Investing in women's economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender equality, according to U.N. Women. As people around the world celebrated International Women's Day, the women of the Kansas City business community were doing the same.
"It's an exciting day," says Urban Hikes KC owner Lisa Peña. "I feel like it's almost like a birthday or something for all women, and women can just congratulate each other."
Peña, along with Kim Conyers of Cauldron Collective and Tiffany Kim of MY Play Café, stress the importance of finding a mentor when building a new business, especially one that is in the niche of that specific company.
Conyers says getting started with a new entrepreneurial venture is about putting yourself out there and going for it.
"You only live once," she says. "There's no reason to let fear hold you back on that... it was just sort of having to push a lot of that aside and say, 'well, here we go!'"
- Tiffany Kim, owner of MY Play Café
- Kim Conyers, owner of Cauldron Collective
- Lisa Peña, owner of Urban Hikes KC