February 16, 2024 • 24 mins
LeeAnn is a graduate of the University of St. Thomas where she earned degrees in Mass Communications & Journalism – Public Relations and General Business Management. Throughout her career, LeeAnn has focused on consumer retail and financial services with an emphasis on brand building and digital transformations for Fortune 1000 companies including Macy’s, RBC Wealth Management, Sleep Number, and Securian Financial.
In recent years, LeeAnn completed a Diversity & Inclusion certification through Cornell University and earned her MBA at Hamline University. A lifelong learner and community servant, LeeAnn is inspired by creating meaningful change in the business world and in the local communities in which she works and lives. She has served as a leader in multicultural and diverse employee resource groups and taskforces. LeeAnn is known for driving policy and cultural change to create opportunities for women and people of color in the workplace.
LeeAnn joined the board of WomenVenture in 2018 and served as chair of the governance committee. She is highly passionate about the organization, its mission, and its long-term impact on the community. Supporting women business owners to thrive and solving the child care crisis is deeply important to LeeAnn.
Outside of the workplace, LeeAnn is a mom to four children and a Labrador retriever. She enjoys traveling the world, cooking, and entertaining while staying active through running, yoga, and cycling.
In recent years, LeeAnn completed a Diversity & Inclusion certification through Cornell University and earned her MBA at Hamline University. A lifelong learner and community servant, LeeAnn is inspired by creating meaningful change in the business world and in the local communities in which she works and lives. She has served as a leader in multicultural and diverse employee resource groups and taskforces. LeeAnn is known for driving policy and cultural change to create opportunities for women and people of color in the workplace.
LeeAnn joined the board of WomenVenture in 2018 and served as chair of the governance committee. She is highly passionate about the organization, its mission, and its long-term impact on the community. Supporting women business owners to thrive and solving the child care crisis is deeply important to LeeAnn.
Outside of the workplace, LeeAnn is a mom to four children and a Labrador retriever. She enjoys traveling the world, cooking, and entertaining while staying active through running, yoga, and cycling.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
It's CEOs you should know and welcome. Leanne Rasachek from Women Venture. Tell
me all about Women Venture. Yes, so we've been around for forty five
years. Women Venture was launched innineteen seventy eight. Started out as an
organization that helped women enter or reenter the workforce, so taking their household
responsibilities and transferring to them on paperon helping them get into the workforce.
(00:23):
And so fast forward now forty someyears and we're a nonprofit organization and community
development financial institution that helps entrepreneurs andsmall business owners. So we serve we're
the only women's business center in theTwin Cities. We serve the sixteen county
metro area and into western Wisconsin.And through that it's entrepreneurs at are just
(00:47):
getting started with an idea all theway through to business owners who have been
in business for several years running milliondollar plus organizations. And the two core
things that we do to help thembusiness training develop so ensuring that you've got
a business plan an operational plan thatreally helps you run a profitable and sustainable
(01:07):
business. And then we also provideaccess to capital so they can come Women
can come to us for a fivehundred dollars loan up to one hundred thousand
dollars, and we're usually offering lendingprograms and capital access at a much lower
interest rate than a traditional bank.Okay, And why do you do this?
Exactly? Why we do it isto help fuel our main streets.
(01:30):
Right. So, when we thinkabout economic development in the Twin Sydneys and
across the minute, across Minnesota,oftentimes we hear and see from our clients
that there are barriers to access andthat is just getting started and getting the
initial capital and or really learning howto navigate. You know, you may
have a great product or service thatyou create that you deliver, but operationalizing
(01:55):
it and running in as a business, seeing it as a business, that's
where we help people come in andprovide that as a recoace. And so
when you talk about the plans andthings like that, where does that come
from? Are there there people withexperience that are sort of guiding the long
mentors? Or there are there areSo we have an access a pool of
volunteers and mentors through our partners atSCORE, but then also through our network
(02:16):
of our local companies corporations at volunteertheir time with their employees to help look
out a business strategy, to helpdig into your financials. And then we
also have a staff of thirty soas part of that staff, we have
people who have expertise in childcare,who have expertise in financial so we'll take
a look at your books and makesure you're running it on a platform that
(02:38):
works well and that you're actually evaluatingyour books on a regular basis, all
the way through to people who arelooking at your marketing plan, right,
how are you activating, what doesyour sales pricing look like? And then
how are you telling your brand story? And in this case for our small
businesses, you know they're not likelarge corporations where you can hire a consultant
(02:59):
or an age and say partner.We don't have thousands of dollars right to
be able to do that as abusiness owner, and so through Women Venture,
we provide access to those resources eithervia people mentors that help you one
and one through our cohort and trainingprogram. So we run classes both virtually
and in person essentially every month everyweek out of the year to help entrepreneurs
(03:23):
really look at and run it asa profitable and sustainable business. And we
know that the success rate of smallbusinesses that first five years is really critical.
