For Michelle Chen and her family, who own Fremont, CA-based Fossa Apparel (asi/55141), business challenges took a slightly different form. Chen, the sales director at Fossa, says that when they established their business in 2007, they took a less-than-traditional route – in an industry full of men’s styles and women “companion” pieces, they made a name for themselves by starting with women’s styles as the basis of their apparel line.

“That wasn’t common when we started,” says Chen. “It’s the collection we think the market needed. We want distributors to overcome ‘unisex’ complacency with their customers. More women are now in corporate positions and making buying decisions, so the garments are changing.”

Donna Bridgeforth is certainly familiar with important product detail. Now the owner of Bridgeforth Wolf & Associates (BWA, asi/145800) in Chicago, she cut her teeth in the 1980s working alongside just 10 other ambitious women in the corporate gift division at Tiffany & Co. in the Windy City. “I loved working hard with beautiful merchandise,” says Bridgeforth. “That was the one job I missed and wanted to recreate. So I established BWA in 1987.”

She started with little more than the Yellow Pages on her kitchen table, building her book of sales by making calls and wining-and-dining prospects a few nights a week for the first two years. “I just pushed hard to get to a real starting point,” she says. “In the beginning, you have nothing to benchmark.”

Still, it’s been difficult to shake persistent – and often unfair – notions of women in business. “Both men and women tend to look at us as weaker,” she says. “I do think COVID changed the game a bit, since we couldn’t meet in person. It felt like there was less gender stereotyping on Zoom and clients focused more on bottom-line results.”

“I’ve found it’s harder to get facetime as a woman, and to be taken seriously. I also don’t look like a typical business owner. I’m just me.” Stephanie Quiambao-Flores, Creative Tantrum

Stephanie Quiambao-Flores says gender bias is tricky since it’s intangible but unmistakable when you’ve experienced it. After 14 years doing graphic design on the side for promo clients, she opened her own full-time distributorship, Creative Tantrum (asi/171122/525942) in 2019 in El Paso, TX. To this day, she single-handedly offers design, print and promo services, mostly to clients in Texas and a few in Arizona.

It’s been rewarding, but Texas has a reputation of being larger-than-life and “male-dominated,” she says, full of strutting cowboys. Indeed, there are a number of lucrative industries in the Lone Star State, like oil & gas and construction, that are still predominantly male-controlled.

“Most of my clients are men, in fact,” says Quiambao-Flores. “Many are from a networking group I’m in, so we’ve built trust and rapport. But I’ve found it’s harder to get facetime as a woman, and to be taken seriously. I also don’t look like a typical business owner. I’m just me. When we have more women in executive roles, we’ll see more change and more facetime, in any industry.”

The Power of Promotion

To encourage doing business with their companies and thereby bolster female presence in the industry, women can’t wait for others to notice them; they have to take matters into their own hands and give each other – and themselves – the exposure they deserve.

“We have to praise great ideas and decisions made by other women,” says Mariolga “Mo” Calderon, founder of Mo’s Bundt Cakes (asi/71843) in Miami, a company she established in 2021 during the pandemic. “Support them openly and publicly, and make sure they’re credited and their hard work is noted.” 

Gray says it can be as simple as posting on social media about good work done by a woman-owned company. “I sing the praises of other businesses – I’ll tag them and thank them for a job well done,” she says. “If there’s an occasion to elevate someone else, always take it. And as a woman business owner, take opportunities to speak in front of others when asked and share tips and advice.”

“We have to praise great ideas and decisions made by other women. Support them openly and publicly, and make sure they’re credited and their hard work is noted.” Mo Calderon, Mo’s Bundt Cakes

Meanwhile, everyone at a women-owned company should take advantage of opportunities to remind the industry of their status, says Quiambao-Flores. She recently happened upon a supplier’s women-owned certification logo on their website, so she was eager to work with them, but she’d like to see certifications made more obvious. “It should be easier to find women-owned businesses,” she says. “We need to know who’s out there.” (ASI’s ESP database includes filters for identifying these firms – see box at bottom).

Chen says one of the most important mentoring tips she received came from Susan Rye, director of strategic sales at Top 40 supplier SanMar (asi/84863). “She told me the first thing out of my mouth, no matter who I’m in front of, should be that we’re women- and minority-owned,” says Chen. “Let’s grow the sisterhood, support each other by referring each other and promote a change in buying patterns. We can be ambassadors of a diverse supply chain.”