The City of Frankfort and Mayor Judy Sheets hosted the first special event titled “Sparkling Success: Women’s Leadership Series” that celebrated the achievements of women-owned small businesses in Frankfort and Clinton County.
The event was hosted by Sheets and featured a keynote address from Indiana’s First Lady Maureen Braun, who spoke about her advocacy for community development and entrepreneurship, and she commented that the City of Frankfort appears to operate similarly to Jasper where she has established her own business, Finishing Touches, and acted as the first president of Heart of Jasper.
Braun expressed that speaking to local women in business and small business owners has become a passion for her as she spreads the idea of shopping local across the state.
“It’s so important because we’ve seen it work in our community, and we really want to encourage others to do it,” Braun said. “We started 40 years ago or so with shop local, and it really just got people to think, shop at your own stores. If we don’t have it or you don’t have it, that’s okay. Then, you go somewhere else to find it, but try to shop local first.”
Braun stated that through the promotion of shopping local first within the local community, she personally saw an influx of customers that allowed for her to personally invest back into the community through supporting local organizations, schools, teams and more.
“We really promoted that, and by doing so, they came in and checked us out, and then it’s been successful for the community,” Braun said. “We now, because we are getting so many people, we can give back to the community, so we give back to the local sports and music and things within town and all the things within the community, so it really promotes community.”
Braun highlighted numerous issues that small businesses owners have experienced since she began her business over four decades ago, from multiple financial struggles amongst the community, COVID, taxes, internal complications and more, stating that being able to overcome the struggles has led to an even stronger business for her that can support others.
“What I really want to do is inspire people to not give up,” Braun said. “Persistence and patience are very real, and we all go through bad times, so it’s a matter of getting through those tough times.”
Braun concluded by stating that her presentation at the Sparkling Success event was a means to inspire those who want to start a business to do so or instill them with the awareness to support others in their aspirations to start a business themselves because support is the backbone of local business.
Sheets stated that the first event was an outstanding success, and the the City is already planning for the next event that will continue instilling useful business knowledge into local business owners.
“This is something we’ve been working on for a while because we know how important it is for women in business and small businesses, so we want to give them some tips on leadership and how they can support each other and what we can do as a community to be there for them,” Sheets said. “This is the first, so we plan to have some more. We’re really excited about this.”
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