Last April, a Seek Business Capital study found that the St. Louis metro area had the most female-owned startups in the nation. A local organization called The Women’s Creative aims to keep it that way.
The Women’s Creative fosters “collaboration over competition and prioritizes community at the same time that we’re prioritizing very professional and effective business training,” says co-creator Christina Weaver (who also recently opened retail shop Seta in the Shaw neighborhood).
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Weaver runs the organization with Megan Rohall and Meg Smidt. The three women know what it’s like to run a small business on their own: Weaver founded Route, a nonprofit that sources ethically made products from around the world; Rohall is the force behind paper goods company Red Lettered Goods; and Smidt offers life-and-business coaching through Your Coach Meg.
After getting their start in 2017 as the STL Women’s Pop Up Shop, the organization grew with the support of the community. “People come, they support, they buy,” Rohall says. This weekend, they’ll put on their quarterly marketplace, Procure, where 50 women-owned businesses will sell their products from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on February 9 at Palladium Saint Louis (1400 Park Place). Bonus: Chef Ben Poremba will be in the VIP lounge with a selection of cigars, wines, and spirits from AO&CO. In addition to pop-up events like Procure, the organization has expanded its scope to offer workshops, networking events, and, ultimately, a supporting community.
“There can be a lot of isolation for female entrepreneurs, and we get in our own heads. But there is something out there for these women to be a part of, and success is real for them. It’s attainable,” Rohall says.
The Women’s Creative’s workshops can be attended in person or via livestream. Previous workshops covered topics such as time management, merchandising, social media, and goal setting.
Smidt, who heads up the organization’s membership program, The Collective, says she loves hearing “all the success stories.” After the goal-setting workshop, many attendees “doubled or tripled the goal that they set, when they didn’t even set goals the year before. These things are getting on their radar.”
To date, The Women’s Creative has worked with about 800 women-owned businesses in one way or another, and 95 of those are members of The Collective. Most of these businesses are located in St. Louis, but there are a few farther afield in Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky. That reach is something the group actively wants to grow in the coming year, especially because most of the resources are available online.
“We just feel like this has been a great service for the women here, and it doesn’t seem to exist [elsewhere] in the way that we are doing it,” Weaver says. “Women entrepreneurs are at a strategic disadvantage, and communities like this really boost the possibility of their businesses lasting a lot longer, becoming more effective, and creating more revenue for them. We’ve seen things like collaborations and new streams of business. Women have the ability to have perspective in their company when they are around other women doing the same thing.”
