We recently connected with Sherry Cothran and have shared our conversation below.

Sherry, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Before I founded Beloved Woman, a nonprofit that helps women create a pathway to a living wage through entrepreneurship, I had entrepreneurial experience that spanned two decades in a couple of different fields. First, I had worked in the music industry as a publisher and recording artist and also become an ordained United Methodist minister. With a heart to help the underserved find pathways to thriving, I worked with communities who struggled to make ends meet. In seminary at Vanderbilt Divinity, I came to know the Nobel Prize winning work of Muhammad Yunus who founded Grameen Bank, a global microlending organization to help financially disadvantaged populations create small businesses and economic mobility. The seeds for Beloved Woman were planted then, and over a decade of working in an urban setting in Nashville with the unhoused population, I realized that it took three major forces to help someone elevate out of poverty: relationships, a self-directed plan and resources. When I moved from Nashville to Chattanooga, I realized that there was a high level of poverty among women, particularly single mothers. So I took my experiences and combined them with a curriculum to create a free program in which women could apply their entrepreneurial ideas to a self-directed business plan to create a successful micro-business. The goal has been to help 20 to 30 women each year in Chattanooga and to also offer the Beloved Woman program to other communities. In our program, women gain community, encouragement, support, education and access to the resources they need to create extra income. Women who graduate our program often come back and help other women succeed.

Sherry, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began my professional career working in the music industry in Nashville, TN at a small but successful publishing house. There I learned how to combine creativity and business. I then became a songwriter/recording artist on Mercury Records, NY. I had self-managed our band and realized that it was only through hard work, a good product and belief in ourselves that we were able to succeed in a hard business. But as much as I enjoyed performing, writing and the excitement of being the lead singer of a rock band, I realized the music industry wasn’t going to be a long term career for me, even though songwriting will always be my heart. I had always felt called to help people, to be in some kind of service career. So, I pivoted into a spiritual path, went to seminary at Vanderbilt Divinity and became an ordained United Methodist minister. It wasn’t easy, I lost lots of precious people and things along the way, but I gained a profession that was meaningful. I worked as a senior pastor of an urban church with a large outreach to the unhoused population in Nashville. I learned from the people who let me into their lives that if it weren’t for the resources I had in my own life (family, education, friends) that I, too, could have ended up without a home. They were no different than me, I just had people to catch me when I fell through the cracks. I began to learn about the effects of generational and systemic poverty and how hard it is to rise up out of it. I also realized that when someone falls into a life of homelessness or is trapped in systemic poverty, despair is very difficult to shake. And very often, it takes relationships for a person to move from surviving to thriving. It takes community, resources and relationships to really help someone thrive. The seeds for Beloved Woman had been planted all along the way.

Many women have the dream of becoming self-sustaining. But there are often crippling forces that prevent that dream from becoming a reality. We have found that in addition to being underpaid and overworked, women who attend the Beloved Woman program have created an underdeveloped side business to help make ends meet. Or harbor a powerful dream to develop one. We walk alongside of these women, helping them form a business plan, build a website, have access to a female business mentor, a microloan and a community of support, encouragement and healing. We help them to build more income slowly and earn more for their time and energy: building their dream of becoming self-sustaining and along the way, creating a pathway to a living wage.

I am extremely honored to walk alongside the women who take the time to invest in themselves through our program. We are all cheering one another on. I’m also grateful for all the encouragement they give to me in my creative path. My writing and music have soared since I began working with budding entrepreneurs. I love being part of this beloved community.

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What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

When we began, we recruited clients through local nonprofits that worked with single mothers. However, after our first year and 2 groups, we began to receive applications primarily through word of mouth. Our application process is very simple and easy on our website and the link can be shared easily through text which is the primary way our clients like to communicate. As our program grew, we began to host events such as a marketplace to showcase products and services from graduates, a mad-hatter type tea for women and events such as “Changing the Narrative for Women in Business” that raise awareness for the issues business women face in the larger culture. At all of these events, we asked Beloved Woman graduates to speak and share their stories. We have also partnered with local churches, universities, nonprofits, banks, and other organizations that have hosted events for us. It has been a combination of word of mouth, community engagement and the stories of graduates that have helped us to have full classes each year. We have done some advertising through Instagram/Facebook ads, but these haven’t been quite as successful as word of mouth for gaining clients.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I began Beloved Woman, it was important to have an understanding that I had several different types of clients. I had the women I wanted to serve, of course, but I also had my board members, community partners, funders, volunteers, resource partners as well as those who could help me spread the word. And all of these are interconnected in some way. Having board members who have deep ties in the community and are connected to community partners, foundations, philanthropists, etc., has been primary in gaining the needed funding to begin. I began on a lean budget because I needed to prove the model in order to gain investors. Initially, we got grants from churches, individuals and civic clubs to begin. I had a strong background in public speaking, so that helped to convey the message and bring people into our sphere. After we ran two groups successfully, we began to receive grants from local foundations and we created a sponsorship program for individuals to invest in sending one woman through our program. This helped us to develop each year, building a stronger program, having more success stories and building deeper relationships with our funding partners.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.belovedwoman.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sherrycothran/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sdcothran
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherry-cothran-82179b20/
• Youtube: @SherryCothran
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sherrycothran
• Other: Sherry’s website: www.sherrycothran.com