10 Women-Owned Small Businesses Worth Every Single Dollar
Real founders. Remarkable products. And a really good reason to shop small today.
Women-owned small businesses support so much of this world.
I remember working for a woman-owned company years ago. At the time, it was a multi-million dollar corporation, and honestly, it’s probably a multi-billion dollar company by now. She’s still out there doing the work most of us hope to do one day. And I remember thinking, as a young 20-something in IT, how much I loved the way she ran her business. How she treated her employees. The benefits. The culture. Everything.
I’ve worked for other companies since then, but never another woman-owned one. And none of them have done it like she did. People didn’t want to leave. It was that good. The kind of place where you’re okay staying because you’re actually taken care of.
So if you’re like me, and you like to shop women-owned small businesses, support female founders who are doing things differently, and give gifts that actually mean something, then this is for you.
Because I’m about to introduce you to some badass women-owned businesses who are not only supporting their own families and communities, but contributing to something bigger than themselves.
So take a look, take notes, and see how you can start supporting more women-owned businesses in your everyday life.
KinMarked
Founded by Lisa Tremblay
Do you remember those personalized necklaces when you were a kid? Or did someone ever gift your mom or grandmom a charm bracelet where each charm represented a memory? That's what Lisa is creating with her hand-stamped pieces. This is where I go when I want a customized gift and big-brand shopping feels too impersonal. Her stuff is amazingly imperfect and anything from her shop can be treasured for years to come.
Build Your Own Charm Bracelet
This is the kind of piece that grows with you. You start with a paperclip chain — sterling silver or 14k gold-filled — and a charm or two, and then life gives you more moments worth marking, and you add to it. Each charm locks in with its own lobster clasp, so you can rearrange, add, or swap anytime. A birthstone for the baby. Initials from a decade that defined you. A symbol that only means something to you. The customization here is genuine, not just the illusion of it. This bracelet isn't finished the moment it ships. It's finished when your story is.
Shop This Product →Kids Fundamentals
Founded by Stephanie C. Griffin
Whether you homeschool (or like us, unschool) or not, kids are guaranteed to ruin things unintentionally and sometimes intentionally. Stephanie, like any parent or guardian of kiddos, got sick of trashing her beautifully made homeschool items during a school year. So she decided to do something about it. Whether you're a parent homeschooling all your kids or even a tutor helping kids enjoy learning, there are companies out there to help. Because fun doesn't have to be wasteful.
Personalized Name Tracing Practice Board
Here's the thing about this board: it does the work for you. Your child's name is already on it — their actual name, printed just for them — so it instantly feels like theirs and not some generic classroom resource. It's double-sided, reusable, and wipes clean, so you're not running out of paper at 7am. The whole idea is that practicing writing a name should be satisfying and tangible, not a pile of crumpled worksheets. For the parent who wants screen-free learning tools that actually hold up to daily use, this one earns its spot on the shelf.
Shop This Product →White Maple Lane
Founded by Linda Bailey
Linda Bailey is the kind of cook who makes plant-based food look so effortlessly gorgeous that you forget you're watching a tutorial and start trying to memorize every step she makes. White Maple Lane is her recipe blog and food photography destination. Specifically designed as a space where egg-free, dairy-free, and nut-free cooking gets treated with the same care and visual attention as anything else on the internet. As the daughter of someone with an egg allergy, it sucks growing up knowing you can't share certain food items with your loved ones. Linda helps alleviate that. And as someone who caters and cooks for the masses, I'm always on the lookout for universally friendly dishes to keep in my recipe toolbox. Linda makes it easy. And Tasty Tin blends work beautifully in many of them.
Flatbread with Whipped White Bean Spread & Roasted Mushrooms
This flatbread recipe works as a meal (just pair it with a salad) or even as an afternoon snack for the kiddos. And the best part? You can substitute our Pryme Thyme blend in for the thyme garlic and salt in the recipe. Easy peasy
Shop Pryme Thyme →Handmade Natural Beauty
Founded by Angie Cavaiuolo-Neyens
There seems to be a trend where some people choose not to bathe, and some that do don't even use soap. Angie, my neighbor over in Wisconsin, is doing her part to fight that. And in a way that's great for the local economy, our environment, and our noses. She uses real ingredients, and with a wide variety of scents, you can find something that tickles your fancy and delights your senses. By focusing on a well-developed process and creating in small batches, people are falling in love with Angie's soaps. And you can too! Check out her subscriptions so you never run out.
