The Good Wives

The Good Wives has existed in our dreams since Ella and I met. We courted over a shared love of food, wine and food culture. One of the first questions she asked me was "tell me about your favorite food memory." I don't know if I ever truly expected it to come to fruition which feels a bit shameful to say... The first business plan we wrote was a template for what was to come five years later. We devoted ourselves to meeting weekly, writing and conceptualizing exactly what we wanted. I remember the very first meeting we had with the owner of a building who was looking for a restaurant tenant and being met with what would become the all-to-familiar "skeptical eye" along with his own vision "what we need is a good burger joint!" The meeting ended, the idea faded and Ella and I moved on for a while. It just seemed too impossible. After spending a lot of time planning and replanning what we wanted our future to look like we came back to our business plan and made the move to Eau Claire. Again, we met with lenders and landlords who approached us with the same skeptical eye, opinions and advice for the two queer women trying to open a restaurant that didn't have one TV or cheeseburger in the business plan. 

Finally, we found a spot. We worked with WWBIC to get some money along with the cash we had stowed away ourselves and crowdfunded. Of course it's never enough but we made do and tried our best to make it work. I applied for any grant I could find, big and small (there aren't many!) and despite getting rather used to hearing "no", somehow the Red Letter Grant invited us to interview. We won the grant which bought us a good, sturdy piece of kitchen equipment but more importantly it finally put us among a group of other like-minded business women who've grown used to the "skeptical eye." It changed a lot for us, we weren't alone and we were with so many inspiring women who reminded us we don't need anyone's permission to create the life of our dreams. We can do it. Book your next reservation at the Good Wives.

Hive & Hollow

When I began to dream up plans for a sustainable flower shop, my vision, as an artist, was all over the map. Though I had decades of experience as a florist in various capacities, the myriad details that go into opening a retail shop felt daunting.

Since being awarded the grant, I have been surprised by how many times I have been asked what it is like to open a business as a woman, which usually makes me laugh, as I wouldn’t know what it is like any other way. But I do know that the deck is stacked against women, especially in rural communities like my own, and so I found sitting in front of the judging panel of smart, fearless, successful women both humbling and inspiring.

The process of applying for the Red Letter Grant forced me to hone in on my vision, set realistic goals and make a viable business plan. Beyond the monetary assistance the grant provided - which empowered me to hire a local artist team to design my logo and a UW Stout graduate to build my website - the community of expertise that has been available to me from the beginning has been invaluable. Any question I have about the nitty gritty of being a small business owner is answered within minutes by people I trust who have a vested interest in my success. This sort of community building in immeasurable, and it has impacted how I envision paying success forward within my community.

(Sarah Lambert Freeman opened Hive & Hollow, a full service floral shop with a focus on sustainability in Menomonie, in September 2018. The shop embraces the slow flower movement, promoting local flower farmers and fair trade growers. Unique and beautiful gifts are sourced from independent local makers. Stop by or visit her website www.hiveandhollow.earth)

Dotters Books

We applied for the Red Letter Grant twice. The first time, we had only been "in business” a few months - our experience amounted to hosting a book club and setting up a few pop-up shops around the community. We had big dreams and saw the grant as an opportunity to put together a business plan for our dream bookshop. While we didn’t win, we learned so much, and we were inspired by the community of women that was beginning to form around the grant.

When we applied the second time, we had been running pop-up shops for about a year and had learned so much. We had a better picture of what our numbers looked like, and we also had more realistic goals about what we wanted our next steps to be.

We were awarded the Red Letter Grant in Spring of 2018, and after we won, the feedback and support that we received helped to encouraged us to stretch ourselves and start looking for physical retail spaces. As a result, we found our space on the East Side Hill of Eau Claire, and were able to afford initial rental expenses. While the monetary reward of the grant was obviously very important in taking that step, the community that we joined is by far the greatest gift we received from the Red Letter Grant. It is amazing to join a group of women that is already rooting for you to succeed, and is willing to help in ways large and small. We hope to continue to contribute to this community and to the Chippewa Valley in meaningful ways that reflect the generosity that has been shared with us from the beginning of our bookshop journey.

(Margaret Leonard and Jill Heinke-Moen are the faces behind the curated selection at Dotters Books, learn more about their shop, events + offerings.)

YB Urban?

YB Urban? began as a homestead dream for my family and quickly snowballed into a fully-functional natural personal care brand.  We started as so many makers do, attending craft and art festivals every weekend, rain or shine, wind or hail.  When the opportunity to open a brick-and-mortar shop came up, we happily tested the waters through our local chamber's Pop-Up Ellsworth program.  We were very lucky to find a vacant building that had a perfect kitchen space where we could both create and sell our brand of natural soaps, lotions, lip balms and more.  Only in the shop for a month, I began to see another aspect of this business becoming possible.  We've always had a very high return customer rate, being that our items are consumable.  I started noticing just how often the same product was going out to the same person, always in a new container, while the old bottles and jars would become trash to toss away.  In the beauty industry it is estimated a whopping 98% of containers never get recycled, and millions of pounds of plastic waste end up in landfills every year.  Try as I might to rack my brain for a solution while doing business primarily out of a 10x10 tent canopy, I couldn't figure it out.  Once we were in a building, though, and with the help of the Red Letter Grant, envisioning a refill center became easy and tangible.

We moved into our shop in October of 2019 with a 3-month commitment from the chamber and landlord.  There wasn't even a moment where I ever believed we would be leaving after 3 months.  After applying for the Red Letter Grant in November 2019 and being invited to interview, I knew not only did I have to convince the judges that my idea was relevant to the times and would have a major impact in revitalizing a blighted downtown neighborhood, but I also had to assure them that I had what it took to stay in that space and make this business work as a physical store.  My confidence in the idea and my own ability soared after being awarded the grant.  To have that kind of confidence instilled by such respectable members of the Western Wisconsin Business Community was game changing.  We opened our refill center in July of 2020 and it has been our best-selling category in the store every month since.  We are changing the landscape of our neighborhood by giving people a reason to come here, and the Red Letter Grant helped to make that happen.  It changes people, businesses and communities in the most positive ways. Shop now and learn more ways to support YB Urban? Apothecary.

Moonrise Aerials

Opening Moonrise Aerials was a dream come true for Michelle and I.  Aerial & circus arts is one of my passions that has brought me so much confidence and happiness; Michelle and I really wanted to share this art with other women in the Chippewa Valley by offering classes.  We started out small and grew organically with the help of this grant. The Red Letter Grant application process was such a wonderful experience, helping us to  get valuable feedback and support from fellow female business owners.  Listening to the other business owners' presentations was so inspiring--there are so many creative, smart ladies in the Chippewa Valley! We were overjoyed when we found out that we won.  

Michelle had applied for the Red Letter Grant previously and we found the judge's panel's feedback and advice incredibly useful. This grant also has created a sense of community among local female business owners--we've actually partnered with several of the other Red Letter Grant affiliated businesses to offer unique, collaborative promotions.  Additionally, the financial support of the grant and the donations from Ambient Inks and Volume One allowed us to invest in additional equipment, merchandise, and advertising.  The exposure is amazing too! Learn more about Moonrise Aerials.

-Rachel Duffenbach, co-owner of Moonrise Aerials