Showing posts with label Top Women Entrepreneurs Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Women Entrepreneurs Interview. Show all posts

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By Jennifer Ann | Strong Female Leaders
5 Latina Business Owners and Leading Female Entrepreneurs
The business world is overwhelmingly dominated by men. That's why it's important for us to teach our daughters that women can do it, too. What better way to make this point than telling the stories of leading female entrepreneurs, particularly Latina business owners. Latinas are strong, smart, and more than capable of creating a successful business. Here are just a few of the brilliant women that we should all know. 

1. Lora Arellano
Some of us use social media to share the salad we had for lunch. Others of us, like Lora Arellano, use social media to find a job. As a simple retail employee, Arellano was interested in makeup and beauty. She showcased her interest and talent with the help of social media. Soon, she became one of the Top 10 Makeup Artists to follow on Instagram. This helped her catch the eye of the beautiful Rhianna. 
While working as Rhianna's personal makeup artist, Arellano and her friend cofounded the popular makeup brand Melt Cosmetics in 2012. It was a brand created to show people the newest products, techniques, and styles in cosmetology. Great for people who look for makeup to express themselves. 
This Latina stays busy. Being in the beauty industry, every moment, including her wedding, connects to her work. Staying as busy as she is, it is certain that her net worth will only continue to grow. 

2. Maria Contreras-Sweet
Maria Contreras-Sweet was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Her success directly demonstrates exactly how important immigrants are to our nation's economy. 
Rather than simply starting a Latina business, she started a business to help encourage other Latina businesses. Contreras-Sweet founded ProAmerica Bank in 2006. This bank was specifically designed to help businesses. In particular, it was created to help small, Latino businesses by giving them the advice and loans necessary. 
After she sold the bank, she got into the energy business. Not only successful but mindful of the environment, she ran a company specifically known for finding clean sources of renewable energy. This is her ultimate claim to fame. 
She continues to undergo other business ventures as well as dabbling in politics. She almost bought the Weinstein Company to help ensure that no other woman go through the same struggles that Salma Hayek did. She also teaches us to pay respect to our mothers. Basically, she's a woman who can do it all, and she does it while being proud of her Mexican heritage. 





3. Jessica Alba
This half-Mexican beauty is not only a successful actress and model, but she is also the founder of The Honest Company. This lucrative business founded in 2012 was recently said to be worth 1.7 billion dollars. Alba herself has a net worth of $350 million. While not one to confirm information about her finances, it's clear that the superstar is doing quite well for herself. Now, for the kicker- she's a mom, too! How does she have the time? Well, she turned her new job of motherhood into a business. 
When she became a new mother, Alba realized that she needed a lot of stuff for her new babies. However, it's difficult and time-consuming to research products to determine if it's what you want to use for your children. You want things that are healthy for your child and good for environment while also working. Alba decided to make an entire company based around giving mothers the type of products that you can always trust. Now, there's no research involved. You can simply get your items all in one place. There's even stuff for mom, too! Plus, you can get discounts when you bundle. 
Ultimately, Alba took her passion of caring for her family and turned it into a business that can help other women as well as keeping her bank account flush. Now that's killing two birds with one stone.



4. America Corrales-Bortin
America Corrales-Bortin came to America at the tender age of 14 after her beloved mother passed away. When she got to America, she didn't even know how to speak English. She did know how to cook, though. That is part of her mother that she brought with her to America. 
After a wonderful marriage but a few bad business ideas, she and her husband decided to start the famous America's Taco Shop chain. The chain now makes 2.4 million a year. 
A large part of the success of the chain came from the authentic options on the menu. People loved the fresh ingredients and new items on the menu compared to the other Mexican restaurants in an area filled with Mexican restaurants. The good food allowed Corrales-Bortin to turn one small restaurant into a large chain that just keeps growing. To think, it was her authentic Mexican food that brought them to their success. Also, if you are in Southwestern America and haven't tried America's Taco Shop, it's time to give it a taste. 

