Women business leaders have traditionally faced somewhat unique challenges when trying to grow their brands, including barriers to accessing capital and other resources. SFA News Daily posed the following question to a trio of female makers running certified women-owned brands.
Q: From which specific supports can women-owned businesses benefit?
Taylor Walker, co-founder, Spritzal Cookie Company, Rockland, Massachusetts
Being a women-owned business has both its challenges and rewards, especially in the CPG food space. We find that our story is compelling and the trending market strategies to support diverse-owned businesses are ramping up more than ever.
That said, there are still a lot of “uphill battles” when it comes to building respect from peers or buyers who sometimes do not take us seriously or feel that we don’t know how to play the game properly. It makes it that much more challenging to command your presence but that much more rewarding when you prove your doubters wrong. We are a proudly certified WBENC (Women's Business Enterprise National Council) business and are grateful to be among other amazing women leaders and founders in the community.
Raina Kumra, founder, Spicewell, Santa Monica, California
I think the most helpful thing is for a women-owned business to get certifications and have trusted partners to certify with who can move fast! There’s nothing worse than a half-filed certification. Getting certifiers to streamline the process for busy, bootstrapped founders would be welcome.
For example, some of the certifications are incredibly onerous and that serves as a really big obstacle. When a woman is running a business, and often a family at the same time, asking for documentation to prove she is a woman who owns a business to the extent that they require documentation can be quite burdensome and really slow down the process, and the progress.
Lin Jiang, founder, Yishi Foods, Chicago
As a certified woman-owned business we have received support in many ways from industry networks and retailers. We present our certification in all retail meetings, which I believe has been a positive factor.
We won a grant from the Emerging Brand Alliance in the Women or Minority Owned Category. Yishi Foods has also been featured by Crisp, Weee!, and a few other lists previously as a woman-owned business. All these features, whether business- or consumer-facing, help grow brand awareness.
Related: Maker Q&A: A Seat at the Table; How to Stop NDAs From Harming Employees: Q&A With Simon