So we want to help you getpast that five years so that you
can scale and grow, so thatfirst five years you have numbers, you
know, success versus not success.Ninety five percent of small businesses fail within
(03:45):
the first five years. Really,yes, and so why that matters to
us here? As you look atthe main streets, whether here in Saint
Louis Park or out in Lichfield,you know, those are typically ran by
small business owners. And when yousee open doors or people closing their businesses,
(04:05):
oftentimes that's a small business owner thatyou're working with. And what we
often hear from them right now,especially coming out of the pandemic, people
are squeezed by supply chain issues.People are running up against inflation, high
interest rates. We've been helping ourclients trends that we're seeing are helping them
(04:27):
restructure loans and deals in which they'rerunning against double digit interest rates from their
way, Wow, that's huge.How do we help them decrease that?
What kind of numbers are we talkingabout in terms of people you're helping?
And then on the other side,people who are volunteering their time or mentoring
or whatever. Yeah. So lastyear we supported roughly fifteen hundred different business
(04:48):
owners and entrepreneurs. Wow. Ofthat time it was combined both training and
consulting hours north of thirteen thousand hours. Wow. And then that those hours
are made up from our staff andour volunteers. So we have a volunteer
base of about one hundred and fiftypeople, both retired and active in the
(05:11):
business industry. And we're always on. We're always on, no matter where
she is and no matter what stageof business, where there is support for
her. And it can be ona consultant basis, or in a training
class, or if you're looking forcapital, you know. As an example,
today we're going into a loan committeemeeting. If all comes out all
(05:33):
right, we'll be dispersing five fivehundred thousand dollars into the market in the
next month. Wow. It feelspretty good, right, It feels great.
It feels great to be able todo that. That's a half million
dollars. A half million dollars.The goal this year for US is three
million. I think helpful to knowtoo is I've been in the seat for
just over two years as CEO,and I recall you know, when I
(05:58):
was on the board of Women Venture, our goal at the time was a
million dollars. Let's try to focuson dispersing a million every year. You
know, that was three years ago. Now we're looking at three million in
the next three to five years.We're going to double down and say ten
million. Let's get that into themarket to be able to support more business
owners and women. Quite frankly,our experience often is we hear no a
(06:23):
lot entrepreneurs here, know a lot. Women Venture is not the only CDFI
in the Twin Cities market or inMinnesota, there's thirty of us. We
work very closely together. We wantto provide more access to her because our
mission is we believe that women canfeel and be the economic engine that runs
the world. Can you talk aboutsome of the other barriers besides obviously financial,
(06:46):
but I'm sure there's more than that. Capital access is number pretty high
up there, number one. Butwhen we look at women in particular caregiving
responsibilities that we have, you areoften sandwiched between caring for our children and
also caring for our parents, andthat often becomes a barrier to access and
(07:09):
running a business successfully. There isn'tenough care or access to quality and affordable
childcare, which is one key initiativethat Women Venture is focused on helping to
be a part of solving that crisis. So by the numbers this year twenty
twenty or this past year in twentytwenty three, we saw more than two
(07:30):
hundred family childcare in home family childcarebusinesses close across the state. We also
saw more than twenty childcare centers clothes. If we're not able to find quality
care for our children, we don'tget to go to work, and often
the responsibility falls on women. Sothat's one barrier, additional barrier to access.
(07:51):
And the other is when you're lookingat tools and resources and how do
you run a business successfully experiences myself. About a decade ago, my former
partner and I tried to launch abusiness and it was really difficult. We
bootstrapped it, you know, Ikept my corporate job. He left corporate
(08:13):
to create and chase after this beautifulwoodworking business that he had And while both
of us have the corporate and businessexperience, it's very different than running a
small business. And we took itto capital a lot of our retirement funds.
We were stitching together showing up atall the pop up markets and doing
(08:35):
the marketing and running operations. Well, we did it. It was just
the two of us. We didn'tknow about organizations like Women Venture, We
didn't know about the CDFI community.If we had, we would have started
with not only a business plan,but there are in Minnesota. I feel
very fortunate that we have investments inour economy and the state is a great
(08:58):
part partner in being able to providethat access and resources to how do you
start a business? What does itlook like to formalize and incorporate in the
state of Minnesota. And then whenyou have that plan, what are some
ways for you to ensure that you'renavigating it in a way that you've got
people in the network to help giveyou feedback on the plan, who have
(09:20):
resources to bridge you to you know, not only pop up markets, but
if you're looking seriously at retail,the connections in the network within our community
to say there are experts that canhelp you get them on the shelf,
there are experts that can help youwith packaging. And we do hear from
our clients. I don't know whoto go to, who are the right
relationships to have and in my experience, when you have sponsors and you have
(09:43):
advocates, they're taking care of andthinking of you when you're not in the
room, right, And business dealsoften often happen or come up organically,
and so we've got a great networkto offer to our clients, and when
they engage with us, it justopens up these stores to that pure circle
peer support. So going back toyour question, what are the things that
(10:07):
are barriers that kind of get inthe way? Right? Capital access number
one, a formal kind of businesstrading, business plan and having that in
place and the network to be ableto support you and then care for our
children and our parents because that responsibilityalways heavily primarily on women. That networking
is important, of course, andlike you mentioned, organically, you know,
(10:31):
things come up in different places.I mean, it's it's I mean,
what do you send out? Areyou supposed to send out a formal
request for help? Or you knowthat doesn't that doesn't go well? Right?
