One
of the greatest obstacles women face in starting a business is
finding capital, according to Jennet Robinson Alterman, executive
director of the Center for Women in Charleston.
Alterman said she often works with women who have visions for new
career paths. They might need only $5,000 to $15,000 for equipment
to start their own businesses, but they lack the collateral and
managerial track records that most banks require for a loan.
Enter Barbara Willis Hearst, a local entrepreneur who is helping
address the problem by starting her own business.
Hearst has designed a line of shirts for women, and the sales
profits will go to a foundation that makes small loans to women
trying to start businesses. The Center for Women will be among the
first recipients of a grant from Hearst’s foundation, the
Good4Women Foundation.
Hearst’s model is
based on the Newman’s Own charitable foundation, set up by the
late actor Paul Newman, which uses the proceeds from sales of
salad dressing, salsa and other products.
Alterman said the Center for Women will use the money, which it
expects in 2010, to give women microloans — loans of $5,000 to
$15,000 for entrepreneurs who can’t obtain traditional
financing.
Unconventional
lending
Microcredit rejects the idea that a specific resume and collateral
are the only indicators of creditworthiness.
The concept was largely developed in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus
about 30 years ago. Yunus founded a bank to make small loans to
poor people, mostly women, to buy supplies for business
operations, such as basket-weaving.
The goal was to eliminate poverty, and in 2006 Yunus and the bank
he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize for the work.
Yunus made microloans to small groups of borrowers, relying on
peer pressure to encourage repayment, in lieu of requiring
collateral, Alterman said.
Requiring women to organize into groups to borrow money isn’t
practical in the United States; but the model Alterman plans to
use at the Center for Women creates its own network.
She plans to connect borrowers with a group of mentors with
expertise in different aspects of business, such as law, marketing
and accounting.
Alterman said banks usually lend money and leave borrowers to make
it on their own, without any expert assistance.
“And that’s the downfall (of new businesses), in so many
cases,” she said.
The U.S. Small Business Administration offers help for
entrepreneurs, Alterman said, and it offers guarantees for some
bank loans. But borrowers still must meet traditional lending
standards, and those have become more difficult to meet in the
current economic climate, she said. |
A void in her
closet
About a year and a half ago, Alterman talked to Hearst about the
need for microloans for women in Charleston. Hearst wanted to do
something to help, but she didn’t know what.
Some time later, Hearst was searching for a dress that would be
right for a warm summer afternoon in Charleston. Nothing in her
closet fit the bill, she said.
“There was really nothing between the Oscar de la Renta and the
Gap,” she said.
Faced with the void, she searched online and in stores for the
perfect cotton dress. She still couldn’t find it.
“So I decided to make it and tie it in with the microloans,”
Hearst said.
Hearst said she liked the idea of helping women with her product,
and she had the benefit of having the capital needed to start the
operations.
“We all know we don’t get a perfectly fair shake in the
world,” she said.
Hearst said she also had the benefit of an understanding of
fashion, having worked in New York as a photo stylist, painter and
media coach.
So she found a pattern maker in New York and hired media relations
and branding experts and began setting up her company, B. Hearst.
Along the way the economy crashed, and Hearst decided to trade
$300 dresses for stylish T-shirts that would retail for $75. Like
the search for the perfect dress that first inspired her,
Hearst’s shirts — a simple cotton shirt with a low V-neck
collar and three-quarter sleeves — are meant to fill a void in
her wardrobe.
“I do know clothes,” she said. “I used to shop in Paris.
I’ve made a very flattering, comfortable, simple, elegant
shirt.”
The shirts are now available at Belk at Citadel Mall and at some
shops in New York. Hearst is talking to other stores in Charleston
about carrying her shirts, and she is setting up a Web site to
sell them.
Hearst said she hopes her foundation can begin making grants in
early 2010. How much she donates will depend on sales.
“This is a brand-new enterprise, but I am very encouraged,”
Hearst said. “I think that the prospect of all the proceeds
going to help women will get women to look at these products.”
Reach Ashley Fletcher Frampton at 843-849-3129. |
