Women-owned businesses are an important part of South Florida’s economy. There are over 46,000 female-owned businesses in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties combined, according to 2023 U.S. Census Bureau Data.
October is National Women’s Small Business Month, so WLRN’s Sofia Zarran spoke with City of Tamarac Commissioner Krystal Patterson— a business owner herself— about the roles women owned businesses play in our communities and some tips for female entrepreneurs in South Florida.
“To get to the next level, you have to be able to understand where your power rests,” Patterson said.
Patterson is the founder and President of H.E.R.S. Consulting, a firm dedicated to optimizing processes, policies, and procedures within municipal organizations. She told WLRN that women have a natural tendency to make the community feel welcome and involved in their business, but it’s that same tendency that can make women entrepreneurs struggle getting to the next level.
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"We [women] sometimes have a little bit of a challenge in opening up our space to other people. Because we believe that we can control it best. It's our baby," Patterson said. She said she wants to help women "understand and recognize what's necessary to scale and to grow."
Patterson is hosting an event on October 29 called P.O.W.H.E.R — a women’s business breakfast designed to connect women with business advice and professional services.
The event will also feature a contest called P.O.W.H.E.R. Pitch: Put Your Business on the Table, for women entrepreneurs who meet Tamarac residency requirements. It’s an opportunity for women business owners to present their businesses, gain visibility, and compete for business-building resources and prizes. The first place prize is $2,500.
While the pitch competition is reserved for eligible Tamarac residents, the P.O.W.E.R. breakfast is open to women throughout South Florida.
This Q & A has been edited for brevity and clarity.
WLRN: How has running your own company shaped the way you think about supporting other entrepreneurs?
PATTERSON: It has impacted my perspective on women in small businesses heavily, naturally. As a small business owner myself, it is apparent to me what the daily struggles are.
It's a regular effort to grow and to scale and to understand capital. I'm able to have the conversations with other business owners about what their challenges are, what the pain points look like.
What inspired you to get into consulting, and what kind of work does H.E.R.S do?
I spent my entire working career in state and local government. When I left local government a few years back, I realized that I had significant experience in this space. I decided that I wanted to start the company. If I'm honest, I just did it on faith. I didn't really have clarity around what it was going to look like.
Eventually it really took shape. I recognized that there was significant intellectual property that I had attained over the years and over my career that the government could benefit from. We provide various services that span from administrative support to full-on operational support, strategic planning, training, just whatever it is that the local government might need in any given moment. We've restructured departments and just assisted from the outside as an external partner to help, you know, move their agenda forward.
If someone came to you today, and said, "I'm ready to start my first business," what is the first piece of advice you would give them?
I would tell someone that is interested in starting their business to just do it. Don't overanalyze the process. Don't overthink the steps. Everything will fall into place. Just take the first step, whatever that feels like it is for you. That could mean forming a name. That could mean opening up a bank account, jotting your vision on paper.
Whatever it is, though, just take that first step because with every step comes a second step. With taking the first step, you have to believe in yourself. There's a level of discipline and commitment that's really necessary to be an entrepreneur. You work harder as an entrepreneur than you would for anyone's company ever,
What resources are available locally, and are there any that are specifically designed for female-owned businesses?
In terms of capital, that's definitely one of the high points that we wanna talk about during the event.
The City of Tamarac does have a number of programs now. We have more programs now than we did previously. We actually have a micro-grant for $5,000. If you're a resident of the City of Tamarac you can get a certain amount, and if you're not a resident then you can get a lower amount.
Either way, you're able to get some funding to assist with your business if the business is in the city. One of the bigger ones that we have, which is a really cool one, is a tenant build-out grant, and that grant is up to $100,000 for a business owner that's looking to bring their business into the City of Tamarac.
They can qualify for up to $100,000 to help them build out their brick-and-mortar space. It's actually quite common. Many cities do have funding available under their economic development department. It's very common that business owners are not aware of the dollars, and so oftentimes the dollars do recycle themselves because people don't apply.
The City of Tamarac doesn't have anything specific to women. We do try to give preference to minority small businesses as well. So if you're women-owned, you get preference on contracts, and if you're a minority or small loan, you would, you know, equally get additional credits for those if you apply for a particular contract that's available through the city.
What are some challenges local entrepreneurs may not anticipate until they've already started their business? Maybe that are specific to women-owned businesses.
The additional operation costs, for one, and necessities. So these days, most businesses require marketing, right?
If you don't have the capital to market and get the word out, then, you know, that's gonna be tough.
Additionally, there's always the larger company that we might be competing with as a smaller business, right?
There's not that many new concepts out there. So if you are starting something as a small business, generally there is already some competition. Being able to find a niche and identify how your business is going to be able to provide a service a little different from the others is also little things that we miss as we start to kind of move forward.
