Chicago-area female entrepreneurs encouraged to reach new potential at Women's Small Business Expo

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago's city treasurer is working to help female entrepreneurs grow their businesses through an event this weekend.

Georgina Driver attended the Women's Small Business Expo in Chicago on Saturday. She hopes it'll give her a chance to reach new customers who might take interest in her "Luv That Scrub" products.

Driver makes lotions, scrubs, soaps and more from scratch inside her Bolingbrook home, using all natural products.

"How I learned this business is through my grandmother. As a child, I would follow her as she would actually harvest her herbs and berries and barks. So while she was harvesting, I was running behind her with bare feet while she was picking those," Driver said. "I never forgot that. We've always used all natural products."

City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin hosted the expo to give local female business owners an opportunity to reach new clients or expand their potential.

"We need to leverage taxpayer dollars. That money is going out and it needs to be returned back to the community," Conyears-Ervin said. "This expo is about resources. It's about access."

Hundreds of vendors attended the event to not only help existing businesses expands but to also encourage entrepreneurs to start new ones.

"Women make up over 50% of the population. But certainly when you look at the ownership of small businesses, we're at about 39%. We have to work on that. It starts today," Conyears-Ervin said.

Saturday's expo at the UIC Forum also included seminars, panels and more.

For more details, visit chicagocitytreasurer.com.