Lavender Oatmeal Natural Soap
Relaxing lavender, gently exfoliating oatmeal — and a luxurious soap base that actually moisturizes instead of stripping your skin down to nothing. Angie's natural soaps are made the traditional way, with no synthetic ingredients, which means the glycerin stays in the bar where it belongs instead of being extracted out like commercial manufacturers do. Your skin will notice the difference within about three uses. This is the soap you switch to and then can't go back from. The lavender oatmeal variety in particular is the one people order by the half-dozen.
Shop This Product →Chai Tea and More
Founded by Dawn Tyrrell
There are coffee drinkers and there are tea drinkers. And never the two shall be the same! I just made that up, but I am firmly in the tea drinking group. And now so is Dawn! It's wild to think she started a tea business when she didn't even drink it. But like any good tea, her chai concentrate convinced her she was missing out. And thanks to Dawn, you don't have to be. Come to the dark side and become a tea drinker like me.
My CHAI, Your Way Concentrate Kit
This kit is everything you need to make a homemade chai concentrate that is smooth, spiced, and genuinely not bitter — which, if you've wrestled with store-bought concentrates, you know is harder than it sounds. Real black tea, dried ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, black pepper, allspice, and nutmeg. No preservatives, no shortcuts. You make it your way — sweeter, spicier, as strong as you want. It makes six servings or one full quart of concentrate. The kind of kit that becomes your new weekend ritual before you even finish the first batch.
Shop This Product →Free Day Popcorn Company
Founded by Stacey Miller Freitag
Imagine your mother loves popcorn so much that once all of her kids grew up and moved out, she started having popcorn for dinner every Friday night. Think that's a joke or a movie plot? Nope! That's me and my mom. I have never met a person who loves popcorn more. When I gave her her first grandchild, I knew if I was going to leave my daughter with my parents for the weekend, one night "dinner" would be popcorn and I had to be okay with that. I am, and my daughter loves popcorn almost as much as her grandmother. But not just any popcorn will do. No microwave will ever produce the popcorn my mom serves. And that's why Stacey's amazing business, Free Day Popcorn, gained a new customer in me. Named for the German root of "Freitag," or Friday meaning free day, Free Day Popcorn started in 2015 and is the perfect place to send my mother a gift I know she'll love. And it's just a coincidence that her Friday night dinner of choice comes from a company named "Freitag!"
Popping Ears™ (Individual)
You've never had popcorn like this. Each Popping Ear is a literal ear of popcorn — hand-picked by the Freitag daughters right from the field, individually vacuum-sealed to lock in freshness, and sold in limited quantities each harvest. You pop it directly in the microwave, kernels still on the cob. It's a science experiment and a snack and a genuinely joyful kitchen moment all at once. Non-GMO, Kosher certified, whole grain, completely unprocessed — and gone fast every single season. This is one of those products you order as a gift and then immediately order again for yourself.
Shop This Product →Sage Gems Jewellery Co.
Founded by Lesley Chang
Lesley knows what it's like living with a loved one who has Alzheimer's Dementia, and unfortunately I do too. If you are part of that club, you will understand why Sage Gems Jewellery Co. makes my list. Lesley is creating physical embodiments of love letters in the form of jewelry that mean something. Carefully curated with love and meaning, each vintage-inspired piece reminds those of us who can remember about those of us who aren't able to. And a portion of sales go to the Alzheimer's Society of B.C., an organization committed to helping us understand and better support people affected by dementia.
Esmerelda — Oval Cut Gold Plated Necklace
Oval-cut stones, gold plating, and a design that sits right at the intersection of vintage elegance and something you'd actually wear every single day. Lesley writes handwritten notes in colour-coordinated gel pen that match the tissue paper inside the packaging — which sounds like a small detail until you receive it and realize it changed the whole experience. Every Sage Gems piece comes with a one-year guarantee against manufacturing defects. And the Esmerelda? Reviewers consistently say it's even more beautiful in person than in the photos. That's a good sign.
