Celebrate our Freedom!
Recording the day after the Fourth of July (and after Lori's triumphant coconut-milk smoothie discovery), Vonda and Lori take a break from shop talk to reflect on freedom — what it means personally, what it means for business owners, and one piece of surprisingly recent history that left both hosts jaw-dropped: until 1988, most American women couldn't get a business loan without a man's signature.
Thank you for your service
First things first: gratitude for the men and women who have served, fought, and died to preserve the nation, and for those serving now. Lori's dad was an Army paratrooper and her uncle served in Desert Storm — she remembers writing him letters from college. Vonda lives near three Air Force bases and still tears up getting off planes alongside soldiers being welcomed home by families with signs and flags. The hosts' reminder: don't save "thank you for your service" for two holidays a year.
The freedom to pause — or to walk away
Looking back at the pandemic years, the hosts noticed a paradox: in 2021, some Americans felt they'd lost freedom to lockdowns, while others found new freedom — new careers, new businesses, more fulfilling lives. The floral industry saw both. Some shops closed and some thrived, and the hosts are careful to say the owners who closed weren't failures. The forced pause gave everyone a rare chance to ask: do I actually love this? They mention a shop owner who recently chose to close after realizing the business she'd inherited was more burden than joy. That's a freedom too — the freedom to close, to pivot, and to try something new at any age.
1988: the year women could finally get a business loan
Here's the history lesson that stunned both hosts. There was never a law prohibiting loans to women entrepreneurs — but in practice, banks simply didn't issue them without a husband, father, or in one documented case, a woman's own 17-year-old son as co-signer. Congressional testimony told of a nurse with 20 years of experience who wanted to open a nursing home: her bank demanded 25 percent down plus a male co-signer, and she waited nine months before finally getting her loan through the Small Business Administration. A male nurse with half her experience got his loan in six weeks with 10 percent down and no co-signer.
That changed with HR 5050, the Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988 — introduced by New York congressman John LaFalce, passed with bipartisan support after the most extensive Congressional hearings ever held on women-owned businesses, and signed by President Reagan. For the first time, legislation recognized women entrepreneurs as vital to the nation's economy. Witness Esther Shapiro's testimony still resonates: women managing family households were already halfway to being good business managers — they just needed access and training to handle cost structures, cash flow, and the complexities of business life.
What we didn't know we didn't know
Both hosts were adults in 1988 and admit they were clueless this was happening. Lori grew up watching her mom carry a credit card that had only her dad's name on it, absorbing the model that "men handle the money." Vonda's entrepreneurial parents ran everything jointly — her mom did the books, payroll, and signed the checks — so the barrier was invisible to her too. When Vonda and her husband Bud opened their shop in 1990, the partnership meant it never came up. It's a reminder of how recent this history is: prior to the 1970s, women owned less than 5 percent of American businesses (mostly inherited); by 1988 it was about 30 percent, and as of 2021, roughly 31 percent — with women starting businesses at more than twice the rate of men, something that matters enormously in an industry as female-driven as flowers.
Key takeaways
- Gratitude for freedom shouldn't be a twice-a-year event — thank those who serve, every chance you get.
- Owning a business includes the freedom to pause, pivot, or close — choosing joy over burden isn't failure.
- The Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988 (HR 5050) first gave women access to business loans without a male co-signer — only 34 years before this episode.
- Progress continues, but disparities in loan amounts remain — advocacy for women entrepreneurs still matters.
- Wake up grateful for something every day — even if it's just the coconut milk in your smoothie.