So how do you how do youdo you foster the organic nature of
the networking? We do, wedo and there are you know, I
talk about being a community development financialinstitution. We're one of thirty across the
(10:56):
state of Minnesota. There are otherpartner organizations that are focused on helping women
to so NABO National Association Women BusinessOwners, We've got our Women's Business Development
Center, we have women entrepreneurs inMinnesota. So the ecosystem and the network
to support is broad, and sowhen someone comes to work with us,
it is ensuring that they know whatother resources exist. And then if we
(11:20):
don't have it, then we're bridgingand we're bridging to other services when it
comes to perhaps getting credit ready rightand so there are financial credit resources to
bridge people to, including in ourbanking community as well. Many of our
sponsors and supporters are your community banksall the way up to your Fortune five
(11:41):
hundred type organizations. We have thoserelationships to say, here are some bankers
that you should be talking to orconnecting with. And then when we get
into the specifics of do you knowanyone that's not packaging, who's a good
marketer or web developer. I'm lookingfor this phone call last week, I'm
(12:01):
looking for someone to help me witha PR, PR and branding opportunity.
So those are the networks and thatwe really provide to our clients, and
not just on the local level,but also on the national level, I
mentioned we're the only women's business centerin the Twin Cities that's designated by the
US Small Business Administration, So wehave great connections with the SBA. We
(12:22):
are working on a project right nowto support a business in North Minneapolis through
congressional funding we're working with and wealso work with at the local level.
State Minnesota Data is a great partnerof ours, as well as the Department
of Human Services. So depending onthe industry, it's likely one of those
things where it's like we probably knowsomeone that can help you or connect you
(12:46):
and to get you the support thingyou need. And what's in it for
the people who do the connecting,what do they get out of it?
Yeah, so the community development aspectof it, right, And so when
I mentioned you, when you lookacross and you go to a business on
Main Street, restaurant, coffee shops, your barbershop, those are things that
are fueled by small business owners.So you as a consumer have the benefit
(13:09):
of being able to be a patronof those places. But then more broadly,
from an economic perspective, when you'resupporting small businesses, not only is
it supporting the business owner and theemployees that are there. You're also supporting
the economics of your community. Andoftentimes our clients will come to us and
say, I really have two goals, which are I want to run my
(13:31):
business successfully and second, I wantto provide for my family. We have
many success stories where working with us, clients have been able to purchase a
home, in home ownership, ina business. Owning and running a business
are ways to generate wealth and togenerate generational wealth, right and that is
(13:52):
why our donors, our volunteers showup. Because we continue to reinvest in
the community, create more jobs,create more businesses, and then as you
know, you know globally, thatreally helps to run our economics well and
why we have such a healthy economicenvironment. I want to talk about one
barrier that you mentioned before, thebarrier of child care or care and generally
(14:13):
do care for parents or kids eitherway. Why do you think that's Why
do you think that falls to womenas much as it does. I think
naturally it has. And when wego back to nineteen seventy eight when Women
Venture were first founded, the roleof the women in the household was to
(14:35):
provide care, childcare, run thehousehold. So I think it's generations,
hundreds of years of having that asan expectation, and over time, we've
seen women enter the workforce in away that you're seeing them in more leadership
positions, You're seeing them running businessesand companies, and with it, we
(14:56):
have not necessarily evolved as a societyand even from a legislative perspective to create
policies, rules, regulations to enablewomen to be in the workforce and have
affordable childcare in such a way whereseeing childcare as an educational pathway for our
children too. And what I meanby that is, I was just visiting
(15:20):
with a childcare provider client of oursyesterday and she has an in home childcare
center. She wants to continue togrow her business to support second and third
shift workers. Our policies have notcaught up the policies in terms of licensing
the process in which she should goabout growing her business as second and third
(15:41):
shift. The policies have not caughtup to the modernization of how we work
right and so oftentimes the numbers don'twork out. So when you see that
people are exiting the childcare business,and this is where Women Venture has helped
many of our clients throughout your ventureprogram. Women don't always see it as
(16:03):
a business first. They see itas caring for children and helping out their
neighbors and helping out their community.So what we do is we take a
look at, well, how areyou running the childcare business, what's the
fee you know, what are youcharging, what does your capacity look like?
And running your books efficiently, effectively, where is some investments being made,
what does your space look like,And understanding that the capital that you
(16:26):
need may come in the form ofa loan or a grant, but it
may also come in how you're pricing. It may also come in taking advantage
of certain programs that are available atyour city, county level as well as
at the federal level. But what'scommon is that what's the connective tissue.
Who's to tell you where all thoseresources are? And when you are on
(16:47):
ten to twelve hours a day caringfor five to twelve children in your home,
there's very little capacity at the endof the day to go and find
the resources that you need and alsoto go through the application process. By
the way, it can be arduous, which is two kids in my house
and watching them for a couple ofhours that's you're done right your toast.
