Yesterday, PayPal hosted a panel on Capitol Hill entitled “Digital Payments Powering Small Business and Female Entrepreneurs”. Panelists included Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09) and U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (VA-10), as well as Erin Andrew, Assistant Administrator with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Carey Kolaja, PayPal’s Vice President of Global Production Solutions, and Christina Battle, owner of TopShelf Boutique.

The event was focused on the opportunities technology, particularly digital payments, creates for female small business owners and entrepreneurs. Recent surveys suggest a growing confidence among small-business owners in the U.S., but, PayPal believes, to stay competitive and be successful, they must tap into mobile technologies. In fact, according to a report commissioned by AT&T and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship (SBE) Council, a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and small businesses, using mobile apps, tablets and smartphones in their day-to-day business activities has netted small-business owners a staggering $67.5 billion a year. Not only are mobile technologies saving businesses money, but critically, they are saving them valuable time as well.

Small business owner, Christina Battle, shared her amazing success story during the event. Battle had always dreamed of owning her own store. However, instead of waiting to figure out how to get into a very expensive SF storefront, she got the idea to start her business by turning a 24ft old bread truck into her own clothing store on wheels! She was able to enter the market as a mobile retailer and one of the first of her kind in San Francisco. After a year of gaining much local press, and appearing at any Bay Area event she could get her fashion truck into, she was able to land herself a spot inside a pop-up shop. The rest is history. Christina Battle, owner of TopShelf Style, now owns her Fashion Truck, Store Front and recently launched the online store. This year she plans to really grow the web side of the business to be able to reach customers worldwide. Learn more about Christina’s amazing story.