On Wednesday, May 10, Better Family Life presented its first ever microloan to entrepreneur Le’Quita Watson, to develop her clothing company Faith Walks.
When Watson – who is a successful model – walked into the room, she immediately made a joke about the fact that, although she was already the tallest person in the room, she wore heels anyway.
Watson is a graduate of the Better Family Life Entrepreneur Support and Training Program. The Better Family Life Business Development Center and Micro Loan Fund, which has been in operation since November 2016, works with disadvantaged, minority and women entrepreneurs to provide them with resources and training to start successful businesses.
Faith Walks produces shirts and socks bearing motivational messages such as “believe outside the box” and “I can,” as well as the simple phrase, “faith walks.”
“I’m sharing my story and testimony through clothing so I can inspire other people,” Watson said. “I went from being homeless, to going through a bad marriage, losing everything, and then to getting modeling contracts, and being an entrepreneur.”
The process leading to Watson’s decision to start Faith Walks was unusual and serendipitous.
“I had gone through some things in life,” she said. “And Faith Walks kind of came about by me wanting to share my testimony with the world. And actually, my car had broke down, and I was actually walking – like, literally walking down the street – and I heard a voice say ‘faith walks’. And I’m like, ‘faith walks?’ Okay, faith walks. I’m walking on faith. And I said, ‘Faith walks. Okay. I’m going to start a business.’”
She shares the dream of building a successful, worldwide clothing company with her two daughters, ages 16 and 11, who both work with her to develop Faith Walks merchandise. “They’re actually the little creatives,” said Watson.
“My oldest daughter, she can sew very well, so she’s actually my designer, and my youngest daughter, she says she wants to do the stock work, so she’ll be doing all the labeling and all that stuff.”
Watson hopes to use her Better Family Life loan to continue spreading her message of positivity and faith to the community. She’ll be using the $2,500 loan for T-shirt and sock inventory, then later expand her business to other articles of clothing.
“To me, ‘can’t’ does not exist. It all depends on what you want in life. So it’s like, nobody can tell you what you can’t do,” she said. “I’m a plus-size model, so I was told that I couldn’t do it because of my size, I couldn’t do it because I had tattoos, and I couldn’t do it because I had kids. If I had listened to that and believed that, I wouldn’t have got this far.”
For more information about the program, call 314-367-3440 ext. 106, email npanth@betterfamilylife.org or visit http://betterfamilylife.org/business/.
Sophie Hurwitz is a St. Louis American editorial intern from John Burroughs School.
