One month prior to graduating from Women’s Economic Ventures’ Spanish Self-Employment Training (SET) in July 2003, Gloria launched her first entrepreneurship. Telas Dionicio sells fabric, thread, needles, zippers and other sewing accessories.

Beginning on a part-time basis, Gloria opened a temporary store at the local Saturday swap meet. With very few retail fabric stores in the Santa Barbara area, Gloria defined a business niche to serve local seamstresses.

She credits her instructor, Sylvia Uribe, and her WEV classmates as inspirational mentors. Each provided ideas for her business start-up and taught her how to work well with others. Overall, Gloria says her most valuable lesson from WEV is her own enhanced self-confidence. She has learned “tener confianza en mi misma.”

Gloria plans to research WEV’s Small Business Loan Fund opportunities to fund expanded inventory.