When the owner of Sweet Stuff bakery in Biloxi, Mississippi, offered employees Renee Brown and Stephanie Bock the chance to buy the bakery, the two women saw it as a golden opportunity to become small business owners. There was just one catch: Brown and Bock had to come up with the financing.
“We were working women, and we didn’t have the collateral that a lot of these other, bigger companies have,” Brown says. “All we had was our knowledge and our ‘want to do.’ That’s all we had.”
But when Brown and Bock turned to Hope Credit Union for a small business loan, they found that their knowledge and their “want to do” were more than enough. Today, Brown and Bock are the proud owners of Sweet Stuff. The women employ nine individuals, many of them women who are able to support their families thanks to Brown and Bock’s determination and the help they received from HOPE.
“We wouldn’t have this bakery if HOPE hadn’t taken the chance on us,” Brown says. “Opportunity is having the chance to show that what you dreamed of doing can come true. A lot of people have good talents they’d like to be able to start a business with, but other banks aren’t willing to say okay. But with HOPE, they’re there. They’re reaching out to women and to minorities who deserve a chance to do something with their lives. HOPE gives people that chance.”