Women Business Owners to Share Experiences, Give Advice at Event Tuesday

The Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and Oxford-Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation are gearing up for a first-of-its-kind Big Bad Business Series Tuesday.

The event will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the Powerhouse.

The women-owned business panel will include:

• Emily Blount, co-owner of Saint Leo Restaurant
• Joie Blount, co-owner of Saint Leo Restaurant
• Carol Harris, Director of Minority and Small Business 
• Tammy Herod, founder of Women of Worth and Excellence, owner of Tammy’s Hair Salon

“We are so unbelievably excited for a great discussion on the challenges of being a small business owner from this unique perspective. Saint Leo and Tammy’s Hair Gallery are tremendous assets to our community,” said Meghan Gallagher, Outreach and Education Coordinator at YAC who coordinates the monthly workshop series.

Emily and Joie Blount, sisters-in-law, began with pop-up events and then opened Saint Leo restaurant in 2016. They have since weathered a pandemic, a myriad of changes including the industry-wide challenge of post-pandemic staffing, and a location change. 

Tammy Herrod has been serving the community for 35 years, first as owner of Tammy’s Hair Gallery. She then took on the challenge of establishing her nonprofit WOWE, formed in 2016, to focus on programming and resources aimed at providing participants with opportunities for spiritual, personal, educational, financial as well as professional growth.

Carol Harris, Director of the Minority and Women-Owned Small Business Council, part of the Mississippi Development Authority, is visiting from Jackson to be a part of the panel.

She will also be a part of a separate event, a free minority entrepreneur cocktail hour from 5-6 p.m. at the Powerhouse on May 23rd sponsored by Equitable Entrepreneurship and Little Easy Catering. The cocktail hour is free and open to the public.

The Big Bad Business Series is a monthly series of workshops that offer free scalable expert advice, resources, and best practices to entrepreneurs in North Mississippi’s creative economy. YAC staff discovered that creatives had a shared need for access to small business resources and mentorship.

The series began as the Arts Incubator, a quarterly workshop series, and now occurs monthly, funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Arts Projects program.

For more information on the women-owned business panel or the minority entrepreneur cocktail hour, please visit www.oxfordarts.com.

Courtesy of Yoknapatawpha Arts Council