In every community across the country, small business owners carry extraordinary responsibility. They are raising families, meeting payroll, serving customers, and making decisions that affect the future of their households and neighborhoods. Too often, they carry this responsibility alone. At TAP, we see something different. We believe that asking for help is a strategy. It is a sign of strength. It is how businesses move beyond survival and into sustainable growth.

Empowering Single Mothers Through Partnership

That belief comes to life in our partnerships with organizations like Single Mom Strong and the Ares Charitable Foundation that share our commitment to helping small business owners build stronger futures for themselves and their families.

With Single Mom Strong, an organization devoted to empowering single mothers and their children through education, encouragement, enrichment, and community, TAP helps women turn ambition into action.

Recently, our TAP team members, Yvonne Lee and Wendy McAdam, joined Single Mom Strong for an entrepreneurship workshop in Sacramento. Single mothers came to explore business ownership, hear real stories from entrepreneurs, and receive practical guidance. The atmosphere was honest and brave. One panelist said, “If you have navigated being a single mom, you can run a business.” Another reminded the group that it is healthy for children to see their mothers working hard…because that is how they learn courage. Throughout the session, one message kept resurfacing: you do not have to do it alone. Asking for help is how you build something that lasts.

Immediately after the panel ended, TAP held individual coaching sessions focused on building a strong business foundation. These 1:1 sessions helped participants understand the core elements needed to operate smoothly and prepare for growth, while offering space to reflect on what they had learned during the workshop and turn inspiration into clear next steps.  Questions became plans. Ideas became action. This is what partnership looks like. It is not a single moment. It is steady support that stays with business owners as they grow.

Our partnership with the Ares Charitable Foundation exemplifies our support for single-mother entrepreneurs. In July 2025, The Acceleration Project (TAP) and the Ares Charitable Foundation entered into a two-year partnership to launch Supporting Single Mother Entrepreneurs, an initiative designed to strengthen the financial resilience and long-term success of single mothers who own small businesses.

Through educational webinars, 1:1 coaching, and strategic advisory, TAP will equip participants with the tools and confidence to grow their enterprises, create quality jobs, and build financial stability for their families. The initiative will also engage Ares employees as expert volunteers and produce research briefs, case studies, and video narratives to share learnings across the broader small business ecosystem.

This collaboration reflects a shared vision. The Ares Charitable Foundation strives to help people achieve economic mobility by supporting initiatives that encourage entrepreneurship as a pathway to self-sufficiency, job creation and strong economies. The Ares Charitable Foundation’s goals align seamlessly with TAP’s mission to empower under-resourced small business owners and drive economic independence and generational prosperity.

Help Is a Strategy

Resilience is not built in isolation. Small business owners of all backgrounds and in every community face moments when the numbers do not add up, when demands at home and at work collide, and when confidence begins to erode. In those moments, asking for help is not an admission of weakness; it is a sign of strength. It is a decision to grow.

According to a recent Wells Fargo 2025  report on women-owned businesses, women are launching companies at increasing rates and contributing significantly to the economy. Yet they still face limited access to capital and mentorship. These are not gaps that passion alone can fix. They require partnerships, guidance, and communities that lift as they build.

When an entrepreneur asks for help, they open the door to clarity and insight. A coach can show where pricing erodes profit. A mentor can suggest a better process. A peer can remind them that their effort is not invisible. Help brings perspective. Help brings accountability. Help turns resilience into progress.

What Partnership Looks Like

Single Mom Strong calls itself a village for single mothers and their children. That is more than a slogan. It is a promise of presence.

TAP operates in the same spirit. TAP is not just about delivering content or offering a one-time information share. We roll up our sleeves and make knowledge relevant and useful, building a relationship that supports business owners as they apply what they learn and adapt to new challenges. We support all small business owners and believe in walking alongside them as they confront both obstacles and possibilities.

In Sacramento, the panelists at the Single Mom Strong event shared unfiltered truths about sacrifice, financial strain, and perseverance. They also spoke about joy, purpose, and agency. They encouraged participants to use the resources around them, and they named TAP as one of those resources. That acknowledgment matters. It signals trust. It signals partnership.

