National Women’s Small Business Month: Women Aren’t Just Building Small Businesses. We’re Building Legacies.

Rebecca Contreras

11 minutes ago

7 min read

A business can generate revenue. A legacy creates opportunity for generations. Women entrepreneurs are building both.

By Rebecca Contreras, President & CEO, AvantGarde LLC

As we celebrate National Women’s Small Business Month, I find myself reflecting not only on how many women are building businesses in America today, but on what it actually takes to keep them standing. Women now own 14.5 million businesses in the United States, representing almost 4 out of every 10 businesses in the country. That is worth celebrating.

But here is what people don’t talk about enough.

Starting a company requires courage. Growing one requires discipline, consistency and a willingness to evolve as a leader.

In the 15 years since we founded AvantGarde, there have been countless times I wanted to give up, sell or shift my focus altogether. Each time, I had to dig deep and search my soul to remember the “why” behind what I do. My why is legacy: legacy for my family, opportunity for our employees to build successful careers, and impact in the communities and lives we touch. That is what keeps me moving forward.

Growth Creates as Many Challenges as Opportunities

What surprised me most once AvantGarde started growing was that growth creates as many issues and challenges as it does opportunities. Every new contract, every new employee and every new client relationship brings additional responsibility, and sometimes its own set of problems to solve.

One year, we grew close to 200%. It was insane growth! As welcome and exciting as it was, it was also painful. Our growth was outpacing our infrastructure, and we had to stop and stabilize before we could keep scaling in a healthy way.

That season taught me something every growing business owner needs to hear:

Contracts don’t deliver themselves. People do.

And the infrastructure at headquarters that supports those people is just as important as the delivery we provide our clients.

That isn’t always an easy case to make. Infrastructure creates overhead, and overhead creates unbillable costs a small business has to absorb. Finding the right balance between growth and overhead is one of the hardest calls a business owner makes. My background in management, administration and HR gave me a strong foundation for making it, and that balance has served us well.

Here is the truth: growth will expose every weakness in your systems, your infrastructure and your leadership. If you want a business that lasts, you have to invest in people and infrastructure as intentionally as you invest in growth.

People Are the Strategy

As AvantGarde grew, I came to understand that my most important job wasn’t sales or operations. It was building a culture where talented people could succeed and developing leaders who could carry the organization forward.

Without retention of good talent, you don’t have a business. A revolving door of employees is a killer for any CEO.

That is why I believe success isn’t measured by revenue alone. It is measured by your ability to build systems, develop leaders and create a culture that can thrive beyond your direct involvement.

From Operator to Architect

In the early years, I did everything: business development, recruiting, operations, problem-solving, client management and yes, even client delivery. You do what you have to do to get it done.

As the company grew, I had to stop being the person who touched everything and become the leader who empowered others to own outcomes. As I built and coached our senior management team, I had to learn to trust them to lead and let go. Honestly? It was liberating.

The biggest shift was moving from operator to architect. Instead of asking, “How do I get this done?” I began asking, “How do we build a team and a process that gets this done consistently and at scale?”

Delegating wasn’t easy. AvantGarde was never just a business to me. It was my dream, my livelihood and, in many ways, a reflection of my personal journey. But I realized that if everything depended on me, the company could only grow as far as my own capacity.

Delegation isn’t giving up control. It’s creating capacity. My responsibility wasn’t to do everything myself. It was to build an organization capable of accomplishing far more than I ever could alone.

Even now, 15 years later, when I am tempted to jump in and fix something, I have to remind myself to get curious and let others solve the problem. I am still in process.

Leading With Love Is a Strength

I believe women bring a unique, God-given combination of empathy, emotional intelligence, resilience and relationship-building to leadership. For too long, many women felt pressure to lead more like men. I think our greatest strength comes from leading authentically, with what I call our “leading with love” DNA.

At AvantGarde, I have learned that people don’t just want direction. They want connection. They want to know they are seen, valued and understood.

Empathy and loving your people doesn’t make you weak. It makes you effective.