(17:10):
So I have four children, wehave a blended family, one of the
things that we ran into. Andthe pandemic has a lot to do with
this too. As far as extra, there's extra that the childcare provider is
now responsible for, more cleaning products, more rigorous kind of policies around illness
and sickness. The cost of everythinghas gone up. What has not caught
(17:33):
up are the rates in which thoseadjustments need to be made for the childcare
provider and then for parents, what'sthe support that they're receiving to be able
to pay for childcare? With ushaving four children at home ages three to
eleven, the cost of care isit matches our mortgage or exceeds it if
(17:59):
you think about some programs and sothat we can go to work, my
husband and I. It is atremendous cost to families and particularly to single
parents as well, right, andso what resources are out there and what's
available to them. That's a partof the childcare crisis that we need to
solve for and people need to startseeing it as it's an investment in our
(18:22):
kids' education, it's an investment intoour economy and that it's not a problem
that someone else sure should solve,it's a problem that we need to collaborate
on and solve together. You mentionedCOVID a little earlier, you talked about
supply chain issues. Still, whatother challenges are there still out there because
of COVID workforce? So workforce thatthe end details ties into the childcare issue.
(18:45):
Perhaps why people aren't showing up orable to apply and get back into
the workforces because that childcare barrier isreal and being able to find talent.
We're all competing for talent, whetherit's nonprofit sector, corporate, and otherwise.
There is there are challenges around whatthe employee wants to see, both
(19:10):
in terms of compensation as well asthe environment in which they work. You
know, often employees or employers areasking people to come back into the office
five days a week and I'm traditionalto what they had before, and workers
are demanding something that looks a littledifferent. At Women Venture, we continue
to be hybrid. We're officed outof the coven in Saint Paul. We
(19:33):
gather as a team, so there'sthirty of us. We gather once a
month. That's mandatory, all staffmeeting in person. If we ask you
together in person. It's with intentionand it's with a focus, and then
teams will gather organically. But theylike not having to be kind of told
necessarily like I need to be inthe office from nine to five every day.
(19:55):
It gives them the flexibility that theyneed to support their families. About
thirty five percent of my employees aresingle moms, so that flexibility works really
well. The collaboration is still reallystrong. We're talking to each other all
the time as long as we're servicingour clients, providing support for our community.
Work looks really different than it didin twenty nineteen. And as an
(20:18):
executive director CEO of a nonprofit,I'm constantly talking with other executive directors around
talent, talent attraction, talent retention, and we see it in the headlines
as far as challenges that all industriesare having as far as securing talent.
I'm proud to say that we havefive generations in our workforce and it's not
(20:41):
necessarily easy to kind of navigate thosedifferent generational differences, but we make it
work and make it work. Well. Wow, yeah, that's at least
a lot of great ideas. I'msure there's a lot of great ideas,
ideation, we test and learn.We have the ability to do that with
our client's input as well well,So that shows up in our curriculum,
(21:02):
the content that they need, thebusiness challenges that our clients see today versus
what they had a couple of yearsago. It continues to evolve. So
our challenge is how do we meetthe need of our clients and talk about
support too in the network, bringingin those experts to help navigate right,
Like, if you, as anexample, want to open a cannabis business,
(21:25):
what do I need to do toget ready for that? And then
how do I find capital? Andwho else is trying to do this?
It's a newer industry in the stateof Minnesota. We've got clients that have
an immediate need to have a businessplan that's ready to go, so we're
connecting them. But that's a greatexample of how things change month to month,
year to year. We're talking againto Leanne say your last name again,
(21:48):
Racid Jack, Racijack, LeAnn Rasijacfrom Women Venture and maybe you're listening
to this and thinking this sounds awesome. What are some ways that people can
either get involved with you or helpyou right. Thank you for the the
question. So Women Venture you canfind us at women venture dot org all
of our online resources and content thereto apply to become a volunteer. So
(22:10):
we are always looking for volunteer mentorsto help look at and evaluate business plans,
to sit on some of our committeesto see, you know, what
are the when we think about ourloan committees as an example, how you
can help evaluate and provide access tocapital in our communities, and then we
reinvest because we have a revolving loanfund, so that's the gift that keeps
on giving. And then women venturedot org or if you come find us
(22:33):
in person at the Covenant Saint Paul. We are also always looking for monetary
donations and contributions to help fund ourcore mission operations and that goes towards building
out the capital pool that we haveso that we can continue to provide not
only loans but also grants. Weare also seeking opportunities for us to continue
(22:57):
to invest in making our clients it'seven better faster, right, and those
are infrastructure pieces that help really solvefor issues longer term, so that we
can continue to serve thousands of businessowners that come to us every year and
across the sixteen county metro area andinto western Wisconsin, volunteering contributions as well
(23:22):
as helping to share and advocate ourstories. Check out our client directory.
