It’s National Entrepreneurship Month–the one month in the year when Americans celebrate brave individuals who continue to provide jobs for others and drive the world’s economy through their hard work, desire to serve, and passion for innovation. The job of an entrepreneur is no easy task, especially with the pandemic forcing many businesses to close permanently while others are forced to pivot operations to stay afloat. While it is challenging to find encouraging stories through this tumultuous time, that does not mean that they do not exist.
Despite all that is going on in the world, there are still many entrepreneurs defying the odds and thriving–and many of them are women!
Below is a list of powerful women entrepreneurs who inspire others to take a leap and write their own success stories.
Better known as The Slay Coach, Jamie discovered business coaching after years of struggling to make ends meet with her corporate job of multi-level marketing (MLM). Business coaching allowed her to create her own empire (a multi-million dollar business, no less) while helping others discover their own strengths and build successful, passion-based businesses.
Lindsay is the founder of renowned fitness app, The Fitt Cycle, where she combines her knowledge and passion for fitness as well as her medical background (she is a Registered Nurse!) to help women not only obtain their physical goals, but be able to maintain it and use their healthier lifestyles to achieve more every day. Her success is based on her genuine desire to help others by educating them how to make fitness a priority and how to integrate science-based techniques into their lifestyle.
Shantelle is an actress, producer, mom of three, parenting expert, and author of the book “Raising Your Kids without Losing Your Cool”. Aside from this, she is also the owner of a marina in Ontario’s Kawartha Region, named Shantilly’s Place. Here, she provides almost everything for anyone who is looking at spending time doing recreational boating–from boat storage and boat service to groceries, gourmet subs, and even merch.
Justine is the power woman behind Goal Chasers, a life coaching brand that focuses on helping mothers realize their potentials and reach their goals in life by turning them into successful mompreneurs. Her method focuses on breaking down goals into actionable items, but tailored to fit the mindset and lifestyle of moms who–more than anything else–want to still have enough time on their hands to take care of their families and their beings.
Adriana is a certified holistic transformation coach who holds a diploma on Sports Nutrition as well other certificates like pre & post natal fitness & TRX suspension training. Aside from helping women create healthy habits and become better versions of themselves, she also trains others who desire to join her and be health coaches.
Nutrition Her Way is a holistic nutrition program founded by Lara that aims to help women live with vitality and confidence. Unlike most other programs out there, Lara’s is built with the innate understanding that making gradual changes is the way to having sustainable healthy habits. Aside from being an entrepreneur, Lara is also a Registered Holistic Nutritionist who has helped hundreds of women transform their lives for the healthier.
Ariane founded D’Artagnan the first purveyor of game and foie gras in the U.S. in 1985. Capitalizing on the increasing demands for more sophisticated food options in the market that time, her business helped drive the growth of the farm-to-table movement by supplying and educating people about the importance of free-range organic poultry and humanely raised veal. Since then, Ariane was able to grow the company to become the country’s foremost leader for fine produce and gourmet products.
Lovers of fresh, sustainably sourced oysters would immediately recognize the name of Sims as one of the founders of Massachusetts-based oyster farm, Real Oyster Cult. It was her and her husband’s love for nature, oysters, and sharing good times with family and friends that led them to start this ever-growing venture.
Considered as one of the only few really effective career coaches out there and a power entrepreneur, Stephanie is the founder of SoulWork Six Figures, a company that helps people land jobs that are aligned with their souls. In addition to this, she also helps people through services like career development coaching, negotiation, interview preparation, and also provides HR consulting services for companies.
10. Stephanie Lind
After spending over 25 years working for Fortune 500 companies like PepsiCo, Sysco, and McDonald’s supply chain partner Havi Logistics, Stephanie, together with her friends, founded Elohi Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm that helps businesses in the foodservice industry to develop strategic and roll-out plans with the aim of advancing the presence and success of their businesses as well as innovating the industry as a whole. In addition to this, this power woman also has been leading the global sales initiative of Impossible Foods, where she is tasked to create a team of Sales, Channel Marketing, Customer Marketing and Product Development professionals as well as drive revenues across all channels where the company is present.
11. Dimitra Rizzi
As the CEO of Elohi Strategic Advisors, Dimitra leads a team of experts that help businesses in the foodservice industry become more successful. As one of the most accomplished female leaders in the foodservice industry, Dimitra is well-regarded as an accomplished strategic and sales professional, retail operations expert, as well as a c-suite leader. And as if all these are not enough, she also owns her own bagel restaurant franchise.
12. Catherine Porter
As the Senior Vice President for Elohi Strategic Advisors, Catherine’s work focuses more on accelerating growth in foodservice channels and leading new business development in the supermarket perimeter and convenience store segments. She also functions as lead for re-branding efforts, development of selling propositions, and channel-specific marketing strategies among many others. Prior to this, she has worked as a Marketing Consultant and Director for Foodservice Marketing and Commercialization.
Special Mention:
Amanda Mineer may not be an entrepreneur herself but since we are on the subject of powerful women, we thought it’d be good to include her in the list. Working as a supervising attorney at The Veterans Law Group, Amanda helps hundreds of disabled veterans make their claims and navigate the frustrating and complicated VA system by providing them with both legal and emotional support.
Heather DeSantis is the CEO and Founder of Publicity for Good (PFG) and Good Side News. Former Miss Ohio International, she leads the firm with a mission to partner with companies who are committed to making the world a better place. Heather has been featured on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, Entrepreneur, iHeart Media, Business Insider, MSN, Forbes and Inside Edition for her life of living and working full time from an Airstream travel trailer with her fiance Austin.