Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................3
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals............................. 4,6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Hispanic Heritage Festival 2018
On Sept. 15, the City of Inglewood recognized the contributions made by Hispanic and Latino Americans during the Hispanic Heritage Festival. The event at Crozier Middle School featured live
entertainment, carnival-style and interactive games, arts and crafts, vendor and information booths, plus a classic car show. Some of the colorful performers joined Inglewood Police Department members
in this photo. Photo: Inglewood PD.
Women Reveal the Realities of
Owning a Business Today
By Rob McCarthy
You go, girl!
Women are showing an entrepreneurial
spirit these days, walking out of their 9 to 5
workplaces and into self-employment, and one
South Bay networking group leader thinks it’s
only the beginning of a trend.
Candy Messer, the president of the South
Bay Business Women’s Association, cheered a
recent report showing an uptick in the number
of women-owned businesses with paid employees.
Though the number of women last
year was small -- 2.8 percent -- Messer sees
something bigger happening. “It’s wonderful
to see because these can become mentors to
other women who want to start their own
businesses,” she said. There’s a need in the
local business community for role models
like that.
The Census Bureau’s annual survey of
entrepreneurs noted that women of all races
are making gains in what has been a maledominated
sector of the economy. The number
of women-owned employer firms nationwide
was nearly 1.2 million in 2016. Women owned
one-fifth all of businesses that were operating
that year, according to the bureau, and one in
four of them were women of color.
Just like the companies they start, women’s
paths to self-employment are interesting and
unique. Messer says she wasn’t looking to
leave her job as a payroll specialist with a
local company when opportunity came calling.
What started as a side job to help out a friend
led her into self-employment.
Messer decided if she was going to freelance
her payroll and accounting skills to one client,
she might as well expand her side business
and see where it led. Her decision to move
toward self-employment paid off, and now
Messer runs her own firm in Harbor City with
a business partner.
Messer understands the money side of business.
She talked about the reality of seeing a
client struggle to pay the bills. Having retained
clients in dire financial straits, she said women
should be ready to make a tough business decision
about when to help a client who can’t
pay or cut them loose. “In my experience,
women tend to hang on longer in these cases
and give people more of a chance to catch
up,” she explained.
Catherine Graham stayed in her lane when
she left her employer earlier this year to start
her business, The Financial Aid Shop. She had
30 years of experience in the field of finance
for higher education. She noted that she made
the decision to become a solo entrepreneur
because of a desire to change the way students
and their families think about financing a college
education.
The Census Bureau found that many new
business owners are just like Graham -- they
had no prior experience running a company.
Two-thirds of them had never owned or started
a company before taking the leap into selfemployment,
the bureau reported. Graham had
this advice for first-timers: Get a handle on
paying state and federal taxes and managing
money from the business, she emphasized.
Expect to make mistakes with money, but
don’t get discouraged because there may be
a hidden gain in those failures. “Don’t beat
yourself up for decisions or using resources
that did not work perfectly. Sometimes the
steps taken, even if they didn’t generate the
results expected, can move you forward in a
direction you did not expect,” she advised.
Being the boss for a startup is time-consuming
and some of the tasks can seem tedious, too.
Answering phone calls and dealing with computer
problems come with self-employment, so
be prepared for the nuts-and-bolts stuff that
has nothing to do with working with clients.
Graham said she’d rather be working with
students and their families. But by building
a business whose aim is to lower their stress
level about aid and avoid the crushing student
debt that holds back college graduates from
owning homes and marrying and starting a
family, she can help more people.
Many solo practices are home-based, so
learning to deal with distractions is key to
getting a business up and running, Graham
acknowledged. In the early stages, expect to
spend hours learning business processes and
mastering social media to get out the word
about your skills and expertise. Don’t pass up
any opportunity, keep an open mind and learn
as you go, she said. “Know your strengths
and weaknesses,” she advised. If possible, use
vendors to handle parts of the business -- like
designing a website -- that you don’t excel at
or lack confidence.
See Women Business, page 2
Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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The Weekly Newspaper of Inglewood
Daily News on a Weekly Basis - Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale & El Segundo Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - September 20, 2018