We've got more than four hundred clientsthat are are within our client directory where
you can look them up. There'san interactive map so you can see if
you're out and about worre's the nearestwomen owned business that I can help to
support. We have that on womenventure dot org too. That's awesome,
(23:45):
all right? Anything else we shouldknow about women venture? So this year
we are deploying a as a partof our state appropriation from the Minnesota Legislator.
We've got two programs, both focusedone focused on childcare and then the
focused on food related businesses. Andso if you are a childcare business owner
(24:06):
or a food related business owner andfood could be farmed, a table,
retail, food truck, restaurant,et cetera. We've got a grant program
as well as loan program that aretied to both of these things initiatives,
and then additional programming meant just forthese business owners and childcare and food.
(24:26):
We're deploying roughly two million dollars outinto market over the next two years,
and so please check us out.We're here to help to support these business
owners and we've got definitely access forthem and a network that can help to
support they're not only launching, butgrowing and expanding their businesses. Again,
(24:47):
rest check from Women Venture, Womenventure dot org. That's right, Women
venture dot org. Thank you somuch, Thank you,
It's CEOs you should know and welcome. Leanne Rasachek from Women Venture. Tell
me all about Women Venture. Yes, so we've been around for forty five
years. Women Venture was launched innineteen seventy eight. Started out as an
organization that helped women enter or reenter the workforce, so taking their household
responsibilities and transferring to them on paperon helping them get into the workforce.
(00:23):
And so fast forward now forty someyears and we're a nonprofit organization and community
development financial institution that helps entrepreneurs andsmall business owners. So we serve we're
the only women's business center in theTwin Cities. We serve the sixteen county
metro area and into western Wisconsin.And through that it's entrepreneurs at are just
(00:47):
getting started with an idea all theway through to business owners who have been
in business for several years running milliondollar plus organizations. And the two core
things that we do to help thembusiness training develop so ensuring that you've got
a business plan an operational plan thatreally helps you run a profitable and sustainable
(01:07):
business. And then we also provideaccess to capital so they can come Women
can come to us for a fivehundred dollars loan up to one hundred thousand
dollars, and we're usually offering lendingprograms and capital access at a much lower
interest rate than a traditional bank.Okay, And why do you do this?
Exactly? Why we do it isto help fuel our main streets.
(01:30):
Right. So, when we thinkabout economic development in the Twin Sydneys and
across the minute, across Minnesota,oftentimes we hear and see from our clients
that there are barriers to access andthat is just getting started and getting the
initial capital and or really learning howto navigate. You know, you may
have a great product or service thatyou create that you deliver, but operationalizing
(01:55):
it and running in as a business, seeing it as a business, that's
where we help people come in andprovide that as a recoace. And so
when you talk about the plans andthings like that, where does that come
from? Are there there people withexperience that are sort of guiding the long
mentors? Or there are there areSo we have an access a pool of
volunteers and mentors through our partners atSCORE, but then also through our network
(02:16):
of our local companies corporations at volunteertheir time with their employees to help look
out a business strategy, to helpdig into your financials. And then we
also have a staff of thirty soas part of that staff, we have
people who have expertise in childcare,who have expertise in financial so we'll take
a look at your books and makesure you're running it on a platform that
(02:38):
works well and that you're actually evaluatingyour books on a regular basis, all
the way through to people who arelooking at your marketing plan, right,
how are you activating, what doesyour sales pricing look like? And then
how are you telling your brand story? And in this case for our small
businesses, you know they're not likelarge corporations where you can hire a consultant
(02:59):
or an age and say partner.We don't have thousands of dollars right to
be able to do that as abusiness owner, and so through Women Venture,
we provide access to those resources eithervia people mentors that help you one
and one through our cohort and trainingprogram. So we run classes both virtually
and in person essentially every month everyweek out of the year to help entrepreneurs
(03:23):
really look at and run it asa profitable and sustainable business. And we
know that the success rate of smallbusinesses that first five years is really critical.
So we want to help you getpast that five years so that you
can scale and grow, so thatfirst five years you have numbers, you
know, success versus not success.Ninety five percent of small businesses fail within
(03:45):
the first five years. Really,yes, and so why that matters to
us here? As you look atthe main streets, whether here in Saint
Louis Park or out in Lichfield,you know, those are typically ran by
small business owners. And when yousee open doors or people closing their businesses,
(04:05):
oftentimes that's a small business owner thatyou're working with. And what we
often hear from them right now,especially coming out of the pandemic, people
are squeezed by supply chain issues.People are running up against inflation, high
interest rates. We've been helping ourclients trends that we're seeing are helping them
(04:27):
restructure loans and deals in which they'rerunning against double digit interest rates from their
way, Wow, that's huge.How do we help them decrease that?
What kind of numbers are we talkingabout in terms of people you're helping?
