“The Urban League is helping me achieve my dreams, a step at a time.”
--- Nicole Gallagher
West Chester, Ohio

“I have a lot of big dreams and an entrepreneurial spirit so it’s difficult to stay focused,” says Nicole Gallagher. “With business coaching and planning strategies from the Urban League, instead of trying to do everything at once and scattering my energies, I am expanding my business by taking baby steps and my business is doing better and moving faster than ever.”

Nicole Gallagher wasn’t satisfied with owning and operating Salon Favor, a successful hair salon and spa in the Cincinnati suburb of West Chester. She envisioned a holistic business that not only would provide healthy and stylish hair care and hair weaves, fusion and wigs, but would also “recapture Black dollars” by selling beauty products, accessories and jewelry to people of color, and provide expert stylist training.

She attended an Urban League economic summit, where she networked, commiserated and strategized with other small business owners. She engaged an Urban League volunteer business coach and she learned that her big vision could be achieved by taking it step-by-step.

“It’s been absolutely awesome,” Nicole says of her experience with the Urban League’s African-American Business Development Program. “The connections I’ve made have been very helpful. The support of my business coach – we meet every two weeks – helps keep me encouraged and focused. The speakers have great ideas and advice.”

A critical piece of advice Nicole learned in the program is that you can’t do it all and do it well. “I was doing everything myself,” she explains. “I was too scattered to focus. So I hired a bookkeeper and that took a lot of baggage off my back.”

This single mother of three also learned that by planning and focusing on the strategic steps to grow her business, she has less stress, more balance in her life and a thriving business.

“If you’re trying to get to the next level, you need help,” says Nicole. “When you surround yourself with positivity and people like those in the Urban League business development program, good things happen.”