At the Takes Heart event at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Divya Gupta spoke with the women entrepreneurs about some of their biggest challenges: money and banks. Hear from many of the event attendees in her latest article in the Kansas City Star.
The article discusses the significant barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in Kansas City, focusing on issues with accessing financial support from banks. Denisha Jones, founder of Sweet Peachers Cobblers, shared her journey of starting her business and the difficulties she faced due to a lack of financial knowledge and credit. Winning a grant from Kansas City G.I.F.T. helped her gain essential business skills and support. The article argues for the inclusion of entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy in high school curriculums to better prepare future entrepreneurs.
Other entrepreneurs, like Allie Lohman of All For Moms Foundation and Neelima Parasker of SnapIT Solutions, also shared their struggles with understanding banking and finance, highlighting how gender and racial biases exacerbate these challenges. Lohman spoke about the dilemma of spending money to learn about funding versus saving it for her nonprofit, while Parasker noted that banks should have provided funding that her clients ultimately helped cover.
The article points out the disparity in financial literacy education between Missouri and Kansas, with Missouri receiving an A grade and Kansas a C. Kansas is beginning to implement a financial literacy requirement similar to Missouri’s, but both states are urged to include entrepreneurship education to help future business owners navigate financial challenges effectively.