And then on the other side,people who are volunteering their time or mentoring
or whatever. Yeah. So lastyear we supported roughly fifteen hundred different business
(04:48):
owners and entrepreneurs. Wow. Ofthat time it was combined both training and
consulting hours north of thirteen thousand hours. Wow. And then that those hours
are made up from our staff andour volunteers. So we have a volunteer
base of about one hundred and fiftypeople, both retired and active in the
(05:11):
business industry. And we're always on. We're always on, no matter where
she is and no matter what stageof business, where there is support for
her. And it can be ona consultant basis, or in a training
class, or if you're looking forcapital, you know. As an example,
today we're going into a loan committeemeeting. If all comes out all
(05:33):
right, we'll be dispersing five fivehundred thousand dollars into the market in the
next month. Wow. It feelspretty good, right, It feels great.
It feels great to be able todo that. That's a half million
dollars. A half million dollars.The goal this year for US is three
million. I think helpful to knowtoo is I've been in the seat for
just over two years as CEO,and I recall you know, when I
(05:58):
was on the board of Women Venture, our goal at the time was a
million dollars. Let's try to focuson dispersing a million every year. You
know, that was three years ago. Now we're looking at three million in
the next three to five years.We're going to double down and say ten
million. Let's get that into themarket to be able to support more business
owners and women. Quite frankly,our experience often is we hear no a
(06:23):
lot entrepreneurs here, know a lot. Women Venture is not the only CDFI
in the Twin Cities market or inMinnesota, there's thirty of us. We
work very closely together. We wantto provide more access to her because our
mission is we believe that women canfeel and be the economic engine that runs
the world. Can you talk aboutsome of the other barriers besides obviously financial,
(06:46):
but I'm sure there's more than that. Capital access is number pretty high
up there, number one. Butwhen we look at women in particular caregiving
responsibilities that we have, you areoften sandwiched between caring for our children and
also caring for our parents, andthat often becomes a barrier to access and
(07:09):
running a business successfully. There isn'tenough care or access to quality and affordable
childcare, which is one key initiativethat Women Venture is focused on helping to
be a part of solving that crisis. So by the numbers this year twenty
twenty or this past year in twentytwenty three, we saw more than two
(07:30):
hundred family childcare in home family childcarebusinesses close across the state. We also
saw more than twenty childcare centers clothes. If we're not able to find quality
care for our children, we don'tget to go to work, and often
the responsibility falls on women. Sothat's one barrier, additional barrier to access.
(07:51):
And the other is when you're lookingat tools and resources and how do
you run a business successfully experiences myself. About a decade ago, my former
partner and I tried to launch abusiness and it was really difficult. We
bootstrapped it, you know, Ikept my corporate job. He left corporate
(08:13):
to create and chase after this beautifulwoodworking business that he had And while both
of us have the corporate and businessexperience, it's very different than running a
small business. And we took itto capital a lot of our retirement funds.
We were stitching together showing up atall the pop up markets and doing
(08:35):
the marketing and running operations. Well, we did it. It was just
the two of us. We didn'tknow about organizations like Women Venture, We
didn't know about the CDFI community.If we had, we would have started
with not only a business plan,but there are in Minnesota. I feel
very fortunate that we have investments inour economy and the state is a great
(08:58):
part partner in being able to providethat access and resources to how do you
start a business? What does itlook like to formalize and incorporate in the
state of Minnesota. And then whenyou have that plan, what are some
ways for you to ensure that you'renavigating it in a way that you've got
people in the network to help giveyou feedback on the plan, who have
(09:20):
resources to bridge you to you know, not only pop up markets, but
if you're looking seriously at retail,the connections in the network within our community
to say there are experts that canhelp you get them on the shelf,
there are experts that can help youwith packaging. And we do hear from
our clients. I don't know whoto go to, who are the right
relationships to have and in my experience, when you have sponsors and you have
(09:43):
advocates, they're taking care of andthinking of you when you're not in the
room, right, And business dealsoften often happen or come up organically,
and so we've got a great networkto offer to our clients, and when
they engage with us, it justopens up these stores to that pure circle
peer support. So going back toyour question, what are the things that
(10:07):
are barriers that kind of get inthe way? Right? Capital access number
one, a formal kind of businesstrading, business plan and having that in
place and the network to be ableto support you and then care for our
children and our parents because that responsibilityalways heavily primarily on women. That networking
is important, of course, andlike you mentioned, organically, you know,
(10:31):
things come up in different places.I mean, it's it's I mean,
what do you send out? Areyou supposed to send out a formal
request for help? Or you knowthat doesn't that doesn't go well? Right?
So how do you how do youdo you foster the organic nature of
the networking? We do, wedo and there are you know, I
talk about being a community development financialinstitution. We're one of thirty across the
(10:56):
state of Minnesota. There are otherpartner organizations that are focused on helping women
to so NABO National Association Women BusinessOwners, We've got our Women's Business Development
Center, we have women entrepreneurs inMinnesota. So the ecosystem and the network
to support is broad, and sowhen someone comes to work with us,
it is ensuring that they know whatother resources exist. And then if we
(11:20):
don't have it, then we're bridgingand we're bridging to other services when it
comes to perhaps getting credit ready rightand so there are financial credit resources to
bridge people to, including in ourbanking community as well. Many of our
sponsors and supporters are your community banksall the way up to your Fortune five
(11:41):
hundred type organizations. We have thoserelationships to say, here are some bankers
that you should be talking to orconnecting with. And then when we get
into the specifics of do you knowanyone that's not packaging, who's a good
marketer or web developer. I'm lookingfor this phone call last week, I'm
(12:01):
looking for someone to help me witha PR, PR and branding opportunity.
