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Bobbi Wood laughs Dec. 3 at the work space, nail bar Glo, that she and her daughter Jade opened Nov. 2. It took the mother-daughter duo months of preparation and working with Missouri’s Women’s Business Center to get everything they needed to start a business. “This was a completely renovated space. It was walls and windows, and there was no flooring, ” Bobbi Wood said. “But other than that, ever since then, my whole following came, we’ve met more people through Women’s Business Center, through all these connections. That’s really what brought us together, empowered women that empower each other.”
Jade Wood, one of the owners of new Columbia nail bar Glo, starts a pedicure on client Madison Shaw on Dec. 3 at their location on Nifong Boulevard. Wood is 23 years old and has only been a nail technician for three years. She convinced her mom that they should open their own business after realizing that the nail bar they were previously employed by no longer suited them. “I never wanted to own a business. If it wasn’t for Jade to push, I would have not. And it’s just because I’ve been in the business going on 25 years in February, ” said Bobbi Wood, Jade’s mother. “It’s a lot harder to do a business. It’s harder than what you would imagine, because there were a lot of obstacles and a lot of hurdles that we had personally. Getting out of where we were from to doing this, we had a lot of hurdles ... but a lot of blessings as well. We finally made it. We finally made the doors open up, and it was like a dream come true.”
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Bobbi Wood paints a client's nail Dec. 3 at her nail bar, Glo. Wood has her daughter’s name tattooed on her biceps, saying that going into business together as mother and daughter made perfect sense because of how well they work together and how similar they were when it came to shaping their business. “She’s the one person I know I can trust, ” Jade said.
Bobbi Wood works on a client’s nails Dec. 3 at her nail bar, Glo. Wood and daughter Jade began the transition of opening their business while they were still working at their previous jobs as nail technicians at a different nail bar. When informed by another employee that the Woods were planning to register as an LLC, their boss informed them via text message that they were fired. “We were told we might have to wait a year to open. Well, we didn’t have a year to wait. So that right there, we were like, ‘OK, we’re going to take this, but we’re going to see what we can do, ’” Bobbi Wood said. “There were a lot of people that tried to stop us from opening, and it just made us strong. Every month made us stronger.”
Jade Wood, co-owner of new Columbia nail bar Glo, paints MU student Madison Shaw’s toenails Dec. 3 at the business's location on Nifong Boulevard. The Women’s Business Center is, as Bobbi Wood described, a center meant to guide and motivate women through the whole process of shaping and growing their businesses. “It was great. Everyone was helpful. No one talked down on each other. They didn’t talk at you if you didn’t understand something; they took time to make sure you understood it, ” Wood said. “They helped you without making you feel dumb or useless. It’s a lot easier and nicer. It feels a lot better.”
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Bobbi and Jade Wood are two of nearly 200 female or minority business owners in Columbia. That's a significant increase over the number of such businesses identified just five years ago.
When Bobbi and Jade Wood were fired via text message in May, they knew they only had a matter of months to transform their dream into a business.
They had an LLC, but their business plan required a lot of work. After months of working with Missouri Women’s Business Center and Regional Economic Development Inc., the mother and daughter launched Glo Nail Bar.
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The women are two of nearly 200 female or minority business owners in Columbia. That’s a significant increase over the number of such businesses identified just five years ago.
In 2010, Alisa McDonald-Warren’s master’s thesis attracted the attention of city officials. In “Successful Black Entrepreneurs in Columbia, Missouri, ” the MU student addressed the struggles many entrepreneurs face when seeking guidance on owning a business. She found that those who succeeded could not have done so without the help of family or friends.
In interviews with 24 black business owners, McDonald-Warren found that 58 percent received advanced education or training, 62.5 percent had financial support from family members in opening the business and more than 70 percent had a mentor who believed in them.
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Three years later, another study found a large disparity in the proportion of black-owned businesses relative to the black population. Byndom, Stanton & Associates, working with REDI and Missouri Small Business & Technology Development Center, found that black businesses made up merely .08 percent of business in Boone County while black residents made up 16.1 percent of the county.
The City of Columbia 2016-2019 Strategic Plan identified increasing the average annual wage and helping minority startups as priorities. The city partnered with local nonprofits, resources and services to reduce the hardships minority entrepreneurs face when opening their own businesses.
With no social equity department in Columbia, former city manager Mike Matthes assembled a team to close the economic disparity gap. The city hired Columbia Public Schools board member James Whitt as director and supplier of its diversity program development to work with economic leaders to attract and assist female and black-owned businesses.
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After reading the Bydom and Stanton report, Whitt told Matthes that the only way to mend the city’s relationship with the black business community was to recognize the displacement that occurred in the 1950s and ’60s in the Sharp End, which was Columbia’s historic black business community nestled within the northwest corner of downtown. The business district included black families in tenement housing but also attracted individuals from across mid-Missouri to shop, dine and enjoy nightlife. But it was erased by urban renewal programs that ended in 1966.
“You’ve gotta face up to the past, because that’s haunting you, because there’s a lot of mistrust in the community, ” Whitt told Matthes. “If you make an effort to do something, nobody’s going to believe you, because you haven’t dealt with the past. So I said, ‘Let’s deal with the past, and then we can move forward.’”
Whitt first wanted to identify the minority and female businesses in the community. He created the Minority & Women Owned Business Directory to list business owners in Columbia that possess certifications such as Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) or Women Owned Business Enterprise (WBE).
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In the first year, the directory identified 135 businesses owned by minorities or women. Three years later, that number had jumped to to 186.
According to the Missouri Office of Equal Opportunity, to obtain a certification, at least 51 percent of the business must be owned by a minority and/or female. Out of 186 listed businesses, there are 118 MBE and 95 WBE in the database. Certification gives minority businesses a leg up in winning city, state and federal contracts.
Whitt encourages all businesses that are eligible to become certified. Aside from creating and updating the database, he provides counseling, education on certifications and networking opportunities with groups such as the Columbia Chamber of Commerce for current and potential minority businesses at REDI.
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HB-A Consulting is one of 18 minority- or female-owned consulting agencies certified in Columbia and one of REDI’s clients. Holly Burton-Aro, a management consultant for environmental engineers, found that a WBE certification would benefit her.
“In coming to Columbia and sort of the combination of my background, it was just a little difficult to find something, a job, that I felt would be in line with sort of the diverse background that I’ve had, because I’m not a typical engineer, ” Burton-Aro said.
She was fascinated by water as a child and later studied water and solid waste. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering at McGill University in Montreal.
Minority And Female Entrepreneurs Move Columbia Business Community Forward
After completing an in-depth application process, Burton-Aro found the MBE and WBE certifications would be most beneficial for her. While it helped her land a big project, she said the certification is just “icing on the cake.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you have the MBE certification or not; there’s still a lot of work you need to do to get work, ” Burton-Aro said. “It may differentiate you from another company if there’s an MBE requirement, but it’s still about relationships. It’s still about doing good work that makes other companies want to work with you.”
While various MBE directories can help connect minority-owned businesses with prime contractors and knowledge of
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