Natasha Clark

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Around age eight Natasha  Clark was told it was a woman’s job to take care of the home and since then she has built a career out of telling womeNatashaClarkn they can do whatever the hell they want to do.  Founder of the startup Lioness, the leading digital magazine for female entrepreneurs, the former news reporter has created a platform to educate, elevate and support female entrepreneurs. Natasha is a former board member of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield, a BusinessWest “40 Under 40”  winner; in 2011 she was voted Top Woman in Public Relations by Western Mass Women Magazine and in 2012 her startup was voted Most Innovative Local Business at the Springfield Republican’s Reader Raves awards. She was recently honored as one of the 2014 Top 10 Women in Business in the Pioneer Valley by the Women’s Business Owners Alliance.

She has been a panelist on Generation Next and Taking Your Small Business to the Next Level discussions, a regular speaker at Westover Job Corps’ “A Woman’s Worth” program and host of 5, a talk series for women on innovation and entrepreneurism. Natasha is also a mentor through Springfield School Volunteers’ Mentoring Program. She is the proud mother of her teenage son Shaun and resides in Springfield, Massachusetts.

When did you start your business and what was your motivation in doing so?
Lioness Magazine was an idea that developed after I worked with women entrepreneurs in a public relations capacity. I realized that there was no mainstream media outlet solely for women entrepreneurs. There were numerous publications for women professionals, but nothing that focused on women-founded startups. Our mission is to elevate, educate and support female entrepreneurs. We give them the latest news, resources and industry knowledge to help them launch startups or scale their enterprises.

What challenges have you encountered as a woman-owned minority business? I face the same challenges as my sisters in the startup world – funding and scaling. As a woman of color, I also seldom see others who look like me as I hit the startup scene in various cities. The media projects the image of the successful entrepreneur as a white male, when, in fact, Black and Hispanic women are the fastest growing segment of entrepreneurs in the United States.

Do you have a role model?  If so, who and why that particular person?
I love Sara Blakely because she kept her operations small even when Spanx was already in hundreds of stores across the U.S. Her story reminds me to stay fiscally conservative. I admire Steve Jobs because he believed in pushing the envelope. How can I take this thing (whatever your “thing” is) beyond what it is? That’s a powerful question. I cry every time I watch the movie, “Jobs.” Every single time. Passion without execution is useless.

How do you define success?
I define my success on whether or not I have moved the needle. When another woman tells me an article we wrote answered a question she had or made her feel inspired, that’s success. I moved the needle for someone. Isn’t that what we all want anyway?  To leave the world a little better off than how we found it? Oh, and a little cash! A side of cash never hurts.   ■

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