Being an entrepreneur can be difficult. Being a female entrepreneur can be grueling. “The top obstacle is a lack of funding,” said Carley Graham Garcia, executive director of Montclair State University’s Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. She cited a Fortune magazine article showing that of the $100 million venture capital that went to start-ups in 2018, only 2.2 percent went to women founders. “Women are getting a tiny sliver of the pie,” Garcia said.

In fact, the electronic-cigarette company Juul took in $12.8 billion, which is more venture capital funding than all female entrepreneurs combined managed to collect.

Garcia is doing more than list the damning facts. She is one of the organizers of the Women Entrepreneurship Week Conference scheduled for Oct. 21 and 23.

The conference will feature a dozen entrepreneurs from a variety of industries, including Abby Taylor, co-founder of Playa Bowls, and Betty Manetta, president and chief executive director of Argent Associates. The event will culminate with Jen Shap leading Google’s #IamRemarkable Workshop, designed to empower women and underrepresented groups and celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond. A panel on women in technology will feature Jessica Gonzalez, CEO and founder of InCharged.

Argent Associates provides technology, products, services and supply chain solutions. Born in Argentina, Manetta moved to New Jersey as a child. She earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and accounting from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in international studies from Seton Hall University.

She will discuss overcoming barriers within the business context.

“I think the message to women, especially entrepreneurs, is you have to be intentional,” Manetta said.

“Do not be apologetic. We need to ensure our place at the table and I think all too often we are apologetic. We need to be intentional because unless we act and unless we are vocal, we will not be at the table with our counterparts.”

Manetta encourages female entrepreneurs to support each other.

“How do we help each other?” Manetta said. “How do women help each other grow?

Manetta said female entrepreneurs face many barriers that male entrepreneurs do not face: less access to capital and less access to contracts. This problem is especially true for women of color and Latinas.

“When you are talking about women in technology, they don’t really take you seriously,” she said. “That is a major challenge. And that barrier continues to exist.”

‘Surfer kids’ with a dream

Abby Taylor co-founded Playa Bowls along with Robert Giuliani. They make acai bowls that contain one of the highest percentages of natural acai pulp in the country.

“When you have your own business, it is never easy,” Taylor said. “If it were easy, I think everyone would do it.”

The pair sampled acai in a variety of locations and Giuliani suggested to Taylor that acai bowls would fill a business niche along the Jersey Shore. After starting with a roadside cart, they now operate 78 stores including 50 locations in New Jersey.

“We are surfer kids who had a dream,” Taylor said. “We are not conventional. We created an awesome culture and created a cool dynamic. We created a vibe that people want.”

But Taylor said she is treated differently as a female entrepreneur.

“I see that every single day,” Taylor said. “Yesterday I was painting in one of my stores in Millburn. A guy came up to me and was sort of rude and said ‘I guess you’re the painter.’ He spoke down about it.”
Taylor asks as many questions as possible to learn, network, grow and expand. She breaks the ice by being vocal.

“I am in meetings and I do not think men necessarily mean to do it, but it is something they are inherently doing,” Taylor said. “I think it is not being afraid of who you are, what you have done, and how you got there. I think a lot of people are scared to ask questions. I did not go to school for business. I literally surround myself with great people who are smarter than me in their fields and I was not afraid to ask hard questions.”

Garcia said this year’s conference will continue to expand Montclair State’s support and thought leadership series for female entrepreneurs.

“We have a variety of TED-style Talks, which are seven- or eight-minute lightning rounds for entrepreneurs in our community and beyond,” Garcia said.

The conference will also offer free child care from Lightbridge Academy, a franchise based in New Jersey. Lightbridge Academy has supported the conference for years, Garcia said.

Garcia welcomes women and men to the conference, noting childcare is relevant to all entrepreneurs.
“This is one conference,” Garcia said. “It will by no means solve that but it will hopefully create an opportunity for someone who would otherwise not be able to attend.”

The parenthood effect

Female entrepreneurs have experienced success stories in recent years that might have been less likely in the not-too-distant past. Personal challenges include not being able to find professional childcare. This barrier affects female and male entrepreneurs.

“I think parenthood is a good one to note,” Garcia said. “It makes you in a lot of ways a better businesswoman because you are that much more connected to the world around you and understand how to best prioritize the top issues.”

Besides children, entrepreneurs of both genders are also caring for aging parents and each other.
“Like anything, parenthood helps you work smarter,” Garcia said. “Parenthood helps sharpen a woman entrepreneur. Like anything that requires time management, it becomes a challenge as well.”

“Being a mother myself has helped me to prioritize and work efficiently,” Garcia said.

She hopes men come to the conference too.

“A co-director of our innovation lab said to me having your children present in your life – your professional life as well – is not only extremely positive for them, but it’s also the best way to teach,” Garcia said. “We should not have this big distinction between our professional lives and personal lives.

In some ways it makes sense for them to be interwoven. I think for an entrepreneur, what you find, because this is a passion project, this is something that they are creating and building from nothing. This is one thing we wanted to do with a childcare partner in our state.”