Meet Barb Smith, co-founder and president of Journey Steel. She is the living embodiment of Journey Steel’s motto: “We build and support dreams.” Barb spoke with us via videoconference about the values upon which she built her company and how she kept it afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic by sticking to those values. She also talked about what it’s like leading in a male-dominated sector as a Black woman.

There is no single definition of an entrepreneur or the obstacles they face. As part of our year-long series sponsored by Main Street Ventures, our community chose 12 of the biggest obstacles female-identifying entrepreneurs face, and we found 12 women who spend their days conquering them. Explore the whole series here.

Interview by Michaela Rawsthorn. Photography by Chelsie Walter.

What’s your elevator pitch?

Journey Steel is a self-performing steel fabrication and erection company headquartered right here in Cincinnati, Ohio. We were established in 2009, so we will be celebrating 11 years this August. I have a business partner, Tom Garten. He and I started this company. We built it on passion, integrity, and dependability.

We are signatory to the union which means that we have a skilled and trained workforce available to us all across the United States. That enables us to grow here, locally, as well as with regional partners as we see fit. We are able to pull from the local workforces in any place we work to keep costs down, but also to keep to our passionate commitment to putting people to work in the communities we work in.

We also have a non-profit we established about four years ago, Journey Soaring Impact . We believe in giving back to the community. We target inner-city high school juniors, about to enter their senior year, to expose them to the construction industry. A lot of younger people may understand the construction industry, but may not understand ironworking. We are passionate about exposing them to a career opportunity because college is not for everyone.

We want to be able to say, “Hey! There is an opportunity for you to come out and learn a skill and a trade that is viable for the construction industry that you may not be aware of, but where you can make a very profitable living for yourself and your family.” After about four years, a union ironworker makes about a $125,000 compensation package. You are able to get on-the-job training, which we pay you for, and when you are done with a year of our program you can go into the apprenticeship program. You can begin your career.

As an entrepreneur, you just have to have faith.

We also found out that not everyone wants to be an ironworker, so we revamped our mission statement and our website to “We build and support dreams.” Because really, we aren’t just passionate about ironworking, we just want these young people to dream again. We are getting more diverse groups of young people to whom we can say, “Even if you don’t want to be an ironworker, you still have our support to do whatever it is you want to do.”

We are pretty passionate about that program. We want to change lives. That’s part of Journey Steel at its core.

How did you get into ironworks?

I was born and raised in Cincinnati, as the baby of eight. I have six sisters and one brother. I was the little brother that my brother never got. He knew I was the last one, so instead of playing with dolls, he made me play with trucks. I was always a rough and tough little girl because of my brother.

Back when I was a sophomore at Walnut Hills High School, the University of Cincinnati (UC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were trying to get more minorities into the engineering field. I was fortunate enough to be one of 284 rising juniors selected for a co-op program at UC and EPA for four summers, beginning the summer after my sophomore year through my first two years of college.

I was told that I was good at math and science, so I could be an engineer. There were so many facets you could go into the engineering field. I was also paying my own way through college, being the baby of eight. All I knew was that I was supposed to be an engineer because that’s all I was told for four summers, so I looked into different schools and narrowed it down to four: Eastern Michigan University, University of Dayton, Purdue University, and Case Western Reserve University. I applied to Eastern Michigan University first because they didn’t have an application fee. I got accepted right away so I never applied anywhere else.

They had just four programs for me to choose from: plastics, agricultural engineering, computer-aided design, and industrial technologies with a construction specialty. They told me there were four minorities and two females in the whole construction program. Well, that was the one for me. As the baby of eight, I always felt like I had to do something to stand out. So, I went into industrial technologies with a construction specialty.

I carried 21 credit hours each year so I could finish in four years and come back home as soon as possible. When I got back to Cincinnati, I started working with local construction companies. I did that for the first 15 or 16 years of my career until my business partner and I decided to start Journey.

What made you guys take that leap?

Way back when my hair was black [it’s gray now], no one in the construction industry looked like me. Being a minority female was definitely an anomaly. I got looked over for a lot of promotions. You didn’t put a Black female in front of a white male-dominated industry.

My business partner is actually a white male. We hit it off when we first met way back in 1988 when I graduated from college. He was working with his dad at the time doing steel work. We remained friends throughout my whole career path. Eventually, I found myself a single mom of two young boys. While Tom and I talked about working together at some point, I needed stability. So, he branched out on his own originally.

But when the 2008 recession hit, it was clear that his business was not going to weather that economic storm. My kids were older by then, so we decided we were going to start this journey. That’s actually how the company got its name. The destination of our journey was going to be a success. We made the globe our logo because we decided we had the world at our fingertips.

I was looked over for many, many years. I wanted to be that change. I wanted no person behind me, being female or minority, to have the same struggles that I went through to advance in my career path.

In 2008, the economy was doing a little bit of what it’s doing now. Why start your business then?

Actually, doing what it’s doing now is exactly why we started it then. It was strategic to start when we did. The timing was right with the kids and everything else, but it was the understanding that the economy was going to come back strong that pushed us to do it then. We wanted to be in a position to take advantage of that recovery.

My business partner and I are best friends – like family. My kids think of him as an uncle. He’s a white male and I am a Black female. Having been in the business that long, I knew that there were no other business leaders in the field that looked like me. We made me a majority owner to take advantage of the opportunities that can come with that. You usually have to be in business for a year to get certified as a woman or minority-owned business. We founded in 2009 so that we were ready for those certifications once the economy began to recover.

