In our annual Women of Strength feature, Baltimore Style highlights the achievements of female business owners in the Baltimore area. From bookstores to toy stores, there are plenty of local businesses headed by women who are making a difference and helping to support other women entering the business world. Here are our Women of Strength 2024.
Margie Shapiro
In 1915, Samuel Shapiro launched the shipping company Samuel Shapiro & Company, Inc. In his first year of operation, he only made $50. But over 100 years later, the company is still running — now under the leadership of one of Samuel Shapiro’s descendants, Margie Shapiro.
Now renamed to simply Shapiro, the business has grown significantly with the expansion of Baltimore’s port. While it recently survived some of its most challenging years, thanks to the “Great Cargo Surge of 2020-2022” and the supply chain crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Shapiro is still steadily growing, and has been a member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council since 2012.
Margie Shapiro first got her start working summer jobs at the company while she was in high school, but says that she originally did not want to work there after graduating.
“I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in psychology and a strong determination not to work in the family business for my career. I stayed in Philadelphia, got a house there and pursued a degree in advertising,” she recalls. “In 1991, my father approached me about opening and running our Philadelphia branch — the rest, as they say, is history.”
Samuel Shapiro had passed away a few years before Margie Shapiro started working at the company. She started running it in 2002 and has seen a lot since then, from the continued growth and development of the Baltimore Harbor to trade regulation struggles between China and the United States.
She adds that what sets Shapiro apart from other transport and delivery companies is its more humanistic approach, considering the needs of its customers as people and not just as businesses.
“We don’t think of ourselves as their vendor, we are an extension of their business,” Shapiro explains, “and we remember to have some fun along the way.”
She notes that she does not feel that she has faced any difficulties specific to being a woman business owner, but this could be in part because of the support of her extended family — two thirds of which are also women. The company has also appeared on the Top Women-Owned Business List by the Baltimore Business Journal.
As for advice for other women in business, Margie Shapiro stresses the importance of a “work hard-play hard” culture and to leverage resources that are specific to being a woman in business, such as organizations and grants for women business owners.
“It’s important to stay empowered, utilize available resources and create a support system that allows for sustainable growth and success,” she says.
Lisa “Dr. Sway” Swayhoover
For young children, so much early learning is done through play. And providing educational and appropriate toys to facilitate that play is the main goal of Better World Imaginarium, a Catonsville-based independent toy store with a focus on diversity and quality.
Owner Lisa Swayhoover, better known as “Dr. Sway,” used to research toys for her nieces and nephews to make sure she was giving them meaningful, educational gifts for their birthdays and holidays.
“I was the person who always researched toys with educational value, not licensed toys with Disney characters. I always sought out independent toy stores,” Swayhoover says. “Now that they’re older, I now find myself shopping for everyone else’s child.”
“Dr. Sway” isn’t just a nickname, as Swayhoover has a doctorate in international education policy with a focus on global education. To that end, she stocks Better World Imaginarium with toys from around the world and children’s books in a variety of different languages. Play, she notes, can be an important stepping stone in learning about and appreciating other cultures.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Swayhoover expanded Better World Imaginarium to an online storefront.
She also took over the space next door to the shop, which is now used as a space for free arts and crafts classes, as well as a classroom she occasionally rents out for educational programs.
Swayhoover’s philosophy is not only about bettering the world through inclusive play, but through philanthropy and fundraising. She’s a member of the Catonsville Women’s Giving Circle, often hosting fundraisers, partnering with PTAs and food pantries and sponsoring local clubs and Girl Scout troop projects.
While she’s faced her fair share of challenges as a woman business owner — as a single woman, she does not have a second stream of income or a spouse to co-sign loans — Swayhoover says that her fellow woman business owners in Catonsville have been immensely supportive. And she’s worked to pay that kindness back.
“I’ve helped other women open their own businesses. A customer of mine came to me, wanting to do a toy store. I helped her find a space, and when that space fell through, I hosted her as a pop-up. She now owns Growing Minds Bookstore,” Swayhoover recalls.
“Recently, I hosted a Women in Business Game Night. It was a fun night for women business owners to get together, and maybe complain a little, but also get some support from each other and have a little fun.”
Better World Imaginarium recently celebrated its fifth anniversary in June, and both Swayhoover and her customers hope for more years of fun and play to come.
“Our core philosophy is that we bring the world to children through toys,” she adds.
Alisa L. Brock
Despite its name, there’s no drama to be found at Drama MaMa Bookshop in Baltimore—in fact, it’s quite the opposite, as owner Alisa L. Brock is a firm believer in the calming power of writing. Journaling offered her solace during difficult parts of her life, as she had to leave her hometown of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Eventually, she started crafting her own journals to write in, which is what led her to her current business venture. Drama MaMa Bookshop sells handcrafted journals, bookmarks and other writing implements, and offers by-appointment bookmaking classes for people who want to learn how to make their own.
“I believe in the healing properties of writing and journaling; writing out my feelings and articulating them through writing has been a huge assistance to me,” Brock says. “[Writing] has been my safe place for most of my life, even during childhood. It’s my goal to offer that to other people…a safe space to write out their thoughts and feelings.”
Journaling even runs in Brock’s family, with her mother having kept diaries for more than 40 years.
Following the death of a friend, Brock pivoted her business to focus on making journals—hoping to help others during their own dark times. It was an unexpected development, but since she first started making journals in 2016, Brock and Drama MaMa Bookshop have gone on to supply books to universities in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Their notebooks are even sold in Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
For Brock, these journals aren’t just for doodling or writing grocery lists, but tools for mindfulness.
“I can feel the impact that our journals and the messages on them have on people. They feel connected to them,” she adds. “I really do feel like they’re doing the work I intended them to do for myself and for others.”
Over the years, Drama MaMa has formed partnerships with several other local woman- and Black-owned businesses in the area, and they often provide stock for each other. Brock states that other business owners have given her helpful advice or even come in to assist with the bookmaking process themselves.
“I could go on and on about the ways other women have pushed and advocated for my business, even women who work in other fields,” she says. “It feels good to have that kind of support.”
As for advice for other women in business, Brock says that one of the most important things she’s learned is to keep her work and personal life balanced.
“Business can really take over your life,” she notes. “There’s always going to be something to do, as a business owner. It’s important to be mindful about how much you can handle at a time, and to take time for yourself.”