So those are the networks and thatwe really provide to our clients, and
not just on the local level,but also on the national level, I
mentioned we're the only women's business centerin the Twin Cities that's designated by the
US Small Business Administration, So wehave great connections with the SBA. We
(12:22):
are working on a project right nowto support a business in North Minneapolis through
congressional funding we're working with and wealso work with at the local level.
State Minnesota Data is a great partnerof ours, as well as the Department
of Human Services. So depending onthe industry, it's likely one of those
things where it's like we probably knowsomeone that can help you or connect you
(12:46):
and to get you the support thingyou need. And what's in it for
the people who do the connecting,what do they get out of it?
Yeah, so the community development aspectof it, right, And so when
I mentioned you, when you lookacross and you go to a business on
Main Street, restaurant, coffee shops, your barbershop, those are things that
are fueled by small business owners.So you as a consumer have the benefit
(13:09):
of being able to be a patronof those places. But then more broadly,
from an economic perspective, when you'resupporting small businesses, not only is
it supporting the business owner and theemployees that are there. You're also supporting
the economics of your community. Andoftentimes our clients will come to us and
say, I really have two goals, which are I want to run my
(13:31):
business successfully and second, I wantto provide for my family. We have
many success stories where working with us, clients have been able to purchase a
home, in home ownership, ina business. Owning and running a business
are ways to generate wealth and togenerate generational wealth, right and that is
(13:52):
why our donors, our volunteers showup. Because we continue to reinvest in
the community, create more jobs,create more businesses, and then as you
know, you know globally, thatreally helps to run our economics well and
why we have such a healthy economicenvironment. I want to talk about one
barrier that you mentioned before, thebarrier of child care or care and generally
(14:13):
do care for parents or kids eitherway. Why do you think that's Why
do you think that falls to womenas much as it does. I think
naturally it has. And when wego back to nineteen seventy eight when Women
Venture were first founded, the roleof the women in the household was to
(14:35):
provide care, childcare, run thehousehold. So I think it's generations,
hundreds of years of having that asan expectation, and over time, we've
seen women enter the workforce in away that you're seeing them in more leadership
positions, You're seeing them running businessesand companies, and with it, we
(14:56):
have not necessarily evolved as a societyand even from a legislative perspective to create
policies, rules, regulations to enablewomen to be in the workforce and have
affordable childcare in such a way whereseeing childcare as an educational pathway for our
children too. And what I meanby that is, I was just visiting
(15:20):
with a childcare provider client of oursyesterday and she has an in home childcare
center. She wants to continue togrow her business to support second and third
shift workers. Our policies have notcaught up the policies in terms of licensing
the process in which she should goabout growing her business as second and third
(15:41):
shift. The policies have not caughtup to the modernization of how we work
right and so oftentimes the numbers don'twork out. So when you see that
people are exiting the childcare business,and this is where Women Venture has helped
many of our clients throughout your ventureprogram. Women don't always see it as
(16:03):
a business first. They see itas caring for children and helping out their
neighbors and helping out their community.So what we do is we take a
look at, well, how areyou running the childcare business, what's the
fee you know, what are youcharging, what does your capacity look like?
And running your books efficiently, effectively, where is some investments being made,
what does your space look like,And understanding that the capital that you
(16:26):
need may come in the form ofa loan or a grant, but it
may also come in how you're pricing. It may also come in taking advantage
of certain programs that are available atyour city, county level as well as
at the federal level. But what'scommon is that what's the connective tissue.
Who's to tell you where all thoseresources are? And when you are on
(16:47):
ten to twelve hours a day caringfor five to twelve children in your home,
there's very little capacity at the endof the day to go and find
the resources that you need and alsoto go through the application process. By
the way, it can be arduous, which is two kids in my house
and watching them for a couple ofhours that's you're done right your toast.
(17:10):
So I have four children, wehave a blended family, one of the
things that we ran into. Andthe pandemic has a lot to do with
this too. As far as extra, there's extra that the childcare provider is
now responsible for, more cleaning products, more rigorous kind of policies around illness
and sickness. The cost of everythinghas gone up. What has not caught
(17:33):
up are the rates in which thoseadjustments need to be made for the childcare
provider and then for parents, what'sthe support that they're receiving to be able
to pay for childcare? With ushaving four children at home ages three to
eleven, the cost of care isit matches our mortgage or exceeds it if
(17:59):
you think about some programs and sothat we can go to work, my
husband and I. It is atremendous cost to families and particularly to single
parents as well, right, andso what resources are out there and what's
available to them. That's a partof the childcare crisis that we need to
solve for and people need to startseeing it as it's an investment in our
(18:22):
kids' education, it's an investment intoour economy and that it's not a problem
that someone else sure should solve,it's a problem that we need to collaborate
on and solve together. You mentionedCOVID a little earlier, you talked about
supply chain issues. Still, whatother challenges are there still out there because
of COVID workforce? So workforce thatthe end details ties into the childcare issue.
