featuring positive stories of black mom-owned businesses across different platforms.
Learn more about Felicia Wright and her business at Mygani LLC and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Congratulations Shatara Weaver – $100 Grant Winner
Founder of GodMama Wear LLC, Chesterfield, VA
Shatara Weaver began making tutus as handmade Christmas gifts for her twin goddaughters. Her goddaughters love playing dress-up and using their imaginations.
She now designs tutus and other special items that reflect her clients’ personal styles and imaginations. These are items that can be cherished, enjoyed, and worn at any time. They can be used as special occasion wear, playwear or business wear. Whether a client needs promotional products, embroidered garments, or monogrammed gifts, GodMama is the answer!
In early 2020, her business expanded its offerings to provide other branded promotional products. These products included branded koozies, birthday cards, hand sanitizers, folders, and more. However, when COVID-19 hit her clients’ businesses, GodMama Wear saw a significant drop in sales to business owners. As a result, the business needed to pivot to remain afloat. All while still supporting its GodMama Cares – Embroidery for Good program, which launched in 2019.
The program provides cash donations and in-kind contributions to women-led nonprofits supporting women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
How the She Boss Up Relief Fund Will Help Her
GodMama Wear donated 8.5% of their sales to assist nonprofits with branded swag and monetary donations. 2020 brought them quite a challenge in being able to continue to support their program because their sales took a significant hit. The grant will help them continue to build their business, which will, in turn, help them reach more customers that will assist them in contributing to the GodMama Cares – Embroidery for Good program.
Learn more about her business at GodMamaWear and connect on Facebook and Instagram.
Congratulations Natasha Williams – $100 Grant Winner
Founder of Cornelius Group, Queens, NY
Natasha Williams is a God-fearing wife, mom, youth educator/speaker, real estate broker & author. She is a licensed real estate broker serving Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau county. Her passion is to empower young adults (high school seniors and college students) to use real estate. She teaches them to use real estate to become homeowners, investors, and entrepreneurs. In addition to finding innovative ways to find sources of income to fund their endeavors.
2020 has been a challenging year for her business – specifically a decrease in clientele, which means a decline in revenue. Recent changes like Governor’s Cuomo Executive Order for the real estate industry to cease and desist from ANY lead generation activities (i.e. cold calling, etc.) from March through Oct 4, 2020, have greatly impacted her business and outreach program focused on helping young adults.
How the She Boss Up Grant Will Empower Her Business
It would allow her to reach out to more colleges/universities to teach the youth how to become self-sufficient from an early age and open their mindset in understanding how they can use real estate as a tool to create generational wealth, contribute to small businesses in their communities with tax dollars and buying power, in addition, to improve the domestic economy on a macro level.
Being a grant recipient will allow her to pivot and
- Develop new marketing strategies
- Work with additional nonprofit agencies administering grants to potential homebuyers
- While paying it forward through teaching/hiring high school students in the NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP)
Learn more about her business at Cornelius Group and connect on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Congratulations Charlette Adams – $100 Grant Winner
Founder of Repairer of Broken Walls Inc, Hillside, New Jersey
Charlette Adams is the founder of Repairer of Broken Walls Inc., a certified 501c3 organization whose mission is to work through program partners and urban youth predominantly age 16-24 to focus on neighborhood aesthetic, visual quality, clean up and beautification to revitalize communities one house at a time. Repairer of Broken Walls Inc currently partners with local Job Corps as an internship provider to their students. Because of Covid-19, the federal program is closed. The business can no longer use them as a resource for students in their landscaping program because they have no students on campus due to mandated state and federal executive orders.
To pivot and innovate during this time, the business seeks resources in the general/open marketplace, so they are hiring outside of the school program to open the opportunities to others in the community who really need to work.
How the She Boss Up Grant Will Empower Her Business
Charlette Adams is applying for this grant with hopes to create more job opportunities and sustain the business. The business currently has a commercial size lawnmower. However, they need more to be able to train more youth at the same time. Also, so that they can be more efficient in their lawn care. They hope to buy a sit-down mower to cut and maintain more lawn care acreage in less time. The Grant will help her and her business to provide more employment to youth during this destabilizing pandemic.
Learn more about her business at Repairer of Broken Walls and follow her on Facebook.
Congratulations Pamela Hill – $100 Grant Winner
Founder of I CARE / U CARE, LLC, Mayfield Heights, OH
Pamela is the founder of I CARE / U CARE, LLC. A mentoring and leadership program enriching self-esteem, self-awareness and mental health literacy with a focus on creative artistry to develop positive thoughts and skills that will enable a confident self-image. She is certified in Mental Health First Aid and a Support Group Facilitator trained through NAMI – National Alliance on Mental Illness.
How the She Boss Up Grant Will Empower Her Business
She had not been able to travel for mentoring sessions, meetings, or host workshops. Therefore she needs an active website to interact and reach people in need. The grant will help towards the cost of setting a website for interaction and also help with transportation to meet with the community. It will also help provide materials to mail out for self-care projects and help with the company’s overall sustainability.
Learn more about her business at I Care / U Care, LLC and follow her on Facebook.
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