Cream of the crop

Victoria Taylor, owner of Snowville Creamery, poses with a fresh glass of Snowville Creamery milk yesterday. Taylor will be speaking at tomorrow’s Brown Bag Lunch in the Women’s Center about her work at the creamery as well as being a female business owner in Southeast Ohio. (Alex K. Stein | MULTIMEDIA DIRECTOR)

The face of Pomeroy-based Snowville Creamery is a woman with her lips pursed in effort, purposefully pouring a large pitcher of milk in a field.

Even though the figure on the label is the face of the business, there is also a woman behind it.

“There is nothing that gender really rules out when it comes to being an entrepreneur or business person,” said Victoria Taylor, who owns the business along with her husband, Warren. Victoria also works as general manager and chief financial officer of Snowville Creamery.

Taylor will speak at tomorrow’s Brown Bag Lunch and Learn, a weekly speaker series held at noon every Thursday in the Women’s Center, Baker University Center 403, focusing on small business ownership.

“I think it’s important that we highlight women entrepreneurs in our community, and how what they do enriches the community in turn,” said Susanne Dietzel, director of the Women’s Center.

Snowville Creamery uses grass-fed cows to produce dairy products that are bottled and delivered to local grocers within 48 hours. In order to open the business, the couple mortgaged their farm and did not receive a paycheck for more than three years.

“Once in the middle of winter, Warren was stuck with a truck of containers in a snow storm in Columbus … and a man called from Cleveland and said our milk was just the sweetest thing he’d put in his mouth, and he wouldn’t feed anything else to his grandson. It just made me cry,” Victoria Taylor said. “That really does sustain you through the hard times.”

Taylor is one of many women in the area who owns or co-owns a small business. Maureen Burns-Hooker owns The Herbal Sage Tea Company, which produces hand-crafted teas in Rutland, Ohio, for local and national vendors, including Whole Foods Market.

“(Women who own small businesses) gravitate to each other,” Burns-Hooker said. “We can share experiences with someone who understands what it takes.’”

Burns-Hooker has owned her own business since age 19 when she opened a vintage clothes shop in Cleveland. After her retail was lost in a fire, she explored a latent interest in herbal and medicinal teas.

“Being a young woman entrepreneur, you are completely immersed in your business,” she said. “Truth is, nothing much has changed. I’m a bit older and still deeply intrigued by my work. The key is to do what one likes.”

Burns-Hooker had just had her son when her store burned down. Eventually, she opened a new shop with an area dedicated to The Herbal Sage Tea Company she had created.

“Being a single-mother entrepreneur, you become very thrifty and smart … and self-sufficient, and that serves you well,” Burns-Hooker said.

Eventually, she moved to Athens because it is known for its herbs and alternative medicine, which would let her fully delve into her medicinal tea. She notes that as the years have passed, she’s found more women who own and operate their own businesses.

“Nobody knew what is was like in the early days, and that was a bummer,” she said. “I didn’t have the camaraderie that many have in an office, and I longed for that camaraderie.”

Both Burns-Hooker and Taylor agree gender should not inhibit women from entering the field of entrepreneurship.

“There isn’t anything that men do that women can’t,” Taylor said. “They are only handicapped by social perceptions.”

jc543108@ohiou.edu

@ThePostCulture