This May, Tanya Morris, the founder of Mom Your Business, debuted the nonprofit’s first self-owned brick-and-mortar presence at the corner of 19th and Lehigh. In July, the HUB hosted state and national officials for an open house. Senator Bob Casey came, presented a federal grant check for $130,000, and told the crowd, “If we are not helping Tanya, I’m not sure what government funding is needed for.”
It was a big deal. But a few months on, Morris is already talking of a bigger and better home for her organization, one with a commercial kitchen and coworking space, she says.
She’s not unhappy with the Allegheny West spot. It’s just that planning for bigger and better is all in a day’s work for Morris. She founded Mom Your Business (MYB) to empower Black and Brown women entrepreneurs in 2017 — and naturally applies the same growth mindset to herself as she does to the 300 women she works with annually to help access capital (about a half million dollars so far), networking opportunities, tech and marketing training, and mentorship.
Morris has her work cut out for her. As in 2017, startups owned by American women of color receive about a third of 1 percent — an estimated .34 percent — of all venture capital. (Last year, all-female founded companies in the U.S. received less than 2 percent of all VC capital, despite comprising 28 percent of all entrepreneurs.)
Here in Philadelphia, women- and minority-owned businesses are not exactly thriving, either. According to the Small Business Equity Toolkit, 5.4 percent of all businesses in Philadelphia are Black-owned, 3.2 percent are Latino-owned, and 18 percent are women-owned — this is despite our city being 44 percent Black, 16 percent Latino and more than 53 percent female.
Morris says she hopes her work has moved the needle toward equity in business in Philadelphia. She is well aware she still has work to do.
A space for business
The HUB definitely makes her work easier. That $130,000 check — a federal grant — helped pay to transform the building, most recently a daycare, into a bright, multistory environment, complete with offices, work stations and a conference room — and for the salary of a brand-new community manager.
Now open five days a week, the HUB serves as a testament to what professional business services look like to its North Philly neighborhood, just three blocks away at 22nd and Lehigh, one of the city’s largest stretches of Black-owned brick-and-mortar businesses.
“People are grateful to see the HUB open,” says Morris, “not just entrepreneurs, but different members of the community.”
As when The Citizen reported about MYB in 2021, in its new home, Mom Your Business continues to offer all manner of build-your-business services: a 10-week Founders to Funders business accelerator; tech help focused on automation, cyber security, content development and digital marketing; and speed mentoring; “Workshop Wednesdays,” where clients get assistance in developing new products, or working branding, finances, marketing — or “anything,” Morris says; and “Third Friday Pitch Nights,” where entrepreneurs practice their messaging.
“Mentorship is not what I do; it is who I am.” — Tanya Morris, Mom Your Business
The venue also offers flexibility when it comes to MYB membership, which is available on a daily (“The Process,” $30, weekdays), weekly (“The Jawn,” $100, weekdays) or monthly basis (“Philly Special,” $350, 24/7), offering desks, WiFi, printing and copying, conference room access with A/V equipment, and project management support. And, although the space won’t host the bulk of their annual Thrive & Flourish Weekend in November — this year’s larger events take place at DiverseForce’s P4 Hub in Germantown, a multipurpose event space geared toward Black and Brown gatherings — the HUB will kick off the weekend by hosting a Friday night VIP meet and greet.
These last two offerings, MYB membership and Thrive & Flourish, are the sole Mom Your Business services that charge modest fees. Everything else is free of charge, funded by grants and donations — and fueled by Morris’s own gift and passion for mentorship.
A mentor’s mentor
Prior to founding her nonprofit, Morris worked at the intersection of outreach and finance at Philadelphia organizations with similarly social justice-minded missions. At Pathways to Housing PA, she ran personal finance workshops and coordinated free income tax preparation and self-sufficiency efforts for people experiencing homelessness.
She was the outreach and mobile tax site coordinator for the Campaign for Working Families and later worked with small businesses and entrepreneurs for the Women’s Opportunity Resource Center, which promotes social and economic self-sufficiency for economically disadvantaged women. While starting Mom Your Business, she coordinated projects at the Cheyney University of Pennsylvania Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Supportive Services Center. She’s also worked for the Urban Affairs Coalition, a consortium supporting community-centered nonprofits.
In 2022, Morris became managing partner of Phrist Market Ventures, a small Philly firm that provides integrated capital and other support to early-stage women-owned businesses. So far, Phrist has backed 12 such businesses.
“I often say mentorship is not what I do; it is who I am,” says Morris.
Chrissy Watts, founder of Philly Experiences, a Black and LGBTQIA-centric touring company, was a member of a MYB’s Founders and Funders cohort, a Morris mentee — and is now in Phrist’s portfolio. She says Morris’ business support was valuable, but her emotional support was invaluable. “I was going through a rough patch in entrepreneurship where I was seconds away from walking away from being in business,” Watts remembers. “She reassured me that it’s just a phase of the rollercoaster ride many don’t discuss enough, and that it’s common.”
At the open house, “mompreneurs” echoed praises for Morris. There was Brittney Pescatore, founder of Bee Natural, an online business selling customized care sets for Black hair. She said Morris helped “breathe life into her business.” Brenda Howard, owner of Naseerah’s online bakery, said taking courses, taking advantage of mental health support, taking part in networking, accessing funding — and getting her minority-owned business certification (MBE) — from MYB redefined and strengthened how she saw herself.
“When I first met Tanya, I was just a baker with a business,” she said. “Now, I am growing into a business owner.”
