Women of Toledo has launched a new program initiative to provide support and access to women-owned local businesses and nonprofits.
The program, called HerHub, is an online hub that seeks to connect women-owned businesses to one another and increase awareness of their products in the area.
Nina Corder, Managing & Program Director at Women of Toledo, first developed the concept in 2016 before winning the support of UN Women Empower Women Champions for Change Partnership in 2017. After three years of finalizing the project, HerHub launched in May, according to HerHub's liaison to the board of directors at WoT, Jonelle Massey.
"We found that there were a lot of amazing organizations here in Greater Toledo. There are a lot of nonprofits in the area," Ms. Corder said. "We know a lot of them focus on women's rights and women's advocacy. However, there's no hub, no central link to help us collaborate and work together."
So, Ms. Corder decided to build an organization that could use tech to provide a central location for women-led groups to share ideas and receive other business services. Previously, there was a lot of duplication in the business and nonprofit sphere, Ms. Massey said. Ms. Corder was one of 120 women, out of 1,700 applicants, to win the UN Women partnership and receive funding to develop the HerHub concept.
Since then, staff at Women of Toledo have refined the HerHub concept through numerous focus groups and surveys of female business owners in the Glass City. A lot of the feedback gathered referenced that there was not a place to look and see what sort of services were available from women-owned companies in the area. Likewise, there was not a central events calendar for similar businesses.
Eventually, Women of Toledo won more funding for the program from KeyBank and JumpStart, Inc. after completing a pilot study last year.
Now, the website has fully launched. HerHub offers members a spot in its directory of local women-owned businesses and also features them on their website. The program also has a list of local authors.
In addition, the group can help members with advertising, marketing, and other aspects of business development. For example, HerHub staff helped Uncork the Artist owner Cathie Nelson refine and market her art-to-go kits after the coronavirus pandemic forced her to cut down on in-store gatherings.
On a more personal level, members can join a private Facebook group and also engage in mentoring with women. Unfortunately, in-person mentoring events have been canceled and the groups events calendar is a bit more sparse than it usually would be, but Ms. Corder said that HerHub will start hosting in-person gatherings as soon as it is safe.
"Currently, I would say, the most attractive feature for our membership is this private Facebook networking group for members-only," Ms. Massey said. "There's a lot of networking and just support. I mean these are hard times for businesses just to stay alive during COVID and people are asking questions and being very open about their struggles."
In order to become a member, a business simply has to be female-owned and pay a fee of $99 per year. At the moment, there are about 100 individual businesses involved in the group so far, Ms. Massey said. She added that businesses are still finding value in their memberships through the pandemic, as the group is still gaining new members.
"These women are amazing," Ms. Nelson said. "It's like being a part of and being among a group of well-connected leaders. It's a deeper, more meaningful kind of network. It seems like they're genuinely invested in us and the community."
Five of those 100 members received scholarships funded by Rita Mansour, of Mansour Wealth Management, for Black women-owned businesses. Those five are Shakhan Kelly Photography, Simply D'vine Boutique, the Taste Wine Bar, Avocados and Cheese, LLC, and HotBox Bistro.
As for the future, Ms. Corder wants to expand the program geographically. To start, they're building small by looking for businesses in Southeast Michigan. Programming-wise though, Ms. Massey said that HerHub is looking for ways to creatively introduce women-owned businesses to the Toledo community through blogs, podcasts, and live streams during the pandemic.
First Published July 31, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