We have to be flexible as business owners because the model is constantly changing as we're unfolding, particularly when we don't have the model in front of us.
Are there any challenges that might be specific to women-owned businesses, either personally, professionally, financially?
Being a woman comes with its challenges in and of itself. We're already a minority class, and so getting consumers to trust us. I think in the state of Florida there's about, I think statistically, I was doing some research, about 1.4 million women-owned businesses— which really we actually account for almost half of the small business industry as women— but only 8% even have a staff.
I think that some of what we do naturally as women is we really immerse ourselves into what's happening, and we carry the load, and we're isolated in that space. I think men do that well. They’re okay with delegating, and getting out there, and bringing people into the fold. We [women] sometimes have a little bit of a challenge in opening up our space to other people. Because we believe that we can control it best. It's our baby.
It's our vision. Kind of similar to parenthood, if you will. Which is why I really wanna create this table, this space, to really talk to, to bring some really successful women in business into a room where we can just really have intimate conversations around how did I move away from being the small business, the solopreneur, into the entrepreneur that has been able to scale, build, and grow.
What is some advice you would offer to that solo women-owned business owner, to get from that statistic of just her, herself into having other employees?
You spend a certain amount of time in a certain phase of the business, and then you've gotta understand and recognize, you know, what's necessary to scale and to grow. Generally, a lot of the time we're really just simply lacking simple things. To me, in my opinion, it's relationships.
Relationships are the critical tool to unleashing access mentally. We hear people say it's you versus you. If you can envision it you can make it happen. But if you're limited in your knowledge and in your information portal, if you will, then you're never able to see how to scale and how to grow.
I believe that power opens when your excellence rises, and that's really like what we're talking about in this event. You have to be able to– in order to get to the next level, you have to be able to understand where your power rests.
Sometimes that's just through simply setting the business aside for a few minutes and taking out some time to come and have a conversation with another group, you know, a group of women who are in the same space doing the same thing.
How can experienced women entrepreneurs, like yourself, help lift up the newer generation of entrepreneurs? Do you think there needs to be more formal mentoring opportunities?
I was not one that had mentors. Although I tried, I can think vividly on a few direct attempts to build mentorship relationships.. they never really came to fruition. I'm kind of one of the ones that kind of... learned from the school of hard knocks, if you will.
I would not necessarily say I think mentors are the key. I think that anyone could really assist in your growth process if you're seeking the information. These days with social media, there's so many people with platforms who are giving out free information.
If you really are serious about doing business, you're gonna take the time to research and really be committed to your own self-development in that space. If we rely on mentorship when we don't get it, then perhaps our vision fails because we feel underserved without that immediate connection, right? However, there are so many opportunities for collective mentorship, and that's what this opportunity is.
Mentorship should never be a hurdle. There's so much access to information that really, that's all you need.
Women-owned businesses play an increasingly important role in the South Florida economy and the community in general. What impacts do you think women-owned businesses are playing in the economy and in our communities?
Women-owned businesses take a different approach to business. We tend to go into it with our hearts.
When you walk into a woman-owned small business, it's probably gonna feel like home. It's probably gonna give you the level of customer service… because it's already probably being manned primarily by the owner of the business, who has a vested interest in seeing it succeed.
I believe that we definitely have a great knack for just connecting with people overall.
The minute you understand that you might not necessarily even need the capital to market, but maybe you just use your phone and do a quick video, and people know that, “hey, oh, she's doing makeup, or she's doing, she's selling, she's got a clothing boutique, or maybe she's doing nails,” and you're able to use your free resources to get yourself out there. People are attracted to those types of things.
Maybe you attach telling your story to it, and the minute a woman shares her story, it then becomes even more relatable. There's just so many ways that we're able to impact our community and kind of see growth in our community.
Naturally we're feelers and connectors, and so we always wanna be a part of the community. I find here in Tamarac, we have a lot of small women-owned businesses who wanna partner on community initiatives and events and, you know, they do it from their heart. It's brand visibility for them, but at the same token, it really does assist our city with our goal of nurturing the small businesses in our city as well.
What are some long-term goals that you would recommend to a female entrepreneur who's maybe reading this story when it comes out or listening to it and they're currently struggling with their small business?
Not to give up. It gets... it's very lonely. It gets very challenging. There are tons of hurdles. Don't allow stories to play in your mind around what you cannot do or what you've been told you can't do. Push past your natural limitation, because there's always more. Understanding that there's always more is the very tool that takes you to the next level. Whether you understand what that "more" looks like or not, it's the quest for simple understanding on what that looks like, what that “more” really looks like to take you over that hurdle.
IF YOU GO
What: A Women's Business Breakfast
When: Thursday, October 29th, 9:00a.m. to 1:00p.m.
Where: Colony West Golf Club
More information? Click here
