Tanya T. Morris knows what it means to build something meaningful in the face of uncertainty. A mission-driven entrepreneur, she launched Mom Your Business not with a master plan, but with a single event and a calling to serve. Since then, she has navigated job loss, capital scarcity, and systemic roadblocks while staying grounded in her purpose: to support and elevate Black and Brown women entrepreneurs.
“I started as a volunteer. For a long time, I didn’t get paid,” Morris says. “I believed in what we were doing even when funding was inconsistent. I leaned into my faith and community, and I just kept going.”
Through persistence and vision, Mom Your Business has evolved into a vital support ecosystem for women who are often overlooked by traditional funding and business development structures. Since 2021, the organization has helped founders raise more than half a million dollars through grants, loans, and equity financing.
Her story is one of grit and grace. Laid off from her job during the pandemic, Morris used that window to study business accelerators and design her own. “Our story mirrors the founders we serve,” she reflects. “I know what it’s like to need help, to need capital, to feel unseen.”
That deep empathy shaped every detail of Mom Your Business’ recent Founder Showcase, held at the historic Belmont Mansion in West Philadelphia. With its roots in the Underground Railroad, the mansion provided a powerful backdrop for a modern-day gathering focused on economic liberation. “We chose Belmont because it’s a freedom space,” Morris explains.
Attendees were welcomed with live violin music and surrounded by portraits of Harriet Tubman and historical artifacts that spoke to a legacy of struggle and strength. “It was important to me that people felt the weight and beauty of that history. That they understood we are part of something bigger.”
The event featured eight founders pitching their businesses and sharing product demos. The energy was hopeful, joyful, and unapologetically Black. It was also the fruit of years of Morris’s behind-the-scenes labor, coaching entrepreneurs, sourcing funding, and creating programs like Fractional, which provides part-time executive-level support for founders who can’t yet afford full-time hires.
Tanya’s motivation stems not only from her own entrepreneurial path but from a lineage of strength and service.
Her grandmother taught her the power of saving. Her mother showed her how to retire with dignity. And her uncle, a Black Panther and fellow entrepreneur, lit the spark of possibility. “Mom Your Business is the full circle of all that,” she says. “All the nonprofit work, mentoring, and writing I’ve done, it’s all in here.”
Even now, Morris is expanding the vision. She hopes to raise a fund to invest more consistently in Black women-owned businesses and plans to publish a new book before the year ends. “This isn’t just work. It’s liberation. It’s legacy. And I love what I do because I love helping people become who they’re meant to be.”
With so many of her peers navigating funding cuts and burnout, Morris remains sustained by a network of private foundations and the unwavering love of her community. While preparing for her big event, the weather forecast led Tanya to confront personal anxiety and her mother reminded her of universal wisdom. “My mom told me, ‘You can’t control the rain, so calm your little nerves.’” That calm, wisdom, and knowledge is what Tanya passes on to all the women entrepreneurs she supports.
Tanya T. Morris was featured in Love Now Magazine’s spring issue as one of Philadelphia’s most loving leaders.
Jos Duncan Asé is the Founder, Executive Producer and Publisher with Love Now Media, an empathy-centered media company that uses storytelling to amplify acts of love at the intersection of social justice, wellness, and equity. She uses her voice and her platforms to empower diverse communities to create and tell their own stories. She holds a Masters of Fine Art (MFA) from the City College of New York and a Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA), with a concentration in Information Technology, from the Fox School of Business at Temple University.
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