Legacy Unleashed

by Elizabeth Denham

A trio of women is on a mission to build an empire that changes the community, builds wealth and creates a legacy for their family all while working corporate jobs, raising kids and giving back. How do they do it? They are fierce!

This impressive group of women is made up of mother, Toya Evans and daughters Chanel Grant and Lauren Williamson. Together, they run Healthy Living Ventures, LLC and are building a portfolio of franchise brands that focus on a healthy lifestyle including Tropical Smoothie Cafe & Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

“It really is about legacy,” Evans said. “My daughters and I are insanely close. We could do three-way calls all day long.”

Grant and Williamson grew up watching their parents working as entrepreneurs, and six years ago, the three women had a call about what was important to them. Since then, they have embraced the franchise model and are building a future together. Grant, Evans and Williamson believe the franchise model is the perfect way to build as franchises have proven track records and quick ramp up times.

“When they say, ‘franchising,’ we want them to see our faces,” Evans said. “We have lofty goals, and we are busy looking for more opportunities that align with our core mission to build our portfolio.”

Community Impact

Evans said Prince Georges County in Maryland is a prime place to develop a franchising portfolio because of the lack of services available in the county. The family aims to change that.

“Prince Georges County is the number one African American county in the country,” Evans said. “And many of the affluent African Americans took money out of the county because of lack of services. This is a driving force for us as business owners – to bring businesses, especially health and wellness options – to fill a void.”

“This area also has pockets of healthy food deserts,” Grant added. “And it is important to us to bring these options into the county, and we have had great success in this endeavor so far.”

Evans noted that initially they had to work to bring the brands to this area because there is a false perception that certain median income levels won’t support a location.

“People will spend money for healthy options,” she said. “And once we got the first Tropical Smoothie into the area, it was very successful.”

Knocking Down Barriers

When negotiating a lease for their second Tropical Smoothie Cafe location, the landlord wanted to require the all-female team to get their husbands to cosign the lease, and Tropical Smoothie Café didn’t understand why that was a problem. But the women stood firm.

“We were ready to walk away from the lease before we would have a man cosign for us,” Evans said. “Once we met with the male landlord, that was enough, and he relented. But we were prepared to walk away.”

“There is no reason why they should have to cosign when they are not a part of the business. They do not benefit…except through us…and they do not need to take risk,” Evans said.

Giving Back

Not only do the women advocate for bringing businesses into their area, but also they give back to the community through a mentoring program for young girls called “A Bigger Picture, Inc .” Grant, who had a vision for the organization while in college, spearheads this effort, and while the pandemic has slowed momentum a bit, the program is growing and embraced across the board.

“The program is designed to provide girls with an empowering space to grow self-confidence and offer resources and mentorship that every girl deserves,” Grant said. “We work with middle and high school girls, we are available in schools in the D.C. area, and we offer a free annual conference that is growing rapidly.”

Their annual conference, “Unleashed: Defining Your Power, Purpose and Passion” offers a day of fun, education, empowerment and scholarship opportunity for girls in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Maryland and Roanoke, Virginia with plans to expand to Norfolk, Virginia next. By 2023, Grant’s goal is to have the conference in 10 cities throughout the East Coast and Midwest.

A Balancing Act

While Evans is counting down the days until retirement and handing everything off to her daughters (four years, three months and 13 days at the time of this interview to be exact), Grant and Williamson are excited about the power of business ownership, the legacy it leaves for their family and the lessons it teaches their children.

“Chanel and I are a good balance for each other,” Williamson said. “She is more of the YOLO (you only live once) personality, and I am the risk assessor. But we both live by a ‘never-give-up mentality’ and we always give 120 percent.”

This philosophy is something Williamson hopes to pass on to her kids.

“They are young now, so who knows if they will come into the business with us, but they see us work hard; they are learning what it takes to own a business and the value of controlling your own destiny,” she said. “And like any working mom, some days I grapple with finding balance, but I embrace that some days I am a great mom and present and engaged, and others, I am busy or distracted, and my husband takes the lead. And I have to be okay with that knowing the value of our legacy and the goal of building generational wealth.”

Paying It Forward

Together, the women believe it is important to pay it forward. They know the learning curve they experienced and they want to help others who are considering franchising opportunities.

“We have used the time of COVID to help others in business. We saw a need and an opportunity to help educate those considering this path,” Evans said. “So we developed a course called, ‘So You Want to Buy a Franchise’ to help educate others.”

Williamson also wants to increase the number of women in leadership roles.

“We want to pour our knowledge into other women who want to do this,” she said. “We want to inspire them to business ownership so they can start to build their legacy outside of the nine-to-five grind.”

To learn more about Healthy Living Ventures, LLC and A Bigger Picture, please visit: https://healthylivingventuresllc.com https://healthylivingventures.teachable. com/ and https://abiggerpicture.org/.