Our Story
The Women’s Business Resource Community exists because Karen Kleinwort has been building businesses since she was twelve years old — and because every business she’s built has taught her the same thing: nobody does this well alone.
The Story That Built This
Before there was a Women's Business Resource Community, there was a soft-serve ice cream stand in a small Ontario tourist town.
Karen was twelve. Her older sister Krista was alongside her. The nearest ice cream was forty miles away, the town filled with tourists every summer, and their father saw the gap. So the three of them built it — literally built it, an outbuilding on the front of the family's general store.
The girls bought the equipment, learned to service it, did the hiring, ran the banking, made payroll. For eight years, from age twelve to twenty, Krista & Karen's Soft Ice Cream ran on the two of them showing up every single day.
It put them both through college.
That store taught Karen something she's built every business on since: you don't learn business from a book. You learn it by opening the doors, serving the customer, balancing the till, and coming back to do it again tomorrow. And the businesses that last aren't built alone — they're built together, by people who show up for each other.
Where the Village Came From
That sense of what a community can do came from somewhere even deeper. Karen grew up in a close-knit village in Central Ontario where community wasn’t a concept — it was how things actually got done. Watching her mother show up consistently for the people around her, Karen understood early that the impact one person makes ripples far beyond what they can see.
That’s the thread that runs through everything the WBRC is built on
Karen Kleinwort, Founder
Karen launched her first online business community in 2008 — and learned the hard way that community requires more than a platform. It requires structure, consistency, and real human investment. In 2023, she relaunched with all of that in place.
Today, Karen brings 25 years of operational experience across corporate, small business, start-up, and non-profit environments to every coaching session, every Insight article, and every corner of the community she’s built. The WBRC is the working Village she always knew women in business needed — and the one she spent a decade figuring out how to build properly.
You can learn more about Karen’s personal coaching practice at https://karenkleinwort.com
A Note from Karen
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably the kind of woman I built this for.
You’re running something real. You’re taking it seriously. And somewhere along the way you’ve felt what every Villagher in this community has felt at some point — that it shouldn’t be this hard to find people who actually understand what you’re carrying.
That’s why the Village exists. Every Villagher — whether you’re a Visither just getting started or a C-Suither deep in the work — belongs here on equal footing. This is a community of women who show up for each other, the same way Krista and I showed up at that ice cream stand every single day.
What I want for you is simple: that every time you engage with the WBRC, you leave knowing something more, connected to someone real, and a little more certain that you’ve got this.
If you’d like to talk through whether the Pathway to Success is the right next step for you, I’d love to connect. Book a complimentary 15-minute strategy call here.
Welcome to the Village. You belong here.
Karen Kleinwort
Founder, Women’s Business Resource Community
