KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — After noticing a lack of economic resources for African American startups, six Knoxville women have come together to make change.

Tanika Harper, Deidra Harper, Kanika White, Angela Dennis, Dasha Lundy, and Kelle Jolly founded The Women LLC. Their mission is to create avenues for financing small business expansions and startups. All of the women either work or live in Knoxville. They came together last year with the hopes of giving African American business owners access to business loans that may have been difficult to receive in the past.

Their movement is already picking up steam, receiving a lot of support during the current climate.

“In August we’ll start accepting applications for microloans up to $5,000 at zero percent interest on them. That is one tool that we’re trying to use to give that access to black businesses,” founding member Deidra Harper said.

The money for those loans will come straight from the community through voluntary donations and subscriptions to their website.

“There’s so many people in our community whether its a building that they’re looking for or they’re just trying to have a pop-up shop but they need the money to do the pop-up shop so from small scale to bigger scale, we’re just trying to be a solution to help our businesses grow,” Harper said.

More information about The Women LLC can be found on their website.

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