BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sioban Taylor has owned Miss Eye Candy Boutique for over a decade. Taylor’s career in fashion began as many first time careers do.

“I was always into fashion even as a little girl,” said Taylor. “I ended up getting a job at the mall, I was working for guess doing Winter display; I ended up getting a job at Hugo Boss.” 

“It has definitely been a roller coaster. I am going into my 14th year,” Taylor said. “There’s been times in the last 14 years that I’m like, 'oh my God, I want to give up'.”

While owning a small business is a hard task, it’s even harder for minority and women business owners.

“When I first opened I didn’t have a lot of women owned business friends and over the last 14 years I have a ton of friends that own their own businesses in range from clothing to fitness, whatever it may be,” Taylor said. 

But with women owned businesses employing 9.4 million workers and generating $1.9 trillion in revenue, according to the 2019 American Express State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, the holiday season is a great time to show support.

“You have to take full advantage of the holiday. So when they holiday is here I push accessories, I try to make my store stand out from other stores or whatever I have in here to just get people to come and shop,” said Taylor. 

Something business owners like herself think has gotten better over the course of her career.

“It’s nice to see that people are starting to be more aware of how important it is to support small businesses,” she said.

As she’s seen women owned businesses continue to grow.

“When I was younger guys owned everything," she said. "Like guys owned all the restaurants and they owned this, and they owned that. I feel like now women are really coming forward and being a force in this world now too.”