Meet three DFW women who left their corporate careers to start their own businesses

About eight years ago, Emily Shack Wickard sat at her kitchen table and typed six fateful words into a Google search bar. A 20-year career in corporate finance culminated in landing her dream job as vice president of financial planning and analysis at $4 billion manufacturer Flowserve . However, about a year into her new role, she found herself wondering, “Is this it?”

In 2016, Shack Wickard was offered a severance package as part of a corporate restructuring. She was about to reject him, choosing to stay. “But I had this moment of clarity,” she recalls. “I said to myself, ‘If I don’t get off this hamster wheel now, I may never get another opportunity.'”

With an affinity for fashion and a feeling that there was a gap in the market for moms who appreciated stylish, affordable designer clothing, Shack Wickard went online and searched for “How to Start an Online Store.” She sold a piece of jewelry for $10,000 as seed money. Then she started posting photos of clothes, hosting pop-up shops in her home, and stocking up in her son’s bathtub. Thus his company, Avara, was born.

Four years later, Avara opened its first physical store. Based in Dallas, the company has since gone national and established itself more as a clothing brand than an online store; more than 30% of the company’s revenue now comes from its private label, established in 2022. Avara has customers in all 50 states, as well as Canada and Mexico.

Shack Wickard is one of a host of women who have left the corporate world to pursue entrepreneurship. In 2017, CNBC declared that the “golden age of female entrepreneurs” had begun, with women making up 40% of new entrepreneurs in the United States.

Research shows that almost half of all businesses founded during the pandemic were started by women, up from 29% in 2019.

Karen White‘s career in corporate human resources has included work at Quaker Oats, Frito-Lay and Yum! Marks. When Frisco began promoting itself as a $5 billion mile in recognition of major development plans along the Dallas North Turnpike, White saw an opportunity. “Due to my love for decorating and the unavailability of niche stores offering unique and quality items, I decided to open Oasis Accents. »

Launched in 2017, White’s business focuses on high-quality giclée prints, original artwork, home accessories and gifts. Amid notable digital growth and expansion to 1,000 products, White chose to take his Frisco-based business entirely online.

She says her experience working with diverse teams at the enterprise level has informed the way she runs her business. “Being part of these cross-functional teams gave me a better understanding of how a business works from all these different functions, and I was able to translate that into a small business format,” she says.

When Lisa Ong launched his business two days after ending a 30-year career at PwC, the decision was anything but impulsive. She spent six months preparing the podium for the January 2020 launch of Wishing Out Loud, which offers DEI and belonging strategy consulting, executive coaching, and inclusive leadership training.

At PwC, Ong charted her own career path, doing her personal version of “wishing out loud” for certain roles and finding ways to make them happen, including serving as national diversity director for the multi-billion dollar company. It’s come full circle: many of her Wishing Out Loud clients are now talking with her about the possibility of launching into entrepreneurship themselves.

“I always advise them to make sure they realize their ‘why’, if that is their dream, because too many people I see who leave the company don’t have a good game plan,” says Ong. “They have the passion, but they haven’t done the preparation. That’s why I always encourage people to look at the transferable skills they’ve learned and build their network along the way.