How an entrepreneur overcame a health crisis to build an online business with global reach

Charlotte Young Bowens never planned on becoming an outdoor gear entrepreneur. Three years ago, Young Bowens, who lives in Tempe, AZ, was struggling with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity. Doctors gave her a wake-up call: It was now or never to make immediate lifestyle changes for her health. “I think that moment jolted me and made me realize, do you want to live or do you not want to live?” Young Bowens says. “Because you really are at that precipice where, you know, if you don’t want to be here, it could happen.”

Young Bowens started walking on the treadmill, leading to running 5K races, 10K races, marathons, and finally 50-mile ultramarathons. During her years of training, Young Bowens realized that the available hydration packs were uncomfortable on her larger body — and that there was a true gap in the marketplace for outdoor enthusiasts of bigger size. So she launched her company, Conscious Gear, in 2021 to develop the Vestapak, a first-of-its kind hydration vest to fit larger bodies, sold online and available worldwide.

While looking for funding to raise awareness of her business in its second year, Young Bowens turned to Verizon Small Business Digital Ready grant program for small business owners. She had discovered the Verizon program through StartOut, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ founders with networking opportunities and resources. Earlier this year, Young Bowens was awarded a $10,000 grant, which she used to implement Conscious Gear’s year-end holiday marketing plan, which includes digital advertising and vendor setup at holiday events, to build brand awareness and increase sales.

“Having this grant has opened up valuable space and time for me to really focus on the next steps for my business without the immediate financial pressure,” Young Bowens said. “It's given me the breathing room to plan carefully and ensure that every dollar is spent in the most effective way possible to propel my business forward, rather than just reacting to day-to-day operations.”

As a new entrepreneur, Young Bowens was motivated to try the program through the grant opportunity, but quickly found that she also benefited from the courses. Thanks to the program’s comprehensiveness and flexible structure, Young Bowens says she honed small business skills such as marketing.

In the courses, Selling with Storytelling: Unlock Your Business Superpower and Sell Effectively Online: eCommerce Essentials, Young Bowens learned to share the personal story behind her company to forge a connection with both her customers and target customers. After sharing Conscious Gear’s story across social media and on the website, Young Bowens saw her social media followers triple within a year from just 300 to more than 1,000 followers.

Young Bowens also learned, from the Digital Ready course “The Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Get Discovered,” about how SEO could increase her audience. Before she took the course, Young Bowens says, SEO was a foreign language to her. “It just seemed like gibberish to me,” she explains. “It wasn’t until I took the Digital Ready online course that it finally clicked and I understood the power of SEO and what it could do for my business.”

She started blogging to add searchable content to Conscious Gear’s website, a boon for SEO, and added relevant tags and keywords to help the website be findable by search engines. She also became proficient in implementing SEO strategies such as using long-tail keywords and adding meta tags to blog posts. As a result, Conscious Gear experienced a 500% increase in website visitors in roughly a month. “Now I get sales from Italy, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada,” Young Bowens says. “And I’m like, ‘How in the world did you guys find me?’ And they found me because of [search].”

She was motivated to pursue a distribution deal with a major outdoor retailer, which she was able to secure. Now her hydration packs are being offered in stores nationwide — something she didn’t think would ever be possible.

In addition to the fundamentals of marketing, Young Bowens said that other courses on topics like creating a good customer experience, protecting your business through cybersecurity, and building legal and financial foundations for your company were key for getting Conscious Gear off the ground. “I set up a business [checking] account and then software, which helped me understand expenses versus revenue,” she says. She also discovered that cybersecurity is essential for every business to protect their relationships with their customers. “You have a relationship with these customers and they’re expecting you to protect their identity and information,” Young Bowens explains.

Young Bowens says she is amazed at how far she has come with Conscious Gear and she believes she could not have reached the level of success she has now without the learnings she received from the courses. She also appreciates that Verizon offers Digital Ready users phone and WiFI services at a reduced rate for small businesses.

“My life could have had so many different directions,” Young Bowens says. “The Verizon Small Business Digital Ready program helped me go from a deer in headlights to an entrepreneur armed with some serious know-how and strategies that make running a business way less scary. I feel more confident and I’m making decisions that feel right for the business.”

Verizon Small Business Digital Ready is part of Verizon’s goal to support 1 million small businesses by 2030 with the resources to thrive in the digital economy. Visit CitizenVerizon.com to learn more about the company’s responsible business efforts. To sign up for Verizon Small Business Digital Ready, visit digitalready.verizonwireless.com. An individual user's experience may vary and results are not guaranteed.