Shop This Product →Rooted+Wilder
Founded by Vicki Rye
Vicki has spent more than a decade building a skincare brand for people who actually have to think about what goes on their skin. I get it personally. I've had environmental allergies my whole life, and once I married someone who manages allergies, eczema, and asthma daily, and then had a daughter dealing with two of those same things, reading ingredient labels stopped being optional. Rooted+Wilder is what Vicki built for that reality: holistic skincare for sensitive and reactive skin, formulated with clean ingredients you can actually recognize. She did the research. She made the thing. You just get to use it.
SOW+SALVE™ Calming Balm
This is the balm Vicki made when she was tired of itching from eczema and couldn't find anything that worked. It's packed with ten herbal ingredients — yarrow, manuka, lavender, tea tree, thyme, and more — plus cocoa seed butter, murumuru butter, beeswax, and neem oil. It's not a gentle-on-paper, watered-down formula. It actually works. The reviews from people with rosacea, eczema, bug bites, sunburn, and dry cuticles are the kind you read and then immediately add to cart. Keep it by the back door, in your bag, in the bathroom — you'll reach for it more than you expect.
Shop This Product →The Laced Shoe
Founded by Esther Regina
I have flat feet. Completely flat, zero arch, the kind where shoe shopping as a kid was genuinely miserable and adulthood hasn't made it much better. Most shoes are designed for some theoretical average foot, and if yours doesn't fit that mold, you're just out of luck. Esther Regina built The Laced Shoe because she knows that feeling too. Her children's footwear boutique exists because she couldn't find age-appropriate shoes in the sizes kids actually need, so she built the store she wished had existed. Every brand she carries is chosen by her personally, European quality, thoughtfully designed, and available across a size range that actually accounts for real children with real feet. Her team has worn these shoes on their own kids. This is not a chain. It shows.
Naturino Sunsketchy Black Velvet Slingback
Naturino is one of those Italian children's footwear brands that parents discover and immediately wonder why they ever bought anything else. This velvet slingback runs true to size, has a fur interior for warmth, and has the kind of buckle detail that makes a kids' shoe look genuinely beautiful rather than just functional. Velvet exterior, fur lining, and that signature Naturino construction that holds up through serious wear. Dress it up, dress it down — it looks equally right with leggings on a Tuesday or a dress on a Sunday. These are shoes worth buying.
Shop This Product →Cradle Comforts Co.
Founded by Lindsay Hill
My mother cloth diapered four kids. Three decades later, I cloth diapered my daughter, in 2012, when people looked at me like I had lost my mind. I would do it again without hesitation. Sustainability in baby products is not a trend to me, it is just how we have always done things. Lindsay Hill gets that. Her brand, Cradle Comforts Co., is built around the same conviction: that the things closest to your baby's skin should be made with intention, not just convenience. She designs in Texas using organic bamboo-cotton blends, her products are CPSC-compliant, and she runs a buy-back program for well-kept sheets so they can be upcycled instead of trashed. That last part is the detail that tells you everything about how she thinks.
Natural Oasis Willow Crib Sheet
Calming laurel green, lanceolate leaves inspired by willow oak, organic bamboo-cotton muslin — this crib sheet is the kind of nursery detail that makes the whole room feel intentional. The 70% bamboo, 30% certified organic cotton blend is breathable, temperature-regulating, and gentle on sensitive skin. Deep elastic pockets keep it securely in place, and it has been thoroughly CPSC tested for safety. One reviewer described the colors as "rich and elegant" and the softness as "beyond description." Lindsay also offers a one-year warranty against tears and seam rips, which says everything about how she feels about the quality of what she makes.
Shop This Product →Every Time You Support A Small Business, you are supporting a family.
These women didn't build businesses by accident. They built them on purpose, usually starting with a problem they needed to solve or a product they couldn't find anywhere else or even simply because it brings them joy. When you support women-owned small businesses, you're voting with your wallet for the kind of economy where makers matter more than margins.
Share this post, bookmark it for gift season, and remember to support women whenever and however you can.
There are more incredible women-owned small businesses to discover in Part 2. Don't miss them.
Continue to Part 2 →