RICHMOND, Va. -- Getting on the bike is a blessing for Jenn Gray Braswell, the founder of Hour Cycle off Broad Street.
"I opened Hour Cycle in 2020 as a response to all of the social unrest that was happening," Braswell said. "It was an opportunity for me to keep on doing an exercise that I love doing, but to share it with people that look like me."
Hour Cycle is the first of its kind, the only cycle studio in Virginia founded by a Black woman.
"I'm the only one in the Commonwealth of Virginia," Braswell said. "Unless somebody opened yesterday."
Breaking a sweat to hip-hop beats, she says, means breaking barriers in the boutique fitness industry.
"Everyone is welcome here. So while this space does center Black health, mental and physical health, there are a wide number of people that come here," Braswell said. "Men, women, people of all ethnicities, all faiths, all walks of life. And people feel comfortable when they come in," she said.
Braswell is one businesswoman getting her start, expanding to a 1300 sq. ft. studio with 20 bikes over the last two years.
Just a few minutes down the road in Shockoe Slip, another businesswoman, Kelly Justice, is keeping a tradition alive. Fountain Bookstore's tradition of being female-led since opening in 1978 is still going strong.
"The thing about bookselling and the majority of the book industry in general, it’s 80% women. So we’re all kind of in this together, anyway," Justice said.
Justice said she's heavily relied on that network of store owners for help.
"The first three months, after I signed the papers for Fountain, I cried every day for three months," she said. "And then I picked up the phone and I called my friend Jamie who owns a bookstore in North Carolina. And I said, ‘Jamie, I don’t know how to do this.’ And you know what she said? She said, ‘I don’t either. Let’s call Jill.’”
Braswell said as she started her business, she leaned on her colleagues in the Jackson Ward Collective for financial and marketing advice.
The majority of the staff at both spots identify as women, fostering friendships and networking to be the next entrepreneur.
The owners' best piece of advice?
"Don't be afraid to ask questions, you don't have to do it all yourself," Justice said.
"Definitely go ahead and just start if you can be smart about it," Braswell said.
Both owners agreed to take advantage of resources offered by the Women's Business Center of Richmond, which provides one-on-one counseling, training, technical assistance and networking opportunities to women entrepreneurs.
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