Virtual Directory For Women-Owned Businesses Launches Statewide

SALT LAKE CITY — The Women’s Business Center of Utah launched a first of its kind directory, promoting women-owned businesses in Utah.

The virtual directory features more 300 businesses in 19 counties.

The resource will serve as a tool to connect women business owners across all industries and support the small business community in the state. 

“The pandemic has disproportionately impacted women-owned businesses more than the average business due to the industries they are involved in, the lack of access to capital and childcare,“ said Ann Marie Wallace, state director of the Women’s Business Center of Utah. 

Wallace said many Utahns do not realize women own and control close to 40% of small businesses in the state, which is more than 89,000.

“We believe it is important to support women-owned businesses, and the economy in general, by encouraging people and organizations to buy women-owned, promote women-owned, to mentor them, and invest in them,” she said.

JulieAnn Caramels is one of the businesses on the directory. Owner Rowena Montoya started the company in 2012 and said getting into a male-dominated industry was not easy.

“It’s difficult, it’s a different road,” Montoya said. “There’s not very many women that are manufacturers, creators and innovators.”

She has a store front and factory in Sandy where she packages her treats and ships them to consumers across the country.

“I love what we do because it’s creative. I love to create,” she said.

Montoya hopes this new directory will not only push customers to shop in the Beehive State, but to also appreciate the owner behind these shops.

“Hopefully it will be an eye-opener to how many women are actually running companies,” she said. “What better way to promote our state and promote women.”