Women business leaders show resilience despite pandemic

Yen Ospina is a queer, Colombian American, self-taught artist whose day job is as an appraiser and intake specialist at Mimi’s Attic in Ithaca, where she also sells many of her art pieces (visit yenospina.com for a look at her artwork).

When the pandemic initially hit the county early last year, Mimi’s Attic temporarily closed, putting Ospina out of a job. From then until Mimi’s reponened was a challenging time for Ospina, but “art was the thing that helped me survive,” she said.

“It was rough, but I ended up creating beautiful pieces, and people wanted to support me,” she said. “And that’s when I first launched my official website. It was thrilling! Losing my job at the time was actually a blessing in disguise because it gave me time to dive into my artwork.”

Ospina isn’t the only one who’s made the most out of a bad situation and turned challenges into successes over the past year. In recognition of Women’s History Month, Tompkins Weekly spoke with women business leaders about their experiences throughout the pandemic, and while there was no shortage of challenges, many local women have found ways to get by and, in some cases, even thrive.

Challenges

As several studies and articles have discussed over the past year, the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on women in business compared to men. Data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce published last September showed that women business owners faced a greater decrease in business health because of the pandemic, and far fewer women owners nationwide are expecting success in their business future over the next year compared to men.

Sources interviewed for this story shared that this problem, while not as severe in Tompkins County, is still very much a local issue and something many women in business have faced in recent months. Andrea Ippolito, Cornell lecturer and founder of Women Engineers Cornell (W.E. Cornell), explained that the biggest reason women are facing more challenges than men, in general, is child care.

“What the data shows is that working mothers have had to juggle at-home schooling or watching their infant or toddler while at the same time doing work, and it’s hard and in some cases impossible,” she said. “And so, this set back woman and their career, having to take this sidestep. And while employers have been accommodating, there’s only so much you can do to be productive.”

While few interviewed for this story reported child care as a major challenge, most sources shared that many local women business leaders they’ve spoken with have struggled to take care of their family and run their business effectively.

“I’m one of those women in business that got through the toughest times,” said Laurie Linn, president of Communiqué Design and Marketing in Ithaca, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary. “I’m now at a point in my life where I can continue to excel because I’ve got the freedom and flexibility to be able to do so. Now, a lot of women don’t have that. And I admire them and I’ve been through it and it’s not easy, and yet, they’re doing it and they’re doing it during a pandemic.”

Sources interviewed shared other challenges they’ve faced, many of which are shared by business leaders across multiple demographics and sectors. For one, most had to quickly pivot and figure out how to make business work in a totally new landscape.

Another big challenge was trying to adjust to the many safety regulations. Jessie Gardner, co-owner of Little Venice in Trumansburg, said she’s faced a lot of customer pushback on rules like wearing a mask when away from their table or having to order food with their alcoholic drinks.

“Even though it’s not really our rule, they get very upset that they have to order something to eat, and some people just want to come in and have a beer, and they can’t,” she said. “It’s just a constant stress. Owning a restaurant is already pretty stressful, and then, to throw on even more rules, it’s just stressful to make sure your staff is safe and the community is safe and also try to be there to serve your community.”

And for others, the biggest challenge was related to remote work. Alison Weaver, owner of Ness-Sibley Funeral Home in Trumansburg, has had to hold many virtual funerals due to space and density constraints at her business. She said that while families appreciate the virtual option, the human connection is lost.

“I feel like when someone’s going through grief, you want to be able to console them,” she said. “Touch can show so much empathy by giving someone a hug or just putting your hand on their shoulder and saying, ‘I’m here.’ And people aren’t getting that. … I worry about the people that have lost someone over the past 13 months, how they’re dealing with their grief, and how they’re able to move forward.”

Veterinarian Dr. Kathy Baxendell, owner of Groton City Animal Hospital in Groton, shared a similar experience at her practice. Many of her appointments are held without the pet’s owner inside the building, which can make consultations difficult.

“I found particularly that I missed the face-to-face conversations with my clients,” she said. “I didn’t realize how much I relied on body language and facial expression and other things to give me clues as to whether I am being successful or not successful in communicating with my clients. So, the whole phone thing has been pretty tough for me particularly, but I think we’ve all tried to adapt as best we can.”

Successes

While challenges persist for women business leaders, there have still been plenty of successes, like Ospina described. In many cases, women business leaders have managed to find silver linings in the general upset the pandemic has caused.

At Emmy’s Organics in Ithaca, co-owner Samantha Abrams said that she prioritized staff safety and comfort since the start of the pandemic — something shared by many sources interviewed — and the effort has paid off.

“We’ve been really responsible in putting our staff first through all of this and making sure everyone knows that if they have any needs, that they can come to us,” she said. “So, I think as an employer, I’m really proud of how we’ve been able to pivot and keep everybody safe.”

Courtney Feehan, of Cayuga Restaurant Group, LLC, is the local owner and operator of eight McDonald’s restaurants across the Southern Tier and central New York. She said her locations’ success would not be possible without her employees, so she’s made sure to appreciate them and recognize their efforts.

“We worked closely with our employees to keep as many people connected to our restaurants as possible by offering very flexible scheduling and being accommodating, as everyone’s lives have gone through enormous change,” she said. “We made sure to show our appreciation to our teams with a variety of employee appreciation events and incentives.”

Rachel Hogancamp, co-founder and owner of Rasa Spa in Ithaca, said the pandemic has caused her to rethink many of her staff-related policies in a way that decreases the burden on her workers.

“We’re looking at compensation models differently,” she said. “We’re looking at everything from daily practices all the way through how do we want to support our staff with retirement funds? I think in looking for a silver lining, COVID really brought to light a lot of those pieces that we’ve already been working on and just kind of pushed it forward.”

Aside from employee-related successes, some sources also shared that while switching to virtual offerings presented its own set of challenges, it also provided an opportunity to reach a wider audience. At Chloe Capital, for example, Managing Partner Elisa Miller-Out explained the benefit the virtual shift brought to her company, which specifically focuses on investing in women entrepreneurs.

“We know we can’t do it alone at Chloe Capital, so the fact that we were able to get so many other co-investors to the table for these programs meant that we were actually even more effective, in some ways, at our virtual programs,” she said. “We were able to raise even more capital for some of these women and even got some investors to invest right on the spot.”

Looking ahead

Moving forward, sources universally expressed hope for a return to normalcy over the next year or at least a lessening of the challenges previously discussed.

The recent passing of the American Rescue Act stands to help some women business leaders, particularly with the release of additional stimulus checks and an expansion of the Child Tax Credit. But more will be needed to help support women in business, as Ippolito explained.

“My hopes are that this pandemic has brought to light some of the hardships that working parents — in particular, working moms — have faced in having to juggle it all, and this is what does keep women back in their careers,” she said. “We also need to be more intentional with having more diverse leaders in our businesses and organizations. And it’s critical to do that because we know that diverse organizations, we know that they do better.”

Ippolito and others expressed that Tompkins County has been incredibly supportive to women business leaders throughout this pandemic, which gives them optimism for continued community support in the coming months.

“This community thing, it really did come through for me in many ways that I didn’t expect, and I’m really grateful and I want to thank the community for being there for me and supporting me and looking after me,” said Rose Hilbert, owner of The Inn at Gothic Eves in Trumansburg. “It was really quite touching. … I’m just really proud of our community.”