{"id":22090,"date":"2025-11-05T05:51:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T05:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/incredipros.com\/?p=22090"},"modified":"2025-11-05T05:51:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T05:51:40","slug":"women-who-rewrote-the-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/incredipros.com\/?p=22090","title":{"rendered":"Women Who Rewrote the Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cassandra Gucwa was crying in frustration in her office closet shortly after her employer was acquired by a larger conglomerate in 2012. Hundreds of employees were now mixing into her workspace, and the vibe in the office shifted from collaborative to competitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just so difficult to work your way up the ladder and then compete against your peers,\u201d she tells me.<\/p>\n

Gucwa wasn\u2019t crying over the prospect of having to work harder to make a name for herself; she was no stranger to long hours and tight deadlines. But it didn\u2019t feel like her new employer was treating her fairly. Some of the more experienced employees, Gucwa among them, ended up with lower titles. \u201cIt made it even harder to get to the next step,\u201d she says. Later, Gucwa discovered that three of her male co-workers, some of whom had less experience than she did, were making around 20% more than she was for the same job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a woman, it\u2019s a familiar story. For every dollar a man made in 2024, women made 81 cents, according to data from the Census Bureau. The pay gap, a problem that has hamstrung generations of women, has been in fact widening over the past two years \u2014 a first since the late 1990s and a measurable reminder of the uphill path women walk in the office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When faced with a wage gap, working women have two choices: climb up the corporate ladder, or climb off it entirely. An increasing number of women are choosing the second option: In 2024, almost half of new businesses were started by women \u2014 a five-year high according to Gusto Insights, a small business research company. This represents a 69% increase since 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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After a few years, Gucwa managed to score a highly coveted director role, but to do so, she accomplished what no one at the agency had done before. <\/p>\n

She created a new service line and an end-to-end process for developing pitch decks, hiring people, training employees and selling to clients \u2014 something she calls \u201ca little business within the business.\u201d Six months later, she had brought in one million dollars in revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought: Imagine if I could do that for myself,\u201d she tells me.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When Gucwa went on maternity leave six years ago, she decided not to go back. \u201cI just thought, what am I doing?\u201d she tells me. \u201cI\u2019m wasting so much time and getting nowhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, she runs her own digital marketing agency, Menerva Digital, specializing in search engine optimization. She makes ten times what she used to. She decides who to work with and who not to. \u201cYou still have to deal with bad clients,\u201d she says,\u201dbut I can choose not to anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across the country, working women are making similar decisions. They aren\u2019t climbing off the corporate ladder because they stopped wanting more. Rather, they realized that maybe it\u2019s slanted in the wrong direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I spoke to a few female corporate expats on their experiences starting their own businesses. Here\u2019s what they told me.<\/p>\n

Nena Evans: From blog to business\u00a0<\/h2>\n

For Nena Evans, leaving corporate life was less a leap than a long calculation \u2014 a bet she was finally ready to make on herself. In 2018, while working as a financial analyst, she began blogging on the side, documenting her office outfits in the few hours left after work. When her role expanded and the days grew longer, she shifted to Instagram. \u201cIt was an easier way to put the content out there,\u201d she says, \u201cand not have to write an entire dissertation about an outfit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans got her timing right. Instagram\u2019s video function was newer, and the algorithm was hungry for creators. Within two years, she\u2019d built enough momentum \u2014 income \u2014 to leave her corporate life behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her decision was equal parts creative and practical. \u201cI get to control my own hours, my destiny and do something I really love,\u201d she tells me. The content earnings soon outpaced her corporate salary. \u201cI [thought] it might be time to go all in and invest in myself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The influencer economy has only grown since Evans joined. By the end of 2025, it\u2019s expected to reach $22.2 billion globally, up 12% year over year. Women dominate the field \u2014 they represent 70% of creators \u2014 yet they still earn less: just 72 cents for every dollar men make, according to Collabstr, an influencer marketing platform that studied small-scale content creators with 1,000 to 50,000 followers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Evans\u2019 Instagram follower count currently sits at 946K. For her, the leap to fulltime content creation wasn\u2019t rash. \u201cI had the data to show this is not just a one-off,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

When the income became steady, she left her old job. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have done it any sooner,\u201d she tells me, \u201cbut I wouldn\u2019t have done it any later, either.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sonia Daniels: Owning your business = owning your revenue\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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When you own your own business, you control your income. For Sonia Daniels, that freedom has been one of entrepreneurship\u2019s greatest rewards. \u201cI have a lot more\u00a0control over my financial future,\u201d she tells me. <\/p>\n