Emotional intelligence helps leaders navigate difficult conversations, build trust and create cultures where people can perform at their highest level. As CEOs, it is our job to come alongside our people and show them we care—not only that they perform, but that they feel psychological safety and support, even in the hard conversations about performance. That is the human side of legacy.

Compassion Has to Come With Accountability

Like many founders, I have held on to a few people longer than I should have because I genuinely cared about them, wanted them to succeed and felt loyal to them. I am a highly engaged, loyal employer, and parting with people I have known and loved for years is hard. Sometimes that compassion and loyalty bites me in the tush!

What I learned is that leadership requires both compassion and accountability. When someone is consistently not aligned with the role, the expectations or the culture, delaying the decision doesn’t help anyone.

Protecting the culture sometimes requires making difficult choices. Great organizations are built by great people, and every hiring decision has a ripple effect throughout the company.

In Hard Seasons, Your People Are Watching

When a business is going through change, uncertainty or rapid growth, employees need three things from the woman leading it: clarity, consistency and confidence.

People understand that challenges are part of business. What creates anxiety is uncertainty and silence. Your team doesn’t expect perfection. They expect transparency. Communicate early, communicate honestly and communicate often.

I lived this in 2025. Contract cancellations driven by shifting federal priorities and the historic government shutdown cost AvantGarde millions of dollars in revenue, circumstances completely outside of our control. I shared more about that season in Navigating Loss Without Losing Momentum. When the shutdown hit, we created a zero-interest bridge-loan program to help our employees stay financially stable while invoices were frozen.

Through it all, our employees were watching, listening and looking to me as CEO to bring balance, stability and peace into the room, even when that room was virtual. The lessons I learned through that loss, I will carry with me forever.

Three Things to Put in Place Now

If your woman-owned business is growing quickly, don’t let your people and culture become an afterthought. Here is where I would start:

1. Define your culture before growth defines it for you. Be intentional about your values and the behaviors that support them. Do it now, with two or three people, and live it consistently as you grow. At 50 employees it gets harder, and at 100 harder still, so stay true to your culture and keep setting the tone.

2. Invest in leaders and succession early. Don’t wait until you need leaders to start developing them or bringing them on board.

3. Build systems and processes that can scale. Culture alone isn’t enough. Sustainable growth requires operational discipline.

Many founders focus on the next client, the next contract or the next opportunity. The smartest founders also build the foundation that can support all of that growth.

Legacy Is Measured in Lives

For me, legacy is about impact, not income. Revenue matters because it allows a business to grow, but legacy is measured by the lives you touch, the opportunities you create and the doors you open for others.

When I started AvantGarde, I was focused on providing for my family and creating a better future. Over time, I realized we were building something much bigger than a company. We were creating careers, developing leaders, supporting federal agencies and proving that women, minorities and people who come from difficult circumstances can build organizations that compete and win at the highest levels.

As a CEO, I often ask myself: If I stepped away tomorrow, what would remain? The answer shouldn’t be a company that depends on one person. It should be a culture, a team of leaders and an organization that keeps creating value and opportunity long after I am gone.

That is the difference between building a business and building a legacy.

My hope is that when people look at AvantGarde’s story, they won’t simply see a successful company. They will see proof that your past does not determine your future, that resilience can become achievement and that one person’s decision to dream bigger can change the trajectory of countless lives.

A business can generate revenue. A legacy creates opportunity for generations. This National Women’s Small Business Month, let’s celebrate the women building both.

Building Organizations That Last with AvantGarde

The lessons I have learned building AvantGarde—investing in people, building infrastructure that scales and leading with love through every season—shape how we serve our clients today. At AvantGarde, we partner with government and private-sector organizations to strengthen their people, build organizations that can grow and move their missions forward. If your organization is navigating growth, change or workforce challenges and needs a trusted partner, I invite you to learn more about our capabilities at www.avantgarde4usa.com. Ready to work with AvantGarde? Contact our team to start the conversation.