In Dallas, only about 24 percent of the STEM workforce is female. However, one local organization is working to increase the number of women in the workplace, especially when it comes to business ownership. And in under a year, it has already helped nearly 20 women- or minority-led businesses emerge.
Last night, the Dallas/Fort Worth LiftFund Women’s Business Center (WBC) celebrated its one-year anniversary, highlighting milestones along the way and looking toward what the future will bring for the organization and the North Texas region.
“We’re a startup, just like any other startup organization we’ve have seen our challenges… but we’ve also seen our successes,” said Tarsha Polk, director of the WBC, at the event. “I love the fact that we were able to target a niche market and that was women in technology. It’s a lot of work to be able to make that type of impact.”
"The women are just all there to help each other out."
The WBC is a place for all business owners, but it especially focuses on women and minorities. Through nonprofit small business lender LiftFund, which helped create the WBC, and funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the WBC offers business education and consulting services to people building a company and to those just looking to start out. In addition, the organization hosts an accelerator program for women-run tech firms.
Polk said that since the WBC’s founding last year, it has been able to help more than 575 people. She also noted that through its partnerships with other local individuals and businesses, it was able to provide more than 269 one-on-one consultations, ranging from brainstorming marketing plans to drafting growth strategies. In addition, the WBC hosted 35 workshops with a total of 440 attendees. Over all, in the last year, 20 new businesses have been started through the help of the WBC, with about 7 of those having already gone on to secure a source of funding.
“We really want our clients to make an economic impact in the societies in which they live and in order to do so our goal is to help… small business owners gain access to capital,” Polk said. “We want to help our clients create jobs; we want to help them become successful entrepreneurs.”
As the organization looks to the future, Polk said the WBC plans to add to its services and reach. The organization is planning on launching a female leadership conference in the Spring, as well as adding more accelerator programs throughout the year. The WBC also plans to work on creating partnerships with historically black colleges and universities in the North Texas region to help grow economic impact and diversity in the area.
“It’s really amazing the kinds of things they do there and how supportive of a community it is there,” said Angel Durr, founder of tech education nonprofit DataReady, who has gone through one of the programs at the WBC. “The women are just all there to help each other out.”
