Q&A: Lindsey Ramirez

Photograph by Alessandro Cerdas.

Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted prior to Ramirez stepping down as Director of Rhode Island’s Women’s Business Center in February 2025.

Lindsey Ramirez always dreamed beyond the nine-to-five grind.

A native of Edgewood, she taught English abroad, studied tech in Spain and lived in New York City before moving home to Rhode Island two years ago. Today, she’s the director of the Rhode Island branch of the Center for Women & Enterprise, a Boston-based organization dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs. The group operates a Women’s Business Center that receives funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration in Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood, offering resources and opportunities to connect with like-minded women. Visitors can drop in during office hours or take one of several classes and workshops designed to help get their businesses off the ground.

Here, Ramirez shares stories from her entrepreneurship journey and weighs in on the challenges facing women business owners today.

Can you tell us a little bit about what the Center for Women & Enterprise is?

The Center for Women & Enterprise is an economic empowerment organization, and our focus is to help women of all backgrounds start and grow businesses. It started in 1995. A woman named Andrea Silbert went on a two-year trip to South America, and she was inspired by businesses there. She went back to her hometown, which is in Boston, and then started CWE. It initially was a micro-lending institution that helped women entrepreneurs. She met a business partner named Susan Hammond and in 1998, they expanded. We’re funded by the U.S. government, so it’s [the Small Business Administration] primarily. And then we match our funding from other sources — sponsors, corporations and a variety of others.

Since we’re funded by tax dollars, most of our resources are low-cost, and even the low-cost things are negotiable. We make it super accessible. Our main resources are consulting, workshops and programs, and networking and connection opportunities. We also help with certification.

When was the Rhode Island branch founded?

CWE in Rhode Island opened in 2000. Since then, we’ve helped and supported roughly 18,900 women. This year in May, we’re celebrating the thirty-year anniversary of CWE being open. 

Rhode Island is blessed to have many organizations that help small businesses get off the ground. What sets CWE apart from other organizations like Hope & Main, Social Enterprise Greenhouse or the Rhode Island Black Business Association?

The difference with CWE is that we focus on women, and our holistic approach. It could be a woman at every stage. We have a class to help you understand what entrepreneurship entails, steps to entrepreneurship, things that you might consider. So from the spark to a business that’s thriving and wants to scale, all levels of entrepreneurship is what we cater to. A lot of our instructors, too, are not just educators. They’re people with experience. They graduated from our business planning course and then come back. They want to give back to the community. They want to teach. They want to share what worked for them. A woman needs someone to lean on. Entrepreneurship can be pretty lonely, especially for women who don’t have a support system.

What are some of the unique resources that women business owners need?

Women need to not be discouraged. Just heard out and encouraged to take their seat at the table and be empowered. I’ve seen so many smart women who are like, ‘I just can’t do this.’ It’s like, ‘You just pushed a baby out of your belly. You can do this.’ It’s that constant encouragement and push to keep going is what women really need, because they’re juggling so many other things — households, kids, life, bills. That could be almost all business owners, but particularly I would say women because we’re the nurturers, and we’re pouring into so many people, and we don’t always get that back.

Tell us about your personal journey.

I was born and raised here. I grew up in Edgewood. I left for college immediately after high school. Growing up, my parents both worked. They had their nine-to-fives, but they were also pursuing entrepreneurship. At some point, my mom had a day care, and she was selling jewelry and accessories. And then my dad, he was a state trooper and worked for the East Providence Police Department, but then he also owned a tire shop and managed tons of rental commercial properties and did a lot more. And so that hustle, it planted a seed of, ‘I want that kind of autonomy and creativity in my life.’ That’s what entrepreneurship offers. I moved to New York after high school and earned a business administration degree. While I was in college, I was working full-time. During all of that, I experimented with entrepreneurship. I had a baking goods business. I worked as a freelance web developer and self-taught myself how to do stuff online for other people. I built a travel buddy app. I’ve always been drawn to innovation. And although I don’t run a business right now full-time, that spirit of entrepreneurship is something I feel like I always carry.

What did you do after college?

I got a certification right after I finished college in New York to teach English. And a month after graduating, I booked a one-way to Thailand. I was like, ‘Alright, let me just do one year. It’s going to be this little nice trip for me.’ It ended up being five years. I taught in Thailand and then Japan. I met a mentor while I was teaching, and she was a Dominican woman who was a digital nomad. She introduced me to tech-related things. I applied to a coding boot camp in Barcelona, and that was a four-month program where I was in class from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday. After that, I got a job as a software engineer back in New York. I had to come back to Rhode Island because of personal matters, a death in my family. That was 2022.

What was it like moving back to Rhode Island after living abroad and in New York?

