Women entrepreneurs from the Kent community come together for monthly meetings to support and empower each other in starting their own businesses.

LaunchNET and the Women’s Center co-sponsor All the CEO Ladies meetings held at the end of each month in the Women’s Center. Each meeting features a different theme to help women gain skills and develop ideas to further their businesses while supporting one another.

“Sometimes we get students with full businesses developed and sometimes they don’t even have an idea, but know they want to do something,” said Alicia Robinson, the assistant director of the Women’s Center. “We have a lot of fashion people, but also real estate, non-profit and more.” 

The women of All the CEO Ladies is a mix of undergraduate and graduate students, and the group includes women from the Kent community wishing to grow their business idea.

The partnership between LaunchNET and the Women’s Center stems from Robinson, an alumna of LaunchNET and All the CEO Ladies, wanting to help bring All the CEO Ladies back after it had disbanded. Since she is a now a part of the Women’s Center, formerly a part of LaunchNET and an entrepreneur herself, the partnership was natural. 

Co-sponsoring these meetings gives women a place to feel empowered in a room with others who get what they are doing and going through.

“You have your mom, dad or boyfriend who don’t necessarily get why you’re working 80 hours and you need support,” said Tabitha Martin, the venture advisor of LaunchNET. “It’s part of your personality to be driven, but you need support.”

The meetings often feature a speaker about a specific topic and the women collaborate in a comfortable, open and interactive discussion.

The first meeting of the year on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018, featured speaker Julie Messing, the executive director of LaunchNET, to discuss strategies and vision with the group of about 12 women. The group did hands on activities, such as creating their own vision board for the new year.

The meeting was an open discussion about their strengths, weakness, things that suck up their time and how to effectively plan their weeks and women could freely ask questions and get advice about their businesses.

There is no set membership or cost to join All the CEO Ladies, and women can come to meetings as they please. Their next meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 5:30 p.m. and will focus on starting websites and marketing techniques.

Taylor Robinson is an assigning editor. Contact her at [email protected].