March 2025 marks the return of Women’s History Month and with it, the Women’s Business Center of Fayetteville at the Center for Economic Empowerment and Development (CEED) was able to shine a spotlight on up-and-coming entrepreneHERS with their fourth annual HERPitch competition.

On Thursday, March 6, the contestants, their supporters and community members all gathered at Blissful Alchemists in Fayetteville for the HERPitch final event.

Contestants were graduates from the HERPitch training course, a regularly offered nine-week immersive online course to help current and future business owners better develop and refine their own business ideas. After graduating from the course, students are able to give their perfected pitches to a panel of judges to compete to win up to $2,500 to help them meet the needs of their businesses. 

“Currently in the U.S., 42% of businesses are owned by women. One thing that we focus on with HERPitch is the equity investment, because women only receive 4.2% of capital funding that is out there for their businesses,” shared Executive Director of CEED Suzy Hrabovsky. HERPitch is funded in part by the North Carolina chapter of the Women of Power Society and their Annual Runway Extravaganza fashion show organized by local formal wear boutique An Affair to Remember. Each year, an Affair to Remember owner and Fayetteville Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Keefe Jensen has partnered with the WBC to fundraise money that will later be distributed to local business owners through CEED and at this event. With that combined effort, and the support of other sponsors such as Piedmont Natural Gas and the City of Fayetteville in 2025, the WBC has been able to put over $30,000 into the community. 

“Every year we’ve been doing about $10,000 but we want to raise that next year,” said Hrabovsky. “We want this to expand. We want that $10,000 to become $15,000 or $20,000 next year. Next year will be our fifth-year anniversary, and we’ll be putting in more, but we want to raise that every year.”

THIS YEAR, SIX HERPITCH GRADUATES AND THEIR BUDDING BUSINESSES WERE ABLE TO COMPETE. THOSE GRADUATES INCLUDED: 

KARLA JACKSON 

New Generation Reading Tutors 

LONYAE MCCUNE 

Queen of All Thingz

SHATARA HET HERU BEY 

Divine Doula Goddess 

YENIZ PARTON 

I-F.I.T. (Ideal Functional Integrative Training) 

ANEDRA WALLS 

Plush HQ, L.L.C 

TIA WHITTLESEY 

Spa Chicks

Each business owner was able to present before three judges who included Brittany Campbell, owner & founder of Sunshine Beauty & Bliss and Blissful Alchemists, Dr. Airaina Griffith-Knight founder and director of hAirlooms Academy and the LocksHouse and Tracey Ansley, senior financial services specialist from First Citizens Bank. 

Contestants were given the daunting task of presenting their business idea, their business’s history, a problem in the community, their solution to the problem, their target market, current teams, current products and offerings, plans for any funding received and more all within a three- minute and 10 second time span. After the presentations, organizers of the event went to tally up the results while guests were able to hear from special speaker and Miss North Carolina High School America 2025 Abigail Dries as she highlighted her work while crowned and plans for the future.

“One of my biggest goals is to become a woman of power and hopefully one day become a successful entrepreneur,” shared Dries. “During my reign, I have been able to empower youth and students in the community through the National Platform BRAVE, which stands for Building Respect And Value for Everyone, and also through my own anti-bullying initiative, Raise Your Hand. One in four students are victims of bullying, which directly impacts the statistic that 40% of middle school and high school students struggle with depression, sadness and suicide and that’s why I made it my mission to speak to students about the importance of being kind, raising their hand when they see bullying and being an upstander and not a bystander.” After a heavy deliberation, four finalists were chosen from the six presenters: Andrea Walls, Lonyae McCune, Shatara Het Heru Bey and Yeniz Parton. 

Traditionally, only three finalists are awarded, but due to continued support for the community, the program was able to add one more. “We are excited about this next venture that you have going on, and we thank you for letting all of us be a part of it, and for putting yourself out there,” said Hrabovsky to the contestants. “Thank you to the community for the support, and go out there and support the women in your community.”

Learn more about the WBC, the history of HERWeek, upcoming business courses and more at www.wbcfay.org.