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Date: 5/16/2023
NORTHAMPTON — A movement that supports women and nonbinary entrepreneurs is brewing in the heart of Northampton and Florence.
A new entity called The Sphere is finding innovative ways to provide a network of support built by and for female and nonbinary entrepreneurs in the greater Northampton area. In other words, it is female and nonbinary entrepreneurs backing other female and nonbinary entrepreneurs.
“The Sphere was created to directly provide solutions for barriers to success for women entrepreneurs,” said Megan Allen, a leader of The Sphere and founder of The Community Classroom. “When you’re looking at drivers of economic success in towns, women hire more, they put more money back into the local economy and their businesses tend to grow faster. So, we’re looking at how The Sphere can be an economic driver for Northampton, Leeds and Florence.”
On May 10, the Downtown Northampton Association received $200,000 to support The Sphere and all the present and future work involved with the movement, including bolstering an entrepreneurial ecosystem and sparking entrepreneur-led economic development throughout Northampton.
According to Amy Cahillane, the executive director of the DNA, although Northampton has a rich and welcoming history of the female entrepreneurial spirit, there are still gaps that need to be addressed.
“Access to funding and capital, work/life balance and continuing education can all be difficult for female-identifying entrepreneurs to find and use effectively,” Cahillane said. “We have a wealth of experience and skill within our female entrepreneur community and small business support networks but have lacked the capacity to bring this community and these resources together under one umbrella.”
To address these gaps, many women entrepreneurs have spent the last several months talking with others in the community and completing their own research to determine where those intractable issues are in the women and nonbinary entrepreneurial sphere.
The Sphere was borne out of this prior research, where over 15 business owners were interviewed during a preliminary process known as The Resilient Project, on which Reminder Publishing reported back in April 2022.
Allen said that three major barriers to women’s entrepreneurial success were identified through this Resilient Project research. One barrier was a lack of support for women entrepreneurs due to intersectional identities, like racism, sexism and ageism. “All the -isms,” as Allen described it.
The other barriers found in the research include a lack of access to resources and time, according to Allen.
The goal now is to use that research to help close these gaps and create a network of women and nonbinary entrepreneurs who can share resources and talk about their own experiences in the community.
“We’re hoping to create an inclusive network of women and nonbinary entrepreneurs that support each other’s creativity and inspiration,” said Amanda Shafii, the owner of CopyCat Ink and a member of The Sphere’s leadership team.
Shafii, who also serves as a board member of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce, was instrumental in assisting with The Sphere’s research and branding of the network. As a female entrepreneur herself, she found the discussions she had with others to be pertinent to her own experiences.
“When I was doing the interviews last year, I was surprised to hear some of my own obstacles echoed from other women,” Shafii said. “To have somebody else basically say the same thing that I had experienced, it was definitely validating, and it highlighted that there is definitely a need for some kind of initiative to come in and help with some of the obstacles that women and nonbinary people deal with.”
While still in its early stages, The Sphere is already starting to make its mark economically and through communal events.
Aside from the grant money, The Sphere is also hosting community-building dinners, or “salons” to boost networking opportunities and provide a haven for female and nonbinary entrepreneurs to congregate.
“A direct result of our research too was women really wanted these community-building dinners,” Allen said. “We called it a salon as a homage to the salons of history in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, where women weren’t necessarily allowed to have intellectual conversations out of the house…so they would [have conversations] in the house, and they would use these talks as a way to spotlight up-and-coming artists and musicians.”
Christina Webster, an educator, entrepreneur and another leader of The Sphere, told Reminder Publishing that the first salon event in April at the Northampton Brewery drew around 110 entrepreneurs and proved to be successful.
“We didn’t want to do too much of a heavy lift for our attendees,” said Webster, who also works with The Community Classroom in Florence. “We just wanted it to feel fun and supportive, but also practical and purposeful for busy female entrepreneurs who were attending the event.”
According to Webster, many entrepreneurs were spotlighted during the first salon, and all of them were compensated for their services through a prior grant The Sphere received. Entrepreneurs also had the opportunity to have their headshots taken for their respective businesses.
“I think it was a really good atmosphere and turnout for the first time around,” Webster said. “And I think going forward, we’re thinking it’ll be more like a lighter lift where you can buy into the information we’re putting out or you can just socialize and just have an excuse to be out on a Tuesday night.”
Eventually, The Sphere team said they would like to have a central hub where aspiring entrepreneurs in high school or college and established entrepreneurs can meet to share experiences and access resources that are already prominent throughout the community.
“We would love a hub that connects all of these other cool things we have here in Northampton,” Allen said. “Like the umbrella that kind of connects all of the raindrops underneath.”
In the meantime though, the next steps involve data collecting. Allen said they want to create a map of all the women and non-binary-owned businesses in Northampton. The Sphere team also intends to build out a digital database of women and nonbinary entrepreneurs to encourage connections with those who don’t run brick-and-mortar businesses.
“We want to put The Sphere’s entrepreneurs on the map,” said Allen. “We’re excited to spotlight the brilliance and great work of entrepreneurs in the area.”
The salon event for The Sphere occurs on July 25 from 4-7 p.m. and includes a social media and content creation workshop. The location is to be determined.
In the meantime, readers may learn more about The Sphere through their social media page: https://www.facebook.com/thespherenorthampton.