We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Haleema McCree a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Haleema , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Vision Stationery Co’s mission is to serve understand women/girls of color who desire to be entrepreneurs, believe in themselves, break generational poverty, and build generational wealth.

Haleema , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Vision Stationery Co began from my love of creating things, helping women build businesses, and mentoring/coaching aspiring young female entrepreneurs. VSCO’s mission is to help women build generational wealth, break off generational poverty, and push women to believe in themselves. As a little girl, creating things was always a way to cope with trauma that I experienced during my childhood. After graduating with my Masters, I wanted to combine my background in creative arts, knowledge of business, research skills into my business.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The first thing that I think about concerning a story about resilience in my business is the process of getting my business planner. After researching a company that could design and print my company, I chose a company based in Atlanta. We communicated back and forth for about a month before there was a radio silence. A few months went by as I reached out without any response. Finally, I decided that I had to keep going. I started taking some classes on design and created The Aligned Business Planner which I launched in September of 2022.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Prior to running my business full time, I worked in the nonprofit sector. I built and developed new systems (due to my background in Developmental Psychology). I had always given 100% percent to these organizations and school. When I started having the desire to start my own business, I realized how much I had learned, but also how much I had given to much work and school. During my business journey, I have had to learn many lessons. The biggest lesson that I’ve learned is to invest in myself. I have learned to invest in others and things, but the greatest investment that I can make is my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Running a business has shifted the way I look at myself and the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.visionstationeryco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visionstationeryco/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/VisionStationeryCo/?refsrc=deprecated&_rdr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleema-m-82b873153
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCnajUoT8dIEvgLYu09GK0BA

Image Credits
Haleema McCree