It was a big transition. I felt like I was learning Rhode Island all over again because technically, I hadn’t really lived here since high school. And so relearning things, and also appreciating things more. Every time I travel, I feel like I meet a different part of myself. The growth in that, the adaptability that you need for that — that’s at the heart of entrepreneurship. Day-to-day, I channel that spirit of adaptability, of adventure, when I help others and encourage them to chart their own path, however unique or crazy it sounds.

Have your experiences traveling given you a better perspective on what you do here? Absolutely. I lived in Asia, but I traveled through India and Africa and all these other places. And just meeting all types of people [who] work with what they have and are extremely happy — not having all the material things, or sometimes having a lot of material things, but their spirit is really what matters. That’s helped me. Because it makes me a lot less judgmental of folks, especially what we see on the outside. I feel like there’s something learned from everyone.

What do you find are the biggest challenges facing women entrepreneurs in Rhode Island? 

Top is money and pre-seed funding. Getting the funding to either start their business and not be burdened by loans and things, or money to scale their business, is something that continues to be challenging for almost all women entrepreneurs. As our demand grows, we have to plan accordingly because we have limited resources and funding.

What are the center’s biggest priorities in the year ahead?

The primary focus is always growing our community. And reminding women that they’re not alone in the journey. Yes, it’s isolating, and you have to do a lot of it yourself, but there’s help. You can take calculated
risks. There’s a support system. There are people who know a lot about this. I also want to showcase more of their stories. There are so many local entrepreneurs here who are worth knowing about and highlighting who have incredible stories. There’s this one girl who came from Peru, and she learned how to make clothes from her grandmother, and now she’s doing stuff with Fashion Week and starting her business. I’m also working on a directory that just focuses on women-owned businesses in Rhode Island, because we get a lot of questions about that.

For any women entrepreneurs who might be reading this, what specific classes do you offer that are good for new people?

It really depends on what stage you’re at. If you’re still coming up with the idea, we have a self-assessment quiz on our website. And that is a good starting point, because it’ll list what workshops and programs to start looking at and considering, based on the business stage. I always recommend the business planning resources. We have a one-hour class on business plan basics, and we’ve got a legal considerations one. We’ve got a personal branding series. I usually navigate folks to the self-assessment to see what business stage they’re at and then go from there. 

Just start getting familiar with this environment and community, too. Because you want to be around other women who are working on their businesses or in the know on this stuff. Work [here] for a day on a Wednesday to network, even if they’re working on their own, to hear the conversation and meet others who are going through the same thing. Women Workspace Wednesdays are our office hours. If you have questions about something, you’re freaking out about something you got in the mail, you’re not sure about this document that you have to submit — I’m not going to have all the answers, but I can point people to the right direction.

It must also be helpful having someone with your tech background around the office. Those skills are so necessary for new business owners.

EmpowerHerTech is a digital literacy program I created and piloted in September 2023. Women entrepreneurs from across all CWE centers — Vermont, New Hampshire, Mass. — attend this in-person workshop for hands-on, one-on-one tech support. Whether someone needs help cropping a photo or installing new software for their business, the workshop addresses their tech support needs. In September 2024, CWE was awarded a grant from PwC to expand EmpowerHerTech across all five centers to meet the growing tech demands as innovation continues to evolve. These biweekly
sessions always coincide with Women Workspace Wednesdays, held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

What does the future look like for women entrepreneurs?

This period of change highlights the importance of shaping our own futures. More women are realizing the empowerment that comes from not relying on a single system or entity for success. I also anticipate more women entrepreneurs embracing community-driven initiatives, not just to stay informed but to build a stronger foundation for understanding how policies affect them, small businesses and their communities. By engaging in these initiatives and drawing from their own experiences, women gain valuable knowledge that enables them to become stronger advocates, especially to challenge unjust policies and address false narratives in media outlets.

What is your favorite place in Rhode Island?

When it’s really cold, my favorite place is just to be home. I love my apartment in Pawtucket, and I’ve got a cat and find a lot of things to entertain myself. When I’m out, I like Providence. It’s a blend of cultures that I really appreciate. A part of me will always love New York, but Providence has a little bit of a similar feeling where you’ve got your Dominicans on Broad Street, you’ve got Italian charm by Federal Hill, you’ve got Cape Verdeans and Africans and Portuguese, and it’s just a big blend. Southeast Asians, too. I love the mixture of students that there are. Providence has been great. 

Anything else you want to share with our readers?

I want to remind women that they’re not alone. That despite having to do a lot of things by themselves and it not being easy, that risks are worth taking. It’s a safer bet if you use your resources like the Women’s Business Center. There’s this coalition that CWE is part of, it’s called BEARI. It stands for Business Empowerment Alliance of Rhode Island. And that’s eight organizations that all support businesses or entrepreneurs — Hope & Main, RIBBA, Hispanic Chamber, etc. We refer clients to one another. Entrepreneurs are really taking advantage of the resources now, especially with that coalition existing.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 🆁