Case $7\mathrm{.}1$

Ella Williams: Making It on Her Own

After working for $13$ years in various departments at Hughes Aircraft Corporation, Ella Williams, believing in herself, decided to form a small business of her own. With the help of the SBA$$s Section $8($a$),$ she took out a $ $65,000-$second mortgage on her house and founded Aegir Systems in Oxnard, California, to provide engineering, environmental, multimedia, and computer services to the aircraft industry.

She struggled for three years$$often scrounging aluminum cans from dumpsters to earn money to support herself and her two children. Her daughter was mortified, she said. $$But she sure was interested in the money when I cashed them in$.$

It was an uphill battle to convince white$-$male$$dominated firms that a black$-$woman$$owned company could deliver the technical services she offered. Although she eventually proved to them that she could, it took three years to get her first client. The turning point came when she went back to her kitchen and baked cheesecake, breads, and muffins for her prospects. Shortly thereafter she got her first contract. By $1998$ she had $70$ employees working in the Oxnard headquarters and regional offices in Los Angeles.

Her talent and $184$ achievements have been recognized in numerous ways. In $1993,$ Northrop named Aegir its $$Small Business Supplier of the Year.$$ Williams was named one of $$The Nation$$s Ten Most Admired Women Managers of $1993$ by Working Woman magazine, and AT&T designated her $$The $1993$ Entrepreneur of the Year.$$ In $1996,$ she was presented with the $$Woman of the Year$$ award by the Women$$s Transportation Seminar, and in $1997$ she was voted $$Business Person of the Year$$ by Business Digest readers.

Questions

Document in detail:

What kind of financing did Williams use to start her business?

How could SCORE have helped?

Do you think that this cycle of $$uphill battle$$ is typical for minority$-$owned businesses?