As the owner of S. Daniels Consulting, she collects from multiple revenue streams like speaking engagements in addition to the work she does for her clients \u2014 she\u2019s no longer shackled to a biweekly paystub. \u201cIt\u2019s been beautiful as a woman, to make my own money and not be limited by where it comes from,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Daniels didn\u2019t start her business with money in mind. If you ask her, she\u2019ll tell you it\u2019s because she was a disgruntled employee. Before, Daniels worked in the public sector, bouncing around between different nonprofits and government administrative positions \u2014 ones that didn\u2019t feel conducive to her thriving professionally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2016, after taking time off for personal reasons, Daniels was asked to leave her job. \u201cIt felt dehumanizing,\u201d she tells me. \u201cIt confirmed what I already felt \u2014 the lack of safety and security as a Black woman in corporate America.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Daniels\u2019 gut feeling; her reality reflects the data. The climb to the top of the corporate ladder is steeper for Black women. Black women earned just 67 cents for every dollar white men made, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Black women also ask for promotions at the same rate as men, but for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 58 Black women were promoted, Lean In, a women\u2019s professional empowerment nonprofit, found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, Daniels strives to change corporate culture from the outside in. With her consulting firm, she aims to \u201ccreate a safe space for people of color and minorities in general,\u201d for her clients and within her own business.<\/p>\n

Fabiana Mel\u00e9ndez Ruiz: Filling the Spanish-speaking market gap<\/h2>\n

Fabiana Mel\u00e9ndez Ruiz never planned to own a business, but it\u2019s become her way of advocating for her community. A Venezuelan-American who fled to Austin, Texas with her family 20 years ago on political asylum, Ruiz now runs Refuerzo Collaborative, a bilingual public relations agency she describes as \u201cmission-driven.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re very pro-Latino, we\u2019re against the ICE raids because we\u2019re Latina-owned,\u201d she tells me. For Ruiz, this is one of the upsides of running your own business. \u201cIf I speak out\u2026.who\u2019s going to fire me?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Entrepreneurship found Ruiz more than she found it. While working in PR for a civil engineer, Ruiz built a marketing department from scratch. Impressed, the CEO and COO of the company offered to invest in her own agency. <\/p>\n

She paid them back in 30 days. Within six months, Refuerzo Collaborative was invited to the United Nations for a Hispanic Leadership Summit and built out a growing list of clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ruiz was hesitant at first; public relations agencies abound in Austin, and Ruiz didn\u2019t want to add more to the noise. But she saw the gap that others ignored: the city\u2019s Spanish-speaking community. \u201cThere\u2019s very little diversity [in the PR world],\u201d says Ruiz. \u201cAnd we\u2019re in Texas \u2014 none of them do Spanish PR, which is crazy because Texas is 42 percent Latino.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mia Umanos: Solving problems for clients and employees<\/h2>\n
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For many women I spoke with, flexibility was the biggest reward of running their own business, the freedom to solve problems without asking permission. For Mia Umanos, it meant the chance to run her own philosophy \u2014 not someone else\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Umanos founded Clickvoyant, a data analytics company, with a simple mission: make data science more accessible to mid-market companies. After years in marking agencies watching clients turn down analytics because of high costs, she built a new business model. With Clickvoyant, Umanos leverages artificial intelligence and outsources some of the data science work to the Philippines to keep prices down.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The choice to hire Filipino women was a personal one. A Filipino-American, Umanos wanted to create opportunities for women in her mother\u2019s home country \u2014 women who could stay with their families instead of finding work abroad. \u201cPeople think Filipinos just answer phones or follow scripts,\u201d she says. \u201cNo. They\u2019re (f\u2014\u2014g) smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line\u00a0<\/h2>\n

While starting your own business sounds liberating, it\u2019s rarely simple. Every woman I spoke with said she\u2019s glad she made the leap \u2014 but none said it was easy. There\u2019s the paperwork, the taxes, and the health insurance. \u201cIt can be a bit of a reality check,\u201d Evans says. \u201cAll of it falls on me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being in charge is both the best and the hardest part. \u201cWhen I worked for someone else, I could punt things to someone more senior,\u201d Ruiz says. \u201cWhen you work for yourself, you are the most senior person.\u201d Being a leader can also be isolating. \u201cI\u2019m the only person who has the vision for this business,\u201d Daniels says. \u201cI\u2019m the only person who really gets it.\u201d Gucwa agrees: \u201cI\u2019ve hired experts to consult me, but I don\u2019t have the same support system that other businesses might have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the trade off feels worth it. The women I spoke to gave up steady paychecks for uncertainty and found something more valuable than money: ownership, complete autonomy and a chance to create the kind of chance they want to see in the world. \u201cIt feels more like a community than it does like a business,\u201d Umanos says. \u201cAt the end of the day, I feel like I\u2019ve contributed to society.\u201d<\/p>\n

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