Meet Jessica Bargenquast of Lady ChangeMakers

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Bargenquast.

Jessica, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m a brunch connoisseur, avid traveler and most of all a woman-supporter! Brunch is definitely my favorite meal on the weekend. I love to get friends together to hang out and have a few mimosas. I absolutely love to travel and have too many places on my bucket list to possibly list but if it has a beach it’s likely on my list! When I’m not brunching, traveling and working, I spend most of my free time snuggling up on the couch with my beau and my two furbabies Bear and Momo.

I’m a constant work-in-progress and I love learning and trying new endeavors. I’m excited (and nervous) to find out where launching Lady ChangeMakers takes me. When searching for a purpose, I knew I wanted to help women. I wasn’t exactly sure how I would do that but I wanted to be the person that helps them succeed in achieving their dreams.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Throughout my career, I’ve dealt with volatile and male-dominated environments. I struggled to find places to work that truly supported women and what they could bring to a company. I want Lady ChangeMakers to be a safe space and welcoming community for all women.

For years I’ve wanted to start something. I am always coming up with ideas and solutions but nothing has excited me as much as Lady ChangeMakers. I also have a few failed business attempts. Most recently being a brunch blog, but all the places I reviewed either went out of business or stopped serving brunch. I had also previously started an ad agency. While we had clients, my heart really wasn’t in it and I was more trying to please others than pursue something that excited me.

When starting Lady ChangeMakers my biggest hurdle has been building the website. I’ve built and rebuilt.. and rebuilt my website. It has been a lot more technical than I thought, but also a great learning experience. I finally learned to ask for help and between a good friend and great customer support, I finally have a website I’m proud of!

Please tell us about Lady ChangeMakers.
The seed of the idea for Lady ChangeMakers came from a documentary I saw in early 2019 that talked about The Green Book, which was previously inspired by a Jewish Travel Guide. I immediately thought that this was what women needed. Women crave community and I wanted to find a way to help women find other women-owned businesses to support, not only in their own community but as they traveled. It’s ladies finding ladies to support ladies.

As I started to marinate with the idea of how to bring this to fruition, I also found myself saving posts on Instagram of women-owned businesses I wanted to visit. When the weekend would roll around I would completely forget where I saved these posts and where I wanted to go. There had to be an easier way. That’s when I decided I needed to create an online directory of women-owned and women-focused businesses.

The goal is to become the Yelp for Women. In this fluid time of brick & mortar, eCommerce, freelancers, influencers, crafters and makers, I wanted to make sure any and all women could be included in this directory. The majority of women start businesses with little to no investors or we tend to go into business with partners, spouses or family members. Because of this many businesses are not defined as women-owned.

At Lady ChangeMakers as long as one woman in the business has a dominant role they are welcome with open arms to be in the directory. If a lady hasn’t quite made the leap into business yet and has more of a side hustle, they are also welcome to be added to the directory. Currently, the directory has over 300 listings with over 200 being in the Phoenix area. While the focus is currently on Arizona the directory does have businesses in over 15 states and Canada!

The directory offers three listing options. There is a Basic Listing that will always be free, I never want to create a barrier for women to feel supported by their community. There are also upgraded listings for Featured and Premium Listings, where businesses can choose to upgrade to more features and exposure for their businesses.

Visitors on the site can search for businesses, categories, cities, and states to find businesses. Visitors are also able to rate businesses and receive directions to businesses they’d like to check out. The mission is to bring a spotlight to women-owned businesses through a platform that makes it easier for women to connect with, support and work with other women. It’s revolutionizing how we support other women.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I’m not sure I would have done anything differently. You don’t know what you don’t know and it’s impossible to become an expert in everything. I wish I understood coding more so I could make updates more quickly on my website. But I now know enough to know what needs to be fixed and have people to reach out to for help when I need it.

I think most entrepreneurs say they wished they had started earlier and I wish I had as well. I let technical issues hold me back from promoting my business and wanted it to be perfect before it launched. I eventually gave up on perfect and just started taking action. Always embrace the imperfections because there are always lessons to be learned.

Pricing:

• Basic Listing – Free
• Featured Listing – $199/yr or $19/mo
• Premium Listing – $499/yr or $49/mo

Contact Info:

• Website: ladychangemakers.com
• Email: hello@ladychangemakers.com
• Instagram: @ladychangemakers
• Facebook: @ladychangemakers
• Twitter: @ladychangemaker
• Other: ladychangemakers.com/submit-listing

Image Credit:
Monica Linda & Elizabeth Barry at Girl Squad Inc. @girlsquadinc

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