Mother, entrepreneur, and business mentor at the YMCA in Centretown, Ysabel Li- Lopez was honoured by the City of Ottawa recently for her own innovative small business: Nurture-Elle — a clothing company that aims to supply breastfeeding mothers with comfortable, discreet and stylish tops.
Born in Peru, Li-Lopez, 36, was one of three winners of the city’s 2013 Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards. She moved to Canada in 2006 with her husband Andres. Unable to find discreet and versatile nursing tops when breastfeeding her first child Oliver in 2010, Li-Lopez was inspired to start designing and testing out her own brand of clothing.
“My son was the one who actually encouraged me,” she says. “He was the one who made me feel that I was ready to move forward to the next step.” Li-Lopez comes from a background of entrepreneurship in Peru. She started her first clothing company when she was 18, designing and reselling clothing to other people her age. Now, Li-Lopez has an online website and more than 40 stores in Canada and the U.S. carry her product, including Milkface, an Ottawa store that sells nursing wear. Li-Lopez’s shirts, which also work as business-wear, allow nursing mothers to discreetly fold fabric up or down to nurse while revealing little skin in order to maintain the appearance of a sleeping child.
Li-Lopez and her husband are the only employees of the business, however Li-Lopez maintains strong connections to her home country, where, after she completes a clothing design, the garments are made and then shipped back to Canada.
One of the things that makes Nurture-Elle unique, she says, is the company’s “socially minded” component. The company only hires small companies led by women in Peru as suppliers. “One of my suppliers is a breast cancer survivor, and what encouraged her to (get) better is her job and her son,” says Li-Lopez, “We were able to support one of those things — her job — and she now has her own small factory in Peru.”
She adds: “It’s not only about the money, it is also about how my values are going forward and moving forward. How I can support other people.” At the YMCA on Argyle Avenue Li-Lopez works as a business consultant, coaching about 50 new business owners a year on how to get up and running.
Andrew Peck, director of the Y Enterprise Centre, says the YMCA is incredibly proud of Li-Lopez for her award. “She’s just putting into practice what she’s helped so many other people do,” he says. “She understands the transition that is required to go from one part of the world to Canada and to learn how things are done in Canada.”
Adds Peck: “She can certainly walk (newcomers) through some of the very unique challenges that they face.” Li-Lopez says one of her biggest challenges in starting up Nurture-Elle was learning the way the market works in Canada, but now that she feels more confident she’s able to provide better advice.
Mayor Jim Watson attended the awards ceremony, which also honoured two other immigrant entrepreneurs: Julia Chen, the CEO of Advanced Machine Materials Incorporated, and Manu Sharma, the co-founder of OAK Computing.
“We created these awards so that we can highlight the positive impact immigrants can have on our community,” he says. “If we highlight these individuals, they in turn can act as mentors or role models for future entrepreneur winners.” “Hopefully it helps counter the typecasting that some immigrants face when they come here,” Watson adds. “They are seen as burdens when, in fact, there are hundreds of examples of entrepreneurs that come from different cultures and backgrounds that are contributing greatly to our economic wellbeing and giving back to their own communities.”
Li-Lopez “has obviously done very well,” he says. “She’s providing employment for people in her home country as well as in Canada so it’s a win-win situation.” Despite saying she wishes she could dedicate more time to her company, Li-Lopez says she’s a mother first.
“My family is my priority.”