We weren’t waiting. We were ready. And at that time we were the only woman and minority-owned steel fabrication company, and we are still the only one in this area. There are three across the United States.

Your network is an asset. What you don’t know, someone in your network will.

And as an entrepreneur, you just have to have faith. Like right now, we know that Journey Steel is going to get through this pandemic and failing economy. We have 24 employees counting on us to keep the door open. When you are the momma of the family, you gotta make sure your kids eat.

What support systems do you rely on, professionally and personally?

I’ll start by saying that Cincinnati is an awesome place to start a business. The city has so much to offer to support a new business. Take advantage of the webinars, the packets, the resources out there to help small businesses, whether you or not you are a minority or woman-owned business.

Early on, the African American Chamber of Commerce and the Urban League with their African American Business Development Program helped me. They helped me figure out how to get certified and get started. Now, we are part of a business accelerator for the Cincinnati Regional Chamber that identifies and supports minority-owned businesses. With that, you get coaches, programs, and access to learn about business and what you need to succeed. Plus, networking is invaluable. Your network is an asset. What you don’t know, someone in your network will.

We’ve found that being members of these, as well as Ohio-wide and national organizations have offered huge stepping stones for us to stand upon and build upon.

Personally, you’ll find me every Sunday in church. God is my rock. I also spend 30 minutes a day at Planet Fitness working on my spiritual and physical body. I listen to the Word and inspirational songs to help keep me centered.

My personal faith and all the resources here in Cincinnati have been phenomenal.

Tell us more about your company culture.

We are a family. Every member matters. That makes a difference.

We started this business with our families in mind. It was just natural to treat every employee like they were family. It’s something that we hear from our employees, which is great. We’ve never sat down with the team and said, “Hey guys, we’re a family,” but when other people ask them, “Why do you like working for Journey?”, they say, “It’s a family atmosphere.”

And it’s true. We are a family-driven culture. We believe in giving back. We definitely believe in “to whom much is given, much is required.” Our employees take the kids who work with us through the non-profit under their wing. That is something we really drive home in the company.

What did getting support from the Small Business Administration (SBA) mean to Journey?

Everybody needed S.B.A., big and small. And the goal was to ensure that if you were in business before the pandemic, you were going to be in business after. We did get an S.B.A. Paycheck Protection Program loan which gave us a chance to breathe. We were also fortunate enough to have projects going, so we were able to keep our teams working.

We also gave them the peace of mind to stay home if they weren’t feeling well. We don’t one anyone getting sick, and we don’t want them to have the hardship of not getting your paycheck.

We were very open with our employees that we received the funds. We have the funds so you will be paid. We trusted that they weren’t going to take advantage of us. They weren’t just going to say they didn’t feel well so they could stay home for three weeks.

The great family culture allows for that level of trust and gives the guys a safety net so they can feel secure that they’re going to have a full paycheck.

What does business as usual look like now, that it may not have looked before?

It looks like me learning how to use Zoom [laughing]. Me being in Zoom meetings really has been the biggest change, and I can see this being the new norm. I had to pivot my mindset.

Me and technology don’t always get along, but I have to be able to embrace it. I have to realize that these are real meetings; it’s no different than if I was leaving the office. I need to be in the room, not writing it off as a chance to multi-task. That’s been the biggest change for me, personally – realizing that this is the way I may have to conduct business for eternity.

When you have an idea, and you are willing to work hard enough, you will succeed.

We put building relationships on hold at first. Our strategic growth plan for 2020 required us to meet new partners and develop strong partnerships. That came to an abrupt halt. I’ve been waiting for COVID to be over to go back to building those relationships. But that’s just it – I can’t wait. I have to start building those relationships.

I have to embrace technology and use this as the new platform to get out there. I had to get a new monitor and learn Zoom. My first couple of Zoom meetings were a disaster. Our IT team had to get everyone up to speed and fully functioning from home; we all needed cameras and microphones. We made that technology pivot.

The next pivot is the new safety guidelines we’ll have to follow. We’ve always been a safety-first company, but now we are learning how to do our jobs in a new safe way.

We are also talking about finding out how we can fill client needs in this new normal. What is the product or service we can apply in this new space moving forward? What does that look like for Journey Steel? What can we add? Where do we need to be?

What learning from COVID do you think will stick around?

Learning how to embrace and cope with change. Lots of businesses had to change quickly. Now they have to realize that some things they thought were temporary, are going to be here for good. Those of us who have been in business for a long time need to accept that we have to change to be able to survive.

Any advice for people considering starting their own business?

Go for it. Just. Go. For. It. And recognize the fact that when you do go for it, you are not alone. Surround yourself with people that will support you. The sky’s the limit.

We build and support dreams. It’s Journey’s tagline, but that’s what we live by. Dream. That’s what’s going to make the world a better place. When you have an idea, and you are willing to work hard enough, you will succeed. Jump. Take the leap.

I’ll push you and help lift you up. And there are so many people out there who will do the same. There are so many resources out there to support you too.

Tell us about an inspiring woman in your life.

My first Sunday school teacher because she took an interest in me. She saw something in me and wouldn’t let me flounder. She always believed in me. I became her assistant teacher at age 12 instead of moving on to middle school bible study. She would send me $2 in college and tell me to go get a sundae, which was a lot for her to give! She’s definitely been the most influential person in my life.

There is no single definition of an entrepreneur. Check out our year-long series, "This Is Entrepreneurship." Sponsored by Main Street Ventures.

This Is Entrepreneurship: Barb Smith on Sticking to Values and Pivoting During COVID