Dallas woman takes leap of faith in opening business

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Dawn Franklin spent 18 years as a social worker before hearing, in the pandemic silence, a clarion call for change.

Franklin is one of a growing number of minority women who, for reasons ranging from financial to personal fulfillment, are looking to become entrepreneurs.

"Every day, I wake up and it's like 'okay, I'm really doing this!"

She made the bold move last year to take her then-online design business, Dawn Franklin Designs, into a brick-and-mortar studio near Fair Park. Close to the community where she grew up, Franklin says she wants guests to relish the experience. 

"To allow people to come in and see it and touch it and feel it and I can share with them the origin, the history ... So those entrepreneurial girlfriends of mine that don't have a space -- this is their space, and that's when I tell them, we will host pop ups, we'll do what we need to do. But this just isn't my space. It's about building community."

She's resting on faith to continue moving her forward.

"A showroom was not in my plan, but it was in God's plan," Franklin said. "So my response to that was and is okay. Even when I'm reluctant some days,  there's still a peace and a calm on the foundation of all of that because I know that all will be well."