Women lead Nazareth economic boom
Many are opening up shop in the borough, including 7 in last year
Rachel Ensley has been a stayat-home mom for the last five years, but has had a longtime passion for decorating cakes and dreams of owning her own cakery.
Ensley, of Orefield, worked in mental health for more than a decade before staying at home with her three sons. She noticed herself slipping into depression.
“I just became depressed being home; I was stuck in a cycle,” Ensley said, before she realized it’d be healthier for both her and her family to start working again.
But she didn’t want to go back into a corporate setting.
Instead, she worked as a cake decorator for about three months at a big box store, but then her dreams came true. She found a storefront on Nazareth’s Main Street for her custom bakery, Deliciously Decorated. Her grand opening, complete with a ribbon-cutting, was May 8.
“I chose Nazareth because I
like the town. It’s a central location. I love the people there,” Ensley said. “It’s just a nice place and when I heard it was mostly women-owned businesses that were thriving right now, I wanted to be a part of it.”
There’s been a boom in women-owned and run businesses in Nazareth, with at least seven coming into the borough in the last year, joining well over a dozen already well-established businesses operated and co-owned by women. Walking down the borough’s Main Street, shoppers are more likely to wander into a woman-owned business than a business operated solely by a man.
The women entrepreneurs in Nazareth are an example of a larger trend happening all over the country — more and more women are opening businesses. Research shows women want flexibility, can’t find quality employment that fits their needs and want to fill gaps with opportunities in local markets, driving them to go into business for themselves.
Between 2014 and 2019, the number of women-owned businesses nationwide grew by 21%, for a total of nearly 13 million, according to The 2019 State of Woman-Owned Businesses Report, commissioned by American Express. Generally published annually, there was no report released for 2020.
It’s a trend that’s been building over decades. In 1972, womenowned businesses made up only 4.6% of all businesses across the country, according to the report. By 2019, that number climbed to 42%, leading researchers to say women-owned businesses are driving economic growth across the country.
Like Ensley, a break with the corporate world is what drove Barbara Werkheiser, co-owner of Nazareth Hometown Hardware, to go into business for herself a decade ago.
“I wanted to always have my own business growing up,” Wekheiser said, and she started the business in 2011 with Mike Meixsell after losing her job as a chief claims consultant for an insurance company.
“To keep a small town thriving is essential and we’re very proud to be part of that. We’re very proud to be a small, retail hardware store living in a big world of Home Depots and Lowe’s,” she said. “I think women over the years have evolved to get the recognition they deserve and kudos to them all — yes, I think I do a darn good job at what I do. But, I’m half of that puzzle; I have to give [Mike] credit as well — it’s a balance that we have. For not being married, we do pretty damn good.”
Barbara Saslo, owner of the Nazareth Ceramic Center, said she just “couldn’t hack it” in the corporate world, even though she tried for 15 years.
“I would stay in a job for six months to a couple of years, but the problem was I’d see either an opportunity or a problem and I would either want to correct, adjust or suggest and I couldn’t get anybody who would move,” she said. “Trying to push through the corporate red tape, so to speak, was very disheartening to me.”
Saslo’s been involved in businesses in the borough since the mid-1990s, and said the number of women entrepreneurs now shouldn’t be a big deal.
“All businesses should be celebrated, especially small businesses,” she said. “To me, it doesn’t make any difference if you’re a man or a woman or young or old — it’s the fact that you are providing a product or service or a solution to somebody’s else’s problem and you have the guts and the courage to solve that problem so you can make a fulfilling life for yourself.”
Courage and determination are values business owners need, said Vanessa Sabatine, owner of Herbs to Your Success, which has been in business since 1994.
“It’s nice to know that there are still women having the nerve to try something,” she said. “I just look for staying power. They really got to want to do this for stay for 20 years. It’s not like a job where you can go 9 to 5 when you can make some money and haul it all in. This is commitment.”
It was the passion to follow her dreams that motivated Krista Lichtenberger to open Abode Home Decor with her husband, Brian, last month.
“It’s been in the background of my mind that I wanted to open a small business at some point in my life,” she said, noting that her family has roots in small businesses. “I’ve kind of always had that drive.”
While running the business, Lichtenberger also works full time as a nurse educator. Working through the pandemic has showed her that shoppers are more comfortable at small businesses than big box stores, and they want to keep their money in smaller communities.
“When you support a small business in general, you’re getting a genuine thank you. You support a woman or a minority, you’re giving them almost a sense of fulfilment that they can be just as good as a man-owned business,” she said. “I think, as far as what I see in the women-owned business aspect of it, I see the benefits, as women love to raise other women up when it comes to the business world. We’ve been blessed with support from all Nazareth businesses.
“People are excited about it,” she said. “I don’t think of myself as doing anything abnormal; I’m just a person following my dreams.”
Whether the driving force was breaking with the corporate world or striving to share their passions with others while making a living, women are realizing entrepreneurship as a viable work solution.
But, with all kinds of other engrained, stereotypical responsibilities weighing women down, from spouses to children to homemaking, it begs that tired, age-old question — can women really have it all?
For Ensley, the answer is a resounding yes.
“We’re natural creators — we create life,” she said. “So, when we create things and we get into business, we put so much of our heart and passion into what we’re doing. I feel like sometimes it not valued enough. I think definitely there needs to be a light shined on women — we can be moms, we can run our household and we can still manage to [run a business] because we’re strong like that.
“A lot of times, people think you can’t do it all, yet we can still manage to do it all. We’re more than just moms or homemakers. We have goals and dreams, too,” she said.