Business owner Tonya Schumacher turns to Green Bay SCORE mentor to help start up a nonprofit
It can be difficult enough starting one business, but when you are planning two at the same time, it’s a good idea to seek advice.
That’s what Tonya Schumacher, owner of a for-profit business, Pathway to a Brighter Future LLC, is doing. As she puts together a complementary business that is nonprofit, she will be talking to Green Bay SCORE mentors. In January, when she presented at a 1 Million Cups gathering at the Urban Hub in downtown Green Bay, she learned about SCORE.
“I have a SCORE mentor now to help give advice on how to start the nonprofit; the operational issues and all of the aspects of running these businesses,” she said. “They can help me tweak anything that needs tweaking and help connect me with the right people.”
The mentors will assist by reviewing her business plan and offering advice as Schumacher, of Green Bay, further develops the businesses. In addition to these meetings, she will also be pulling information off of the national website, SCORE.org, where there is a wide array of information on nonprofit and for-profit topics.
Schumacher, whose goal is to create positivity, wants her businesses to have a major impact on bettering people’s lives. Much of her passion comes from her past experiences while growing up in Elkhart Lake.
“The strategies I employ, especially that of lifelong learning that I have created a workshop on, help me to learn and grow," she said. "It isn’t just learning how to build a business; it has helped me grow as a person, too. I was mentally bullied as a kid, and although I have broken through the walls I put up and been healed of most of the wounds, I still have layers of past hurts.”
The healing she has achieved came about as she learned strategies that she now plans to share through workshops and retreats. She also wrote a book, “Life’s Secret Recipe,” and has another in the works. Both focus on overcoming life’s challenges and realizing personal dreams. The first book is available on numerous platforms.
As she continues, step by step, to start the businesses, she defines one as being an income generator while the nonprofit, A Brighter Future for All, will be humanitarian. For that, she is hoping to have a group of volunteers to help both people and animals. She would like to do animal rescue and have programs for people who have been bullied.
“I’m continuing to take things slow,” Schumacher said. “To take a brief step back, it was sometime between 2012 to 2014 that I felt the need to help kids being bullied. But I didn’t feel the time was right then; God told me I had more to learn.”
She did focus on learning and earned bachelor's degrees in accounting and business management as well as an entrepreneurial certification from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay.
“I started to write things down as they came to me. Starting in 2015, I was finding my passion for personal and professional growth and began listening to teaching from experts in personal, professional, leadership, and spiritual growth from around the world,” she said.
That continued until 2019 when Schumacher said it was time to “take a leap of faith.” She left her full-time job to focus on her startup. Taking on part-time jobs to have some income, other hours were spent in research and developing a business model.
By 2021, when the pandemic was starting to ease, she started building a website, writing a blog, and writing.
She said, “I realized when I was doing this that I was actually starting a business. As the year went on, my vision started to become honed and I created my first course, ‘Power of a Positive Mindset.’”
The content of writings and course development highlights her goal to give people the knowledge, tools, and skills necessary to find peace, balance, and success in life. She admonishes people to practice mindfulness.
“Mindfulness is being present in the moment and aware of who you are, where you are, and what you’re doing,” she said. “Accept what is in the present moment. It comes down to taking care of the overwhelming things in your life.”
Tactics include decluttering and avoiding negative thoughts and negative people. She recommends using social media to follow only like-minded people who are positive and uplifting. For others, she says, cut them out of your life.
This inflection of the positive motivates her to share what has helped her.
“Anytime I hear that something negative happened towards any living thing or I go through something, I look at it as something that is meant to help me learn a certain lesson so I’ll be better able to help other people," Schumacher said. "God reminds me of my purpose.”
It helps her as she writes and develops tools that will aid others in overcoming past hurts and adopting a positive mindset. Most courses will be available on video and retreats will be in-depth and in-person events at various locations. They will range anywhere from one day to a week.
She hopes to file for nonprofit status in the next few months. Within five years, Schumacher wants to have all aspects of the nonprofit underway, including a cat café. The for-profit business will have her busy presenting at retreats, developing courses, and writing books. To get to that point, she says that she won’t rush things, but will listen to her mentors and trust the process.
In the interim, Schumacher would like to recruit like-minded people to work with her on the nonprofit. The people she is looking for will be positive, empathetic, compassionate humanitarians with a love for helping people, animals, and nature. Anyone interested can email her through her website: www. pathwaytoabrighterfuture.com
Her own positive attitude, one she learned from a family of entrepreneurs, will not allow for any outcome other than success. She gains inspiration from many sources, but holds on to a favorite quote from Lou Holtz, former football player, coach, and analyst.
He said, “If you put negative thoughts into your mind, you’re going to get negative results. It’s just as true that if you put positive thoughts in your mind, you will be a recipient of positive results.”
Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Business owner Tonya Schumacher finds right path for nonprofit
