GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Women in West Michigan are supporting other women, and they're doing so with a spin on bridal and baby showers.
Entrepreneurs set up a registry where women business owners chip in to help them out. They held an event Thursday, which focused on a budding beauty salon.
In today's economic climate, many business owners say they're struggling.
"I really want to do some like nice things for my booth renters because they're all like amazing people," Lilith's Lair owner Laura Signore said.
Starting a business right now is scary, as many experts hint at signs of a recession.
"We really want to focus on how can we support growth in the female business owner community," Alicia Shumaker said.
Shumaker, with Flamingo Consulting and co-founder of GRbossbabes has a passion for supporting small businesses run by women.
"We, as a group, we want to rally around this amazing business owner and really celebrate their win," Shumaker added.
The latest person she and other women entrepreneurs are supporting is Signore. She opened up Lilith's Lair to cut hair in January and quickly found out how fast bills can pile up.
"I wanted to have like these big like coffin shelves along the walls and you would just not believe how much money wood and carpentry costs," Signore said.
Signore says she didn't want the dream to end. So, she applied to GRbossbabes to have her items, like those coffin shelves, listed on a registry.
"So, the hope was that I could get to raise some money to help out like my booth renters here," Signore added.
Shumaker and other women business owners want Signore's dream to continue. They hope someone out there can help her make her vision a reality.
"We think the best comes from working together versus working away from," Shumaker added.
GRbossbabes launched in May. Shumaker says this is the third women-ran business they've helped.
