Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream. Charlene Sears said she realized this one day when she was lying on her cousin’s bed, talking about businesses she’d love to start up. At that moment, Sears, a fulltime court assistant for the City of Clayton for 16 years, decided she was done dreaming.
In 2002, she started investing in real estate. Now she owns 8 buildings, which she rents to Section 8 and market rate tenants. This year, she will open her own banquet hall and start a general contracting company with her husband. She’s enrolled at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, working toward an associate degree in criminal justice.
Mind you, Sears is still employed fulltime and has two children, three step children and two grandchildren.
She’s an entrepreneur. And on March 20, she officially became the interim vice president for the new St. Louis chapter of the Women Entrepreneurs of America.
This Saturday Yolanda Lamar-Wilder, the founder of WEA, came to St. Louis to induct the chapter into the national organization and to participate in the group’s first networking event. Now, the local group will meet every third Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at the Florissant Valley Library, 195 New Florissant Rd.
Their mission supports entrepreneurs, particularly women of color, in creating successful businesses and giving back to the community to build a strong future for their families.
Starting out, the St. Louis chapter has eight members. When Lamar-Wilder founded WEA in Cleveland, Ohio in 2002, she launched the group with six members. Two years later, she acquired 250 members. WEA spread to other cities, including Detroit, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Miami, Tampa and Atlanta.
Nationwide, WEA has 665 members. One of Lamar-Wilder’s guiding principles has been to help women get minority-owned business certificates so they can be eligible for government contracts.
Rhonda McAlister, interim president of the St. Louis WEA chapter, first heard of WEA on the internet and joined three years ago. At the time she was a real estate agent.
“Being in real estate, I needed mentorship and a support system,” McAlister said. “WEA’s members are all over, and it’s such a wealth of knowledge. It’s awesome to be part of that camaraderie.”
McAlister since has started her own business called All Solutions Network, an online shopping network site. With WEA, the members always know where to find a trusted business or source of information, she said. “It’s a one-stop shop,” she said.
McAlister started the group because she has not found that type of support in St. Louis. McAlister learned at a young age that support is crucial in life. She had her first child at 15 and her second at 17. After the first child, she dropped out of high school, but her mother encouraged her to get back in and finish.
“My mother wouldn’t let me give up on a single thing,” she said.
By taking summer classes, she graduated with her class in 1989 from Riverview Gardens Senior High School. She went on to get an associate degree in accounting from Sanford-Brown College, and she worked in accounting for six years.
As president of the local WEA chapter, one of her main goals is to host a teen expo for pregnant teens and at-risk teens in October. The program will help the teens fundraise for their education and support each other in whatever path they choose.
In Cleveland, Lamar-Wilder experienced a similar struggle of finding professional support as McAlister. Lamar-Wilder decided to create the type of support network she was looking for. Now all the local chapters use her blueprint.
Every week, the groups meet at a different venue to network and meet other business owners. By hosting the events at new places, the members are also supporting the idea of entrepreneurship, she said. Through community service, the women are able to encourage their neighborhoods to grow with them.
“I want to grow globally,” Lamar-Wilder said. “We need to set the tone for the president: This is going to help the economy, and it’s going to help us.”
For more information about WEA, visit http://weastlouis.webs.com or call Rhonda McAlister at 314-277-9729.
