CLEVELAND — Many dubbed 2023 the year of "women power," with the release of the Barbie movie and the success of Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour and Taylor Swift's Eras World Tour. This translated to northeast Ohio businesses as well.

What You Need To Know

  • Jennifer Taggart opened her own ice cream shop in Cleveland in 2023 
  • She made the decision to open her own shop following major life changes prompted by the pandemic

  • More women in Cleveland opened their own businesses in 2023 than the year prior

In Cleveland, many women decided to try their hand at entrepreneurship, including Jennifer Taggart, the owner of Lake Erie Scoops Ice cream shop.

Taggart opened her sweet treat shop in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood in 2023, following major life changed prompted by the pandemic.

Taggart lost her job as a lab tech at a bio research facility, which helped encourage her to chase her dreams of owning her own business.

“In June of 2020, the full-time job laid 70% of the workforce off,” Taggart explained. “Then that sort of propelled me into what I had already been thinking about, of opening a treat shop. Originally it was just going to be a weekend pop-up shop, but because of circumstances, I started planning on a full-time treat shop in the neighborhood.”

She joined many women who opened a business in 2023. According to Axios, “Women-owned business openings in metro Cleveland increased 33% from 2022 to 2023, well above the national average.”

“Cleveland lends itself for you to imagine and create,” she explained. “As a woman who has never had a shop before, there was something in me that just said ‘you could do that here.’”

She said as a female business owner, the Gordan Square neighborhood has been the perfect place to open her first shop.

“There are actually over 20 brick and mortar owned businesses here that are women-owned, from West 54th at Yellowcake all the way up to West 74th at Olive Ink Tattoo,” Taggart explained. “We had a ‘Shop the Square’ event in February that focused on all of the women-owned businesses.”

She said she hopes to continue to bring her community sweet treats for years to come.

“The main thing I love is the fact that I am providing treats for everyone in the neighborhood, or everyone who visits this neighborhood, to come grab a treat, have a conversation, they can hang out in the shop, look around at all of the fun decor or just head on wherever they were going,” she said.