BOSTON — Two women entrepreneurs from Hampshire County are being honored for the role their businesses have played in “lifting up Massachusetts.”

Mary Gabis, the founder of Iridescence Healing Arts in Northampton, and Colleen DelVecchio, the founder of Maxady in Easthampton, were recognized alongside 40 other women business owners as recipients of the 2024 Center for Women & Enterprise’s Women Entrepreneurs Who Lift Up Massachusetts award.

The women were honored at a State House ceremony on National Entrepreneurship Day, Nov. 19, for their significant contributions to the state’s economy.

Iridescence Healing Arts

Gabis, who founded Iridescence about two years ago, said she was caught off guard when she found out she had been among those chosen to be recognized.

Gabis, who has a master’s in education but gave up teaching after 17 years to open her business, said that the move was motivated by an “awareness around the impact of stress on the body,” and developed a business model that would combat stress for her clients.

“I felt humbly surprised and really honored,” she said about receiving the award, and calls on people to “recognize the need for trauma-informed work ... just because we know the body, it doesn’t mean we understand the unique experience of the person who embodies the physical vessel.”

Her business strives to make her client “physically more at ease,” she said, by offering a whole body, or integrative, healing experience which includes visual as well as somatic elements, meditation, and massage therapy to rebuild the brain-body connection.

CWE had awarded a part of its Power Forward grant to Gabis in the fall of 2023, after the store had opened a year prior in October 2022. That grant, Gabis said, allowed her to hone her vision for the business, which is located in Thornes Marketplace.

Maxady

Maxady, which DelVecchio launched almost six years ago, provides training for clients around women’s leadership, strategic thinking, mentoring, career change, and much more.

She said her husband was her biggest cheerleader, noting that he had more optimism about the endeavor than she did.

“In my mind I said, if this doesn’t work out, you’ll need to get another job. Three months past, then three months ... then here I am six years later,” DelVeccio said.

Her work experience centers on career coaching and training, specifically in the world of nonprofits, health care and higher education.

“My level of enjoyment in my job is huge and it’s able to sustain my family,” said DelVecchio, who said that in addition the business has been lucrative, even allowing her to pay for her two kids’ tuition, both of whom are in college.

Two years ago DelVecchio participated in a CWE training sessions in a program called Power Forward that taught her the operational aspects of running a business, which she said has boosted her business significantly.

Over the course of those sessions, said DelVecchio, CWE was “able to see how I helped businesses leverage the services they offered, and increased the ability of leaders, and therefore saw their businesses become more profitable,” which made her stand out as a candidate for the award.

These businesses are only a representation of women entrepreneurs throughout the state. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, Massachusetts has 234,200 women-owned small businesses, employing 480,000 people and accounting for 15% of jobs in the state. In 2023, the top 100 women-led businesses generated $84 billion in revenue throughout the commonwealth.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.