Timeline of the Creation of The Sphere
In January of 2022, Dr. Megan Allen began the Monday Moxie Podcast to spotlight female entrepreneurs and discuss their stories of resilience, leadership, and personal growth.
This podcast inspired a team of three Northampton female entrepreneurs to design a project to bring attention and voice to the business owners in Florence, a village in the town of Northampton: The Resilient Project.
In April of 2022, a window display was put up in the window of where Faces used to be, featuring 17 group portraits of female entrepreneurs.
This artistic project gave a platform for their stories to be shared with a wide audience at a Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce event, a Northampton Arts Night Out Sidewalk Reception. The month-long storefront window display in downtown Northampton created attention and led to interviews with WHMP radio, Valley Free Radio, and a news segment with Channel 22 WWLP Mass Appeal.
Themes emerged through this project from the stories of the 17 women featured, including their desire to have a local network of supportive women who were facing the same struggles as business owners.
This was the seed for The Sphere—to create a hyper-local, vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northampton that is specifically focused on the needs of its women and nonbinary entrepreneurs. Because you shouldn’t have to be a man to succeed in business ownership.
QR codes helped visitors access the accompanying interviews of each woman in “Monday Moxie” podcasts. The window display was artfully curated by Christina Webster, Chief of Wellness for The Sphere.
Who Are The 17 women entrepreneurs included in the window display that led to the sphere?
- Tiffany Chapman, Tiffany Chapman Photography
- Carrielynn Fournier, Busy Bee-Cleans
- Dr. Megan Allen, The Community Classroom
- Kathryn Kothe, Cycle Pottery
- Emily Fox, Emily Foxtrot
- Laurel Boyd, Ascendance Inner World Arts
- Lora Ksieniewicz, Yoga of the Valley
- Lexi Walters Wright, High Five Books
- Lindsay, Art Always
- Maggie Shar
- Annie, Little Roots
- Myssie Lacharite
- Rosalie Black, The Wild Chestnut Cafe
- Siyana Huszar, Marcella NYC
- Marilyn Rivera, Florence Barber Shop
- Gina Louise Sciarra, Mayor of Northampton
Research shows women put more money back into the economy, hire more, & grow faster. These findings infer that by supporting women-owned businesses and providing access to resources, this demographic will be most effective in stimulating the local economy.
We wanted to build on the initial connections and momentum from this passion project, but move from building awareness to thinking about how to locate, network, and support these entrepreneurs in ways that are specific to their particular needs as female and female-identifying entrepreneurs. Business News Daily lists researched issues that are specific to female entrepreneurs, which parallel many of the findings outlined in the MACP 2021
Report, including
1. Defying social expectations.
2. Accessing funding.
3. Being taken seriously.
4. Owning accomplishments.
5. Building a support network.
6. Balancing work and family life.
7. Coping with fear of failure.
Our vision was to see which issues surface as the most important to our women Northampton business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs, then create and iterate solutions to help alleviate those barriers, creating a pathway to success for entrepreneurs.
So after receiving a $25,000 research grant, Megan Allen from the Community Classroom and Amy Cahillane from the Downtown Northampton Association put together a team of women entrepreneurs to tackle the research above and create a data-driven solution that is known today as The Sphere, Northampton. And the rest, as they say, is history.
You can read more about the Resilient Project here or download the one-pager on the research here.
Want to embark on your own research to see what needs women + nonbinary entrepreneurs have in your location? We can help! Find resources here.
The Design Thinking Process was then used by the Advisory Board to help create a large knowledge funnel that leads to the specific projects to fulfill the overarching vision: a vibrant, inclusive, sustainable ecosystem designed to specifically support the demographic of entrepreneurs unique to Northampton – and replicable best practices and solutions that can be implemented throughout the region (and, perhaps, the state).
Who was part of The Design Thinking Process in The Resilient Project?
- Megan Marszalek, The Massachusetts Techology Collaborative
- Megan Allen, The Community Classroom
- Amy Cahillane, The Downtown Northampton Association
- Christina Webster, Priceless Picnics
- Devon Boulay, A2Z Science & Learning Store
- Marilyn Rivera, Florence Barber Shop
- Heather Bell ?
- Siyana Huszar, Marcella NYC
- Jillian Duclos, Roberto's Restaurant
- Dee Dice, Constant Growth Marketing
- Sarah Sargent, Valley Community Development
- Amanda Shafii, CopyCat Print & Design
- Jessica Thompson, The Greater Northampton Chamber
- Tiffany Chapman, Tiffany Chapman Photography
- Kathryn Kothe, Cycle Pottery