Carla Bowens did not stumble into entrepreneurship. It was woven into her life long before she ever gave it a name.
Born in Philadelphia and raised in a family deeply rooted in faith, leadership, and service, Carla grew up inside the rhythm of the church. Her father, the late Bishop Joseph Thomas Bowens, served as the General President of the United Holy Church of America, a movement more than 140 years old.
From an early age, Carla was exposed not only to ministry but to how organizations function, grow, and sustain themselves. These fundamentals would lay the groundwork for a life of service, her entrepreneurial ventures, and later for her relationship with Life Asset.
Where Service Became Action
Music was the first area where Carla’s leadership and service came together. Carla and her sisters directed choirs, performed nationally and internationally, and led music ministries across congregations of all sizes.
As a teenager, Carla often accompanied her father as he worked with churches around the world, observing how they were organized, how leadership decisions were made, and how community institutions operated behind the scenes.
That exposure stayed with her. Over time, it shaped how Carla could truly serve others. But it also revealed how difficult it would be to sustain the work without the proper channels of support.
“I knew the work mattered. I didn’t know how to make it sustainable.” That question stayed with her until Life Asset helped her find the stability needed to maintain a lasting impact.
When the Work Was Already There
Because of her years of exposure to church leadership and organizational work, Carla became a trusted resource for others. As she grew older, requests came regularly: helping set up ministries, advising on church growth, organizing community development corporations, and assessing programs that needed structure and direction.
“People were already coming to me for guidance. I just hadn’t formalized it yet.”
And long before Carla even recognized it herself, her mother saw it clearly. “She used to tell me, ‘You should formalize this,’” Carla recalls. “People call you for everything.”
Still, Carla hesitated to turn the work into a business. Not because she doubted the value of the work she was doing, but because she understood what came with making it official: the financial commitment, the administrative responsibility, and the risk of trying to manage it all alone.
Even while pursuing her doctorate, mentors encouraged her to solidify what she was already doing. One professor said it plainly: she should start a consulting practice for churches. Carla kept helping, kept showing up, and kept doing the work, just without structure or compensation.
Until one moment changed everything.
Where Purpose Turned Into Action
The decision to formalize Bowen’s Clientele came on the day Carla’s mother passed away.
Carla remembers sitting with her mother, doing her hair, as the phone rang repeatedly. Calls kept coming in, questions about choirs, church planning, and programs. Her mother, frustrated, banged her fist on the table.
“I keep telling you to start your business,” she said. “They call you for everything.”
Carla told her mother she would do it, but she worried about the expense of making it official. Her mother, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate.
“I’m paying for it,” she told her. “Don’t worry about the money. You do it.”
With her mother’s encouragement behind her, Carla moved forward that very day, taking the steps to formally establish her business and reaching out to a trusted lawyer friend to make sure everything was done correctly.
When she called to share the news that Bowen’s Clientele LLC was officially formed, her mother was proud. It became one of their final shared moments; an enduring reflection of her mother’s belief in Carla and the foundation she helped her build.
When Carla returned home that evening, her mother had passed peacefully.
“That was devastating,” Carla says. “But it pushed me forward. That was the last thing she left me with.”
Fifteen years later, Bowen’s Clientele still carries that legacy.
Leadership in the Making
While Bowen’s Clientele was formally established in 2010, Carla’s entrepreneurial spirit had been evident since childhood.
Teachers told her parents she would own her own business. By fifth grade, she was running a lemonade stand so popular she couldn’t keep up with demand. At sixteen, she operated a beauty salon out of her family’s basement. By eighteen, her father purchased her a space of her own, and she ran that salon for sixteen years.
“I was born a leader,” Carla says.
But Bowen’s Clientele was different. It wasn’t about selling a product or service; it was about guiding institutions that sit at the center of their communities to navigate growth, change, and sustainability.
“I love helping people,” Carla says. “I love helping organizations figure out how to keep going.”
And that’s precisely the kind of mission-driven work that Life Asset exists to support: organizations doing meaningful work that need the right resources to keep going.
Building a Business in a Shifting Landscape
Bowen’s Clientele began as a consulting practice for churches, but over time, expanded to include nonprofit and community-based organizations facing many of the same challenges. Today, Carla helps groups establish community development corporations, assess operations, plan programs, and execute events. Her work sits at the intersection of leadership, logistics, and community impact.
Yet despite its value, the business has never been easy to sustain full-time.
Many of the churches Carla serves struggle financially, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. Congregations shrank. Attendance shifted online. Funding declined, especially within historically Black churches that were hit hard by the pandemic’s long-term effects.
“The church will never be the same,” Carla says. “People are watching online now. And if churches don’t adapt, they suffer.”
For Carla, this meant continuing to balance Bowen’s Clientele with other full-time work. While her purpose-driven calling was clear, the financial reality made full-time entrepreneurship difficult.
And then came a moment when even keeping the business active was in question, a moment when having the right kind of support would make all the difference.
When the Business Reached a Crossroads
Carla first connected with Life Asset more than five years ago through a relationship with one of their team members. Over time, that connection became something much more meaningful.
As things grew increasingly difficult, Carla came close to shutting the business down. The cost of keeping it active became hard to justify, and continuing without support no longer felt sustainable.
Then Life Asset stepped in.
“It was just $2,500,” Carla says. “But it saved the business.”
That loan allowed her to keep Bowen’s Clientele active and compliant, preserving years of work, relationships, and community impact that would have otherwise been lost. To someone else, the amount might have seemed small. To Carla, it meant everything.
“Bowen’s Clientele is still up and running because of that,” she says. “That absolutely means the world to me.”
Beyond the funding, Carla describes her experience with Life Asset as deeply supportive. She speaks warmly of the relationships she built, noting how the Life Asset team worked with her during a period when cash flow slowed, income was inconsistent, and staying current on payments became difficult to manage. Rather than penalizing her for circumstances beyond her control, they focused on helping her move forward.
“They worked with me,” she says. “That mattered.”
She has since referred multiple people to Life Asset, many of whom have also benefited from their programs.
With Life Asset’s support, helping her keep the business intact, Carla was able to continue adapting how she served others, meeting clients where they were and maintaining momentum during a period of widespread disruption. That stability allowed Bowen’s Clientele to remain active, relevant, and connected to the communities it serves, even as the landscape around it continued to change.
What She’s Learned Along the Way
When asked for advice, Carla points to something more profound than strategy or funding.
“You have to love what you do,” she says.
She recalls a lesson shared by a guest speaker at NYU: when your work is rooted in purpose, effort feels natural, and the money follows. For Carla, Bowen’s Clientele is precisely that.
“I love it from my soul,” she says. “If there were a way I could do this full-time, I would walk away from everything else in a heartbeat.”
Looking Ahead With Vision and Faith
Carla’s goals for the future are clear. She wants to devote her time and energy entirely to the work she loves, expand her reach beyond what her current schedule allows, and build the stability needed to grow her business with intention.
She can already see it.
“The sign is there,” she says. “Bowen’s Clientele LLC.”
As her vision grows, Carla sees Life Asset continuing to play a role, not just as a lender, but as a partner that understands what small, mission-driven businesses truly need to survive, adapt, and thrive over time.
Her story is one of legacy, perseverance, and purpose. And with Life Asset’s support, Bowen’s Clientele continues to move forward, serving institutions that serve communities, and honoring the foundation her parents helped lay.