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National Women’s Small Business Month: Handan, Hebei to Amway 

Hanxiang Song was born in Handan city in the Hebei province of China in 1962. From a young age, her parents instilled in her the power of hard work. At one point, she worked tirelessly for four years as a seamstress, becoming one of the highest performers in her workplace. 

Other core values instilled in Hanxiang by her parents included taking pride in her community of family and friends; and helping each other day to day, and through life’s challenges, big or small. “My parents were very kind people who loved helping others and they had a huge influence on me,” said Hanxiang. “So, I always had the hope that one day I could be like them.”  

Today, Hanxiang is an Amway Independent Business Owner in the United States, operating one of the nearly 13 million women-owned small businesses in the US. This number of women small business owners is only growing, especially those operating side gigs or “hustles.” 

When she became an early-in-career professional, Hanxiang found great success working for a variety of companies in the food industry. At the age of 29, Hanxiang faced a life-altering change as she navigated a divorce and became a single mother to her daughter. It was at that time she turned her joy of cooking into a thriving restaurant of her own, with the help of her community. There, she learned all aspects of running a business, ranging from  preparing the food on her patron’s plates, to managing her own advertising. 

After 12 years of steadily growing her restaurant business in China, Hanxiang’s friend convinced her to move to the United States. Excited by the sense of opportunity in the U.S., Hanxiang packed up her things and moved to New York. 

A few years later, in 2010, Hanxiang was introduced to Amway by her sister and became an Independent Business Owner. Hanxiang was initially attracted to Amway because of the products that helped her live a better, healthier life. She was also drawn to the flexibility it allowed her to earn a little bit of extra side income. Having owned her own businesses before, Hanxiang knew how hard it could be to get a new venture off the ground in terms of investment and staffing. But with Amway, she was able to start a business with a lot more ease. “Amway does the research, logistics, warehouse, everything,” Hanxiang said. “All I have to do is sell the products.”  

With Amway, Hanxiang is able to do all the things she loves. “Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like I am working,” Hanxiang said. She often hosts Amway product demos for her friends and her customers around a table, over a meal, like she did back in China when she ran her restaurant. She even has more time at home now that she enjoys spending time with her daughter, son-in-law and now, a granddaughter! 

This National Women’s Small Business Month, and every single day, we celebrate women entrepreneurs like Hanxiang and the hundreds of thousands of others that make up the vast community of Amway IBOs.