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Women Entrepreneurs symposium in Chattanooga lights way for entrepreneurs

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By Mitra Malek 3 min read

photo Cherita Adams is owner of Blue Orleans Seafood Restaurant. Blue Orleans is one of Chattanooga’s minority owned businesses.

WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES• 30 percent: Share of privately held companies in the United States that are at least half owned by women• 14 percent: Share of workers employed by women-owned businesses• 9.1 million: Number of women-owned businesses in the U.S.• $1.4 trillion: Sales generated by women-owned businessesSource: National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Washington D.C.

photo Cory Allison is a principal of the Jump Fund.

Two nuggets of advice for women wanting to start their own businesses.

Don’t give up. That’s according to Cory Allison, a general partner at Jump Fund, a Chattanooga-based venture capital fund.

Also: an idea is only an idea, which can float around forever, unless you get some skin in the game. That’s according to Cherita Adams, owner of Blue Orleans Seafood Restaurant in Chattanooga.

“No investor will ever take you seriously” unless you put pen to paper and figure out a business plan, Adams told about 250 women who packed tables at Stratton Hall on Tuesday morning to get solid advice for breaking out on their own.