5. Vivian Nunez
Many of you have probably been to www.BeChicMag.com for beauty and style advice even if you don't know it. Vivian Nunez created the business in 2007. While it didn't become successful right away, patience and dedication proved to pay out for the young entrepreneur. In 2010, when she started focusing on her project more, it started to generate more attention (and more money). 
Nunez only used this as a jumping point. Her successful website allowed her to also get on television where she continued to share beauty and lifestyle tips. In her spare time (ha!), she works in public relations for a college in New York City. to think that a simple content writer can turn a passion into something to pay the bills and then some. 

Leading female entrepreneurs are paving the way for future generations. No longer will young girls assume that their place is behind the secretary's desk, but they will know that they, like these Latina business owners, belong behind the boss's desk. If these women can do it, we can do it, too. And remember to buy from a Latina!
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INTRODUCING OUR NEWEST SERIES: THE INSPIRING FEMALE LEADER NEXT DOOR
In this series, we search for and reach out to the top women entrepreneurs and inspiring women leaders in their communities, for a heart to heart interview regarding their journeys to success. We feel that real stories from real women serve just as bright a guiding light as the more worldly women leaders we often feature.

Today, we have Gegi from Gegi Color Collection, who combined her passion for croching, creating and entreprenuership into one amazing Etsy Store that sells the coolest sneakers.

We were honored to speak with her, and loved her story and inspiration. Please enjoy our interview with Gegi below, and please visit her store at Gegi Color Collection on Etsy (IG: GegiColor.Collection).

1) Please tell us a bit about your own background, including education, family, religion and community.

I have an education in the beauty industry as well as Medical Administration. I mostly crochet with my mom and my brother sometimes when we hangout...i have no religion and the community that ive been in has been a city of creative arts especially the schools in Savannah Ga...there's a lot of hidden talents and challengers of the creative arts

2) Please tell us a little about your store. (What does it sell? Who are your customers? What makes your store unique?)

My store reflects my life path of creativity...taking one idea and expanding it. Crocheting is my way of creativity and expression of it in my store. I specialize in crochet sneakers and enjoy making winter clothing.

3) When did you start your store?
My store on Etsy started, literally, at the end of [last] year. I had a rush of ideas that just rained on me and i had to bring them to life.

4) What motivated you to start your own business?
What motivated me to push my crochet art was when I researched and started joining other groups of people that crochet. I found young people my age creating things I didn't even think you could create with yarn and a hook. So, I challenged myself with the basics of what I knew, staying up all night and collaborating ideas together to create a masterpiece.

5) What is the vision for your business?
My vision is to show the world how far crocheting can go. People see other people crochet and are quick to respond [with] "oh my grandmother crochet." In my mind, I respond, "I bet granny ain't creating nothing like this!"

I've always been obsessed with Project Runway, and how they create things outside of fabric. That's my main vision and goal for my crochet: crocheting with different materials."

6) What challenges do you face on starting your own business?
The challenges I face with creating my own business is being counterproductive. I tend to wear myself thin when it comes to getting as much done within a specific time.

I'm so easily inspired that I might be creating one thing go to my crochet group and see something else to make and be stuck creating two or more projects, and challenging myself to see how much I can get done within an impossible time. I've learned. (lol.) I draw a mix crowd of customers. It's pretty generalized.

7) Do you have any advice for young women who also want to start their own business?
The advice I can tell the youth is to drown yourself with people who do what you do. Don't just follow them, interact with them. The possibilities come from those who create opportunities for themselves.

Get a mentor in what you do. Everybody needs a coach.

Build a strong team, because you can only do so much on your own, especially if you are looking at succeeding far and wide. Don't let the sky be your limit. Let the universal wall be your destination.

8) Growing up, who was your biggest female role model, and why?
Growing up, my female role model has been Lauryn Hill. Her outlook on the world has been a big influence on my spiritual and mental being of self and the lessons thereof.

9) Lastly, do you have a motto you live by?
The motto that I live by is "after life ain't living, so make everything count while you are living."
Outtro