(18:45):
Perhaps why people aren't showing up orable to apply and get back into
the workforces because that childcare barrier isreal and being able to find talent.
We're all competing for talent, whetherit's nonprofit sector, corporate, and otherwise.
There is there are challenges around whatthe employee wants to see, both
(19:10):
in terms of compensation as well asthe environment in which they work. You
know, often employees or employers areasking people to come back into the office
five days a week and I'm traditionalto what they had before, and workers
are demanding something that looks a littledifferent. At Women Venture, we continue
to be hybrid. We're officed outof the coven in Saint Paul. We
(19:33):
gather as a team, so there'sthirty of us. We gather once a
month. That's mandatory, all staffmeeting in person. If we ask you
together in person. It's with intentionand it's with a focus, and then
teams will gather organically. But theylike not having to be kind of told
necessarily like I need to be inthe office from nine to five every day.
(19:55):
It gives them the flexibility that theyneed to support their families. About
thirty five percent of my employees aresingle moms, so that flexibility works really
well. The collaboration is still reallystrong. We're talking to each other all
the time as long as we're servicingour clients, providing support for our community.
Work looks really different than it didin twenty nineteen. And as an
(20:18):
executive director CEO of a nonprofit,I'm constantly talking with other executive directors around
talent, talent attraction, talent retention, and we see it in the headlines
as far as challenges that all industriesare having as far as securing talent.
I'm proud to say that we havefive generations in our workforce and it's not
(20:41):
necessarily easy to kind of navigate thosedifferent generational differences, but we make it
work and make it work. Well. Wow, yeah, that's at least
a lot of great ideas. I'msure there's a lot of great ideas,
ideation, we test and learn.We have the ability to do that with
our client's input as well well,So that shows up in our curriculum,
(21:02):
the content that they need, thebusiness challenges that our clients see today versus
what they had a couple of yearsago. It continues to evolve. So
our challenge is how do we meetthe need of our clients and talk about
support too in the network, bringingin those experts to help navigate right,
Like, if you, as anexample, want to open a cannabis business,
(21:25):
what do I need to do toget ready for that? And then
how do I find capital? Andwho else is trying to do this?
It's a newer industry in the stateof Minnesota. We've got clients that have
an immediate need to have a businessplan that's ready to go, so we're
connecting them. But that's a greatexample of how things change month to month,
year to year. We're talking againto Leanne say your last name again,
(21:48):
Racid Jack, Racijack, LeAnn Rasijacfrom Women Venture and maybe you're listening
to this and thinking this sounds awesome. What are some ways that people can
either get involved with you or helpyou right. Thank you for the the
question. So Women Venture you canfind us at women venture dot org all
of our online resources and content thereto apply to become a volunteer. So
(22:10):
we are always looking for volunteer mentorsto help look at and evaluate business plans,
to sit on some of our committeesto see, you know, what
are the when we think about ourloan committees as an example, how you
can help evaluate and provide access tocapital in our communities, and then we
reinvest because we have a revolving loanfund, so that's the gift that keeps
on giving. And then women venturedot org or if you come find us
(22:33):
in person at the Covenant Saint Paul. We are also always looking for monetary
donations and contributions to help fund ourcore mission operations and that goes towards building
out the capital pool that we haveso that we can continue to provide not
only loans but also grants. Weare also seeking opportunities for us to continue
(22:57):
to invest in making our clients it'seven better faster, right, and those
are infrastructure pieces that help really solvefor issues longer term, so that we
can continue to serve thousands of businessowners that come to us every year and
across the sixteen county metro area andinto western Wisconsin, volunteering contributions as well
(23:22):
as helping to share and advocate ourstories. Check out our client directory.
We've got more than four hundred clientsthat are are within our client directory where
you can look them up. There'san interactive map so you can see if
you're out and about worre's the nearestwomen owned business that I can help to
support. We have that on womenventure dot org too. That's awesome,
(23:45):
all right? Anything else we shouldknow about women venture? So this year
we are deploying a as a partof our state appropriation from the Minnesota Legislator.
We've got two programs, both focusedone focused on childcare and then the
focused on food related businesses. Andso if you are a childcare business owner
(24:06):
or a food related business owner andfood could be farmed, a table,
retail, food truck, restaurant,et cetera. We've got a grant program
as well as loan program that aretied to both of these things initiatives,
and then additional programming meant just forthese business owners and childcare and food.
(24:26):
We're deploying roughly two million dollars outinto market over the next two years,
and so please check us out.We're here to help to support these business
owners and we've got definitely access forthem and a network that can help to
support they're not only launching, butgrowing and expanding their businesses. Again,
(24:47):
rest check from Women Venture, Womenventure dot org. That's right, Women
venture dot org. Thank you somuch, Thank you,
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