This month, we're chatting with female entrepreneurs to learn about their journey of starting and scaling their businesses. We’ll hear all about the challenges they've overcome that can help you as you work on your business.

First up is Samantha Myer from Let's Dress Up NYC - a company that is making ✨magic✨ every day with princess tea parties for children and much more!

Samantha’s journey to where she is today was anything but straightforward. After leaving her 15-year career in finance, she decided it was time to shake things up. Once a customer of Let’s Dress Up NYC, she’s now using her strengths to expand the business alongside her co-partner, Judy.

During our conversation, Samantha shared a lot of valuable insights but one thing that stuck out is her mentality toward what it looks like to be an entrepreneur. She firmly believes that anyone can be an entrepreneur even if they aren’t selling a product on Shark Tank.

Keep reading to hear more about her experience.

Tell us about a challenge you overcame when starting your business.
“When you are two women and your business happens to be centered around glitter, tea, and princess dresses people are sometimes like ‘oh that’s cute’....YES, I know it’s cute but it’s also going to make money… It can be cute and be a business. Our biggest customers are young girls… What do we want them to see?...They should see women creating a business that’s fun.”

What advice do you have for female entrepreneurs looking to start their own business?
“Being able to be analytical and thoughtful and strategic without being such a perfectionist that you talk yourself out of everything…There’s a difference between analyzing and mapping it out and waiting for the perfect time [and] letting your fear get the better of you.”

How has your partnership with Skip helped you as a female small business owner?
“The SBA came out and issued some insane number of denials for loan requests. We’d gotten the first round and they said now they couldn’t verify our identity. Thanks to Skip, we found out that the SBA had hired all of these people to close out applications and make it look like they were moving through the process. I was like ‘This is not just happening to you, there may be a way out of this.’ NOBODY else was talking about it. There was no good information from typical places. Everybody became an expert in small business finance except nobody was. It was super helpful to have an impartial voice that I could trust that could say ‘here’s what happened.’ It was fact based. It was a pivotal moment for me. Skip became that trusted source.”

You can find Let’s Dress Up NYC through their website or their instagram page.

📌 If you're a female small business owner, make sure to enter our $1k drawing this month. Submit an additional entry on Tiktok or Instagram.

Post a 30-60 second video on your Instagram or TikTok answering telling us one piece of advice you'd give to a fellow female entrepreneur.

You can start with the following prompt: “Hi everyone! In honor of National Women’s Small Business Month, I wanted to shared one piece of advice with fellow female entrepreneurs to keep in mind....”

The fine print: Be sure to tag us @hello.skip and use the hashtag #skipforwomen and you’ll get an extra entry to the $1,000 grants. You must be following on the social media platform too. We’ll reshare as many as we can if you tag us! We’re picking grant winners on October 28th. Must enter before October 27th at 11:59pm EST.

Pro-tip: Want 1-1 help with funding and growing your business? Book a call at talktoskip.com.