72 PROFESSIONAL WOMANS MULTICULTURAL MAGAZINE WWW.PROFESSIONALWOMANMAG.COM
SUPPLIER DIVERSITY
ship with the retail giant and have grown Lock-Its presence within the Walmart stores for 2022. We also anticipate launching in several other corporate retail- ers during the next calendar year. I am focused on continuing to expand our national retail footprint and develop new product lines to support this budding company, Gelhausen said. But what about your small business? How do you overcome the obstacles on your way to a large sup- plier diversity contract with a Fortune 500 or 100 brand? Heres Gelhausens tip: Dont let big retail intimidate you if that is a channel you want to sell into. You will learn along the way, and there are so many people out there willing to help you as you start the journey. With determination and diligence, you can do it! Just look at our company who launched into thousands of retail locations with only two full-time employees. It's definitely possible, as long as you are willing to learn and create a solid foundation for working with large corporations. Also, don't forget to get certified. I attended the 2022 WBENC Conference in Atlanta, said Gelhausen. Biggest take-aways: Being WBENC cer- tified is very valuable. I made my greatest connections with corporate members that I have been seeking to work with on the roundtable days. Roundtables are exclusively for WBENC members. I also loved how amazing the community is at the conference. You can feel the genuine support from everyone there. For more about Caitie Gelhausen, her team and their enterprise visit Lock-It at lockitofficial.com.
One Entrepreneur's Journey from
College Startup to Walmart Supplier
By Tawanah Reeves-Ligon
T
here are so many success stories of wom- en-owned enterprises across products, industries and backgrounds. But when you're trying to figure out your own small business, it is easy to become discouraged and, at times, difficult to know what the next steps to take are. However, with perseverance, and the right team, you can achieve so much more than you can imagine. That was Caitie Gehlhausens experience building her certified woman-owned busi- ness, Lock-It. her essentials. She began carrying around her license, student ID and debit card carelessly in her pocket and ended up losing those cards as she went about her day, said Gelhausen. Completely baffled that there wasn't a product on the market that allowed consumers to use both of these two popular phone accessories together, I set out on a mission to create it myself, she continued. The business quickly became a family operation, as my mom jumped aboard to become the companys president. We launched onto the market in March 2019. They are the only two full-time employees running this successful company, plus one part-timer and are headquartered, of course, in Indiana as well.
Starting Certified = Starting Strong
It was not long after she started her business that Gelhausen sought certification through the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). According to her, I won the National CEO Conference Pitch competition in 2019 against several hundred other college students submissions. As a part of my first-place prize, I was granted admission into the WBENC Collegiate Accelerator Program. From there, I learned the importance of becoming WBENC certified. Being a WBE helps start the conversation with corporate members and allows your business to stand out amongst the crowd of other applications or inquiries. The certification process can feel rather daunting to those who are new to it, but Gelhausen hopes you wont give up hope on what could very well be the game changer your business needs. Dont let the certification process intimidate you to where you never become certified, she said. You have tons of resources and people who are willing to help you out. These connections and resources became espe- cially important to their company when the pandemic hit. According to Gelhausen, We were building momentum, selling online in small brick and mortar stores and primarily in the promotional space as we entered 2020. Then COVID hit and turned not only the world on its head, but also our small business. Our main source of income in the promotional industry became non-existent. No corporate events meant no revenue for Lock-It. I pivoted the business during uncertain times and began submitting my product to big-box retailers, something I hadnt done before. In October 2020, the business gained interest from Walmart and successfully launched Lock-It in April 2021! They are now in over 2,800 Walmart stores. We continue to have a great ongoing relation-
A Young Legend
Caitie Gehlhausen, an Indianapolis resident, age 23, graduated from High Point University in North Carolina in 2020 with a double major in finance and entrepreneurship. Gehlhausen played competi- tive golf for over 13 years of her life, and the sport was what brought her to North Carolina for school. However, there was another passion that entered her life on HPUs campus - entrepreneurship. My father has owned his own company for over 35 years, so entrepreneurship is in my blood, shared Gehlhausen, who founded her first brand, Lock-It, her freshman year of college. Winning dozens of pitch competitions gave her the validation she needed to push forward. After her sophomore year, she made the tough decision to hang up the sticks and focus on her growing business, and to graduate a year early. Lock-It is a patented cell phone accessory brand, made in the USA in Gelhausens home state of Indiana, and a WBENC-certified company. I founded Lock-It my freshman year of college in 2018 when I noticed that all my friends and classmates had either their phone grip or their phone wallet, but never both at the same time. One of my best friends at the time had gotten a phone grip for Christmas and was forced to take off her phone wallet with all of
CAITIE GELHAUSEN
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