TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – Tyler Native Anabel Magallanes is the owner of the Mita Artisan Shoppe. Four years ago, she made the decision to open up her own business during the COVID-19, making embroidered masks.
“I got laid off from my full-time job, so we opened here and decided to bring something to Tyler that you know is a little bit more cultural,” Magallanes said.
Growing up in Tyler, she noticed there weren’t enough businesses like hers, getting her start in pop up shops in the bigger cities and at the First Monday sale in Canton.
“We previously started doing pop up shows in San Antonio, Dallas,” Magallanes said. “We would get a lot of tourists and they’re like you should open this so we were like we’re going to open one in Tyler.”
As a first-time small business owner, Magallanes shares that it takes a lot of risk and collaboration. She says its can be difficult to ask for help in situations that need it, but after a while collaborated with other artisans in the area.
“That’s been a challenge for me because I want to do it all and we can’t its very hard,” Magallanes said. “At the end of the day you collaborate and know that its all going to play together.”
That’s where resources like the Tyler Hispanic Business Alliance step in, offering a resource for economic and personal growth. For eight years, with a two year pause with the pandemic, President and CEO Nancy Arellano Rangel, has hosted the ‘Latina Leadership Conference and Business Expo.’
“Nothing like that had ever been done before, there’s a lot of conferences in churches, but nothing that was for the Latina woman as an entrepreneur here in the East Texas Region,” Rangel said.
The event started as a way to focus on personal and economic growth for Latina women. During the conferences, Latina owned businesses are able to network and collaborate with one another. This way they are able to connect on their journeys and how they got their start running their businesses.
“One of the things that we have been able to do is create a form of a sisterhood, where we get to meet one another we get to network with one another, learn about ‘who is she? what is her journey? what has been her trajectory?’” Rangel said. ‘But also when we learn all that, we also know what kind of businesses they own and we support one another.’
After the conferences, the business owners find themselves working together to support each other’s businesses.
“That’s one of the things that I’ve seen a lot in a lot of the Latina conferences,” Rangel said. “Soon after were collaborating with one another or sponsoring things for one another… its so beautiful to see.”
The Latina Leadership Conference and Business Expo will be this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the UT Tyler Soules College of Business. There will be a group of panelists, food, vendors and a fashion show with the Latina business owners.
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