Here's how we've impacted the lives of Latinas who have developed their businesses.
Marlyn from Venezuela
Marlyn is a Venezuelan mother living in Maryland who took the course to strengthen her business model. She created a foundation to help immigrant children with their immigration status. She has fostered interest and rapport with future donors through the presentation tips shared in the course, and was able to identify a currently underserved niche market in the U.S. Women Palante supported her with her business presentation, creating an initial financial plan and her business card design. As part of the program, she also received The Best Business Canva Award. She gained the confidence to register as a nonprofit in Maryland and was able to apply for a grant with the financial projections and business plan developed with WP. She now shares office space with WP and has gained access to the Nonprofit Village community.
Marlyn says Women Palante is "my right-hand woman who has supported me in creating my nonprofit, providing me with critical pieces such as a financial plan and networking that I didn't have before. In addition, they have helped me with the official requirements to start a business, and especially with time management as an entrepreneur. WP gave me the opportunity to have a safe place, sharing an office with me, and I felt psychologically safe to move forward as I grow my social enterprise. Women Palante is my big sister".
Visit and support her nonprofit here.
Elida from Guatemala
Elida is originally from Guatemala and now lives in Washington, DC. She completed the WP Mompreneurs Program in 2019 and the WP Accelerator in 2022. Elida decided to open her own cleaning business, Alex DMV Cleaning, despite being in the midst of an unexpected pandemic. Elida says that Women Palante's support was key to getting her business off the ground, registering her company and even applying for financial assistance.
Elida: "Women Palante was the perfect help."
Listen to her story on the Women Palante podcast here.
Visit and support Alex's DMV cleaning business here.
Layla from Colombia
Nader Foods Business Owner
Layla is from Colombia and owns a catering service called Nader Foods in the Washington DC area. She was part of the Gourmet Entrepreneurs program in 2022 with the objective of structuring her business, developing a financial and business plan. He had the opportunity to connect with financial assistance and investors. She continues to work with us and has been assigned a life coach to work on work-life balance as an entrepreneur.
Visit her Instagram.
Visit her Facebook.
Estella from Colombia
Owner of: Estrella de Oro
Estella is a Colombian mother who has had a small business for more than five years, but had never formalized it. Her company, Estrella de Oro, focuses on the manufacture and distribution of garments for religious use. With Women Palante, she legalized her business with the chamber of commerce and registered it as a company. She also developed strategies to grow her business with clear objectives and planning goals. She also received emotional support with her coach and achieved greater confidence and entrepreneurial mindset. Estella says Women Palante is breaking barriers from the heart.
If you want to support her in her entrepreneurship click here.
Irma from Mexico
She is a Mexican mother who lives in the United States with the dream of progressing and finding new opportunities. Irma developed her venture, a Mexican restaurant where more than selling food, she seeks to share culture, experiences, customs and values about Mexican cuisine. She described the WP programs as a place where she found a family thanks to the accompaniment and support she has received.
Challenges that have prevented her from growing her business: Little help for small and new businesses. Lack of self-care.
She was able to quit her job and dedicate herself entirely to her business.
"The likelihood of finding organizations that help entrepreneurs with their businesses and at the same time with self-care is very low. And that's what caught my attention the most when I met Women Palante."
To this day, Irma achieved many advances to grow personally and professionally with Women Palante and Marisela, who was her life coach, helped Irma to eliminate limiting thoughts, make better use of her time, prioritize and change habits to achieve her goals.
Marisella from Argentina
Marisela is an Argentine mother whose goal as an entrepreneur was to break into the U.S. market as a trainer. At the beginning of the fellowship, although she knew she was successfully selling her services, she found it hard to believe that she could offer her services at a higher price. At Women Palante we helped her build the confidence that entrepreneurs need and be able to see herself as a successful coach. As part of the grant and with the help of her mentor, Marisela improved her online presentation, created strategies to increase sales and improved her conversion rates, sales and revenue.
Marisela says that Women Palante "has been my guiding star in making my business dreams come true."
If you would like to schedule a coaching session with Marisela, please contact here.
Helem from Bolivia
Helen is a mother from Bolivia, and owner of Creaciones Kira, a company dedicated to the design and creation of crochet items using a specific technique called amigurumis. Helen expressed her gratitude in tears during our graduation ceremony and reached out to WP with a personal message letting the team know that when the program started, she was going through the most difficult time of her life.
Below is part of her testimony around the program: “It helped me a lot since I was able
to face my challenges with an action plan and goals that I set for myself to overcome everything. Now I have more time for myself. I delegate the chores in my house since before I did everything by myself and without any rest because I believed that it was my responsibility and my work to take care of the house and also the food. I am important, perhaps not always for my family, but I am valuable to me and that is what should matter.
Your support is what gave me strength to continue. I started the action plan, but you were my strength. You gave me the courage - thank you. I will never finish thanking you and the program. I felt all the vibes from the first moment”.
Listen to her story here.
This testimony further supports our assessment of the need to put an even greater focus on mental health for the next program. Given the past two years especially, we feel this is what is most needed at this time and will trickle into all other areas of the participants’ lives, positively affecting their entrepreneurial and general life goals. Additionally, with the sponsorship and support of the Healthy Americas Foundation, Women Palante was able to offer additional services to those who successfully complete the series. The WP Executive Director and team completed individual interviews one-on-one with each of the “graduate” students from the series. Based on the results of the interviews – and with the assistance of
The Healthy Americas Foundation - Women Palante is providing an additional six months of support to those graduates to achieve one wellness goal and business support with NonProfit Village.