Overcoming hurdles just part of the business for female owners

By Jazmine Knight

Owning a business of any kind is challenging, but when you throw in being a female-owned company in a male-dominated industry, the stakes get higher.

St. Joseph recently was recognized as one of the top places to start a business by Site Selection magazine, and Kristi Bailey, director of communication and marketing with the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, said women are definitely a big part of that.

“During COVID we saw a lot of entrepreneurs, especially women, find that they were tired of doing what they had been doing and that was a good time to start something new,” she said.

Karr Enterprises LLC, a home rental company, began its journey in 2020 during the pandemic and recently celebrated a grand opening ribbon-cutting.

“We started just with short-term rentals and we found out that it was kind of our niche,” said co-owner Mercedes Karr. “We were really good at it and we were very fortunate and found some little hidden gems in the community and we were able to expand over the last few years.”

Karr, who operates the business with her wife, Jessika, said being a female business owner has “been a hurdle at times.” She said it’s easy to feel underestimated, especially when dealing with male contractors or male-dominated rental companies.

“I feel like (there’s) a lot of doubt on our end and we are in more of a male-dominant industry,” Karr said. “So when we work with different individuals, we kind of have to come with a little more of our shoulders back and kind of ready to be able to stand on our conventions of what we want.”

Karr said her wife’s previous experience as a business owner offered a lot of insight.

“She came with tons of experience of how to overcome a lot of the hurdles or a lot of the doubt that might come into me and has helped push us to achieve what we have,” Karr said.

Bailey said she has noticed women do have some advantages in business, especially in areas related to creativity.

“A lot of women will be like, ‘OK, what kind of events can we do to bring people in?’” she said. “A lot of women do think outside the box and maybe are maybe a bit more naturally inclined to marketing.”

As a society, we have improved when it comes to giving women opportunities to succeed in business ownership, Bailey said. She encourages women to not be afraid to try new things and become entrepreneurs.

“I love seeing women-owned businesses emerge in St. Joseph … you’re seeing a variety of businesses and women really aren’t staying inside the box,” Bailey said.

She said that’s certainly been the case with the owners of Karr Enterprises.

“Sometimes getting involved and doing the maintenance and sometimes flipping of properties is not something that you always see a lot of women in,” Bailey said. “So I think that it’s great that they’re breaking down those barriers.”

The Karrs like to joke that the roles they share are 50/50. Between owning Karr Enterprises, Jessika owning other businesses, Mercedes being a St. Joseph educator and both of them also parenting a 2-year-old, things can get hectic so they lean on each other for support. And they also have garnered a lot of support from the community and other local businesses.

“I feel like we’ve been very welcomed in our community … We have an amazing group of landlords with our small and midterm that we can go to and get that support from,” she said.

Karr said the most rewarding thing about owning a business is “the ability to actually do it.” She also enjoys being able to revitalize the community one house at a time.

“We have those forgotten homes in our community that maybe haven’t been left or been vacant for a while,” Karr said. “And seeing their transformation over time and seeing the love that we put back in it for I know at least for myself, it’s our biggest reward, just being able to see, just love back into something.”