To move beyond transactions means staying when the event ends. It means holding coaching sessions to create plans. It means answering questions about pricing, sales projections, or burnout. It means offering systems that create order and data that build confidence. 

Discipline and Data Give Help Its Power

Support alone is not enough. It must be paired with structure. A weekly review of finances reveals what intuition may miss. A simple budget shows whether revenue covers expenses. A basic marketing plan reduces chaos and directs effort.

Data is not cold. It is grounding. It tells a business owner when to pause and when to pursue growth. It protects vision by tying it to evidence. At TAP, we provide tools that are simple to use and easy to maintain. Budgets. Forecasts. Planning templates. These tools help owners measure what matters and act with intention.

TAP has spent years working alongside small business owners at many points in their journey, which is why we know this approach works. We serve entrepreneurs across a wide range of industries including health, beauty, wellness, food, beverage, construction, and childcare to name a few. We stand alongside them whether they are just beginning to generate revenue, stabilizing operations, or preparing for succession. Over time, this work has built deep in-house expertise and a proven understanding of what it takes to strengthen operations, increase confidence, and support long term stability and impact. This is why TAP’s support does not fade; it compounds.

A Personal Reflection

I did not always understand the power of asking for help. Early in my career at Bain and American Express, I earned an MBA, aimed high, and was offered a promotion that required being in the office five days a week. I asked to work from home one day. The answer was no. I knew I could excel remotely because when I worked part time I often delivered major work from home, with packages arriving on my days off, yet the culture did not support it. Instead of staying in place, I chose a different path and moved into civic work, where I learned that you cannot achieve great things by doing it all on your own. Leadership is not only about working hard yourself. It is about inspiring and motivating others, pulling people together, and accomplishing ambitious goals by delivering as a team. That belief is at the heart of TAP and why I care so deeply about partnerships.

The Ripple Effect of Help

When a single mother asks for help and receives it, the impact extends beyond her business. Her children watch resilience in action. They see a parent choose courage instead of silence. They see a community show up. Over time, confidence replaces isolation. Revenue replaces instability. Jobs are created. Families stabilize. Futures shift.

This is why partnerships with mission-aligned organizations like Single Mom Strong and the Ares Charitable Foundation matters. They empower women to seek guidance, to name their ambitions, and to build systems that support both business and family. It replaces the myth of doing it alone with the truth of shared effort.

Lessons From the Field

After more than 64,100+ consulting hours, we have learned that:

• Asking for help is an act of leadership.

• Partnership creates lasting change while transactions fade.

• Discipline and data turn effort into results.

• Community multiplies impact. One business strengthens many lives.

These lessons are not theories. They come from kitchens, storefronts, studios, and workshops where entrepreneurs choose to keep going.

Beyond Transactions in Practice

TAP was built to offer guidance that small business owners deserve but often cannot access. We train and deploy experienced professionals who volunteer their skills. We look for business acumen and also for compassion. We provide clear roadmaps and stay engaged when plans need to evolve.

Single Mom Strong brings a deep understanding of family, education, and resilience. TAP brings expertise in business strategy, finance, operations, and marketing. With support from the Ares Charitable Foundation, we are building a model that honors both ambition and humanity and strengthens the path forward for single mothers and their children.

Be the Partner

If you are a funder, invest in relationships, not only in outcomes. The Ares Charitable Foundation shows what this looks like by supporting programs that allow business owners, especially single mothers, to stabilize and grow. If you are a volunteer, bring your skills to a place where they can change the trajectory of a business and a family. If you are a business owner, ask for help. Seek advisors, mentors, or programs that will walk with you.

Closing Invitation

Beyond transactions is a philosophy and a commitment. It says that we believe in small business owners not only when times are good but especially when challenges arise. It states that asking for help is a sign of strength and that resilience grows in a community.

To Single Mom Strong and every partner who stands with us, thank you. To the Ares Charitable Foundation, your support expands what is possible for families who shoulder so much. To our TAP team, volunteers, and supporters, your work gives families the stability and hope they deserve. And to every entrepreneur who is carrying both a business and a family, you do not have to do it alone.

Join us. Be the partner that makes resilience possible.

✨ Apply today for a free 1:1 consultation or partner with us to help small business owners turn challenges into breakthroughs.