Vision & Heels: Blazing New Trails in Coworking Space for Women and Women Allies
Florida SBDC at Daytona State College Assists with Executive Roundtable Growth XChange Program and Consulting Support
September 30, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Hal Thayer, Communications Director, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4850 or HThayer@ucf.edu
Trecia Arrington, Sub-Center Director, FSBDC at DSC, 386.506.3317 or Trecia.Arrington@daytonastate.edu
Orlando, FL – Ask any small business owner or entrepreneur -regardless of their business’s size or industry- “Have you ever felt like you are ‘on your own’ while trying to manage everything?” and they will likely answer “Yes!” The cliche about it being “lonely at the top” is too often true. Jeannette Rodriguez, the CEO and founder of Vision & Heels, a female-forward co-working space located in the heart of downtown Deland, FL, was dealing just such aloneness as she worked to grow her business. She turned to the Florida Small Business Development Center at Daytona State College (FSBDC at DSC), a service center of the FSBDC at UCF, for assistance by utilizing its no-cost, expert consulting and a new specialty program called Growth XChange.
Vision & Heels is a coworking space built for women and women allies. Its space offers opportunities for Central Florida to experience a new way of working together and connecting. Through its memberships and space, the company offers a range of amenities to help clients do their best work. “What makes Vision & Heels different is community,” Jeannette Rodriguez explains proudly. “We’re not just space. Yes, we have offices and conference rooms, but we are also truly a community. I don’t want an empty, cold space. I want a space where folks can come in, feel like their home, and connect with everyone here.”
Research has shown that one remedy for the isolation that can come with building and leading an organization is connecting with and collaborating with like-minded and like-positioned executives to share challenges, experiences, solutions, and more. To that end, and borrowing from the FSBDC at UCF’s award-winning CEO XChange, the FSBDC at Daytona State launched its Growth XChange, a roundtable program serving progressive business owners in Volusia County. Growth XChange provides a confidential setting to discuss vital business issues, opportunities, and trends with a group of peers designed to assist its members with managing the solitary nature inherent in leading an enterprise.
“I sought out the assistance of the FSBDC because I felt I needed, as a new business owner, to learn the ins and outs of owning a business and to know I wasn’t alone,” recalls Rodriguez. “All the feelings, all the fears that come with owning a business, from starting a business, from self-funding that business, I needed help in all aspects and being part of Growth XChange has allowed me to get that help. I have also had access to the FSBDC team, specifically Trecia Arrington, the FSBDC at DSC director and consultant,” shares Rodriguez. “She was able to make it comfortable for me and it’s been a great journey working with her.”
“I had the wonderful opportunity to start with the Growth XChange program from the very beginning,” Rodriguez continued. “I was able to get the support of the group and the services of the FSBDC that I needed to make the right decision, to make those marketing-spend decisions, to make those hiring decisions to continue to run my business while trying to expand. All of these services were provided by the FSBDC and they were amazing for me.”
“The FSBDC at DSC helped Vision & Heels grow to where we are today,” concludes Rodriguez, noting that, after only two years in business, the company has increased its available space by 100% and projected revenues have increased 50%. “In an area that was in decline, we are growing and we’re still growing and I have the FSBDC to thank for that.”
For information about Vision & Heels, please visit https://www.visionandheels.com/.
— FSBDC —
About the FSBDC at UCF
Hosted by the University of Central Florida (UCF), and with its main office in the National Entrepreneur Center located at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) is part of part of UCF’s Office of the President and the Florida SBDC Network.
The Florida SBDC at UCF provides aspiring and existing small businesses with no-cost consulting, low-cost training, and access to business data and research resources. In addition to its core service offering, the Florida SBDC at UCF also offers specialized services to qualifying companies, including capital access, market growth, government contracting, international trade, business continuation, cybersecurity, disaster planning and recovery, and more. The FSBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties and maintains 9 service centers across Central Florida.
In 2023, the FSBDC at UCF served more than 2,800 entrepreneurs in Central Florida with consulting services, resulting in more than 10,100 jobs created, retained or saved; $743.5 million in sales growth; $59.2 million in capital formation; $122.5 million in government contract awards; and 164 new businesses started. For more information, please visit www.sbdcorlando.com .
About the Florida SBDC Network
For more than 45 years, the Florida SBDC Network, the state’s principal provider of business assistance [Fl. Stat. 288.001], has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development to provide existing and emerging small and medium-sized business owners with management and knowledge resources that enable overall growth, increased profitability, and economic prosperity for Florida’s economy.
In 2023, the Florida SBDC Network delivered 111,720 hours of consulting to 14,808 small business clients – resulting in business owners securing $346 million in capital, $576 million in government contracting, impacting 19,263 jobs, increasing sales by over $3.9 billion, and creating 1,058 businesses.
With over 40 offices statewide, the Florida SBDC is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Department of Defense, State of Florida and other private and public partners. The Florida SBDC Network, headquartered at the University of West Florida, is nationally accredited by the Association of SBDCs and is a recipient of the President’s E Award for Export Service. Florida SBDC services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Language assistance services are available for individuals with limited English proficiency. For more information, please visit www.FloridaSBDC.org.
FSBDC at UCF | 3201 E. Colonial Drive | Orlando, FL 32801 | p 407.420.4850 | f 407.420.4862
sbdc@ucf.edu | www.sbdcorlando.com