Black Women Entrepreneurship: Community Support Moves Us Forward Because It Brings Us Together

We’ve been talking about how black women, despite the structural racism and gender inequality, are thriving because of their talent, not their skin color. We brought to the light the fact that, even though 50% of women-owned businesses in the U.S. are controlled by minority women, they are still struggling to have access to capital, financial partnerships, mentoring and so on. Now, in this last post of our series, we want to talk about community.

Community is a powerful word for black people in general. When fighting against prejudice, claiming for our lives, promoting our businesses, support is all we need, given that it comes along with care, reliability, trust. Community support brings to black female entrepreneurs the strength they need to rise up. Access to social networks is as important as access to financial capital for underrepresented groups. But guess what? We don’t have to do it alone at all.

Just BE believes that connecting Black women to business programs, funding opportunities and clients can make them level up together. That’s why 8 Black entrepreneurs, who were burning themselves out with limited resources, came together in 2016 to be a network that supports their peers in sharing knowledge, honoring each other’s struggles, developing and running successful businesses. They decided to hold hands to not keep hustling in isolation.

Walking alone is also a no-go for The Runway Project, a national initiative created to provide early-stage funding and holistic business support to Black female founders. They invite women to bridge the racial wealth gap through the infrastructure barriers that try to hold us back. Going down the same path, Black Career Women’s Network offers professional growth opportunities for African American women in business with training, mentoring, coaching, resources to help them strive for career success, empowering them to work in their highest potential.

Minority women entrepreneurs community needs to meet the investor and mentoring communities to build constructive ways side by side. When a business owner has a strong support system (understand by support emotional, educational and financial help here), it is easier to survive, at least, the first five years of the business inside the predominantly male-oriented business ecosystem. 

Dealing with discrimination in all life aspects, Black women found in their innovative ideas, a way out of the marginalization, which led them to be the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States (between 2018 and 2019, they started over 1.600 new brands per day around the country, according to the State of Women-Owned Business Report). And when they find other women on the same page, they can address the challenges they face, at the same time that they are able to open new doors while seeing themselves building up community strength. Relationships take their business interactions to a next level because they need to feel safe. More than that, they need to feel they can do whatever they want because the inspiration is right there, in this valuable social capital of real life.

Some American cities in Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania are already growing Black entrepreneurial hubs, motivated by Black Girl Venture - BGV, to create safe local spaces for Black women to unify and consolidate their ideas, sharing not just what they have achieved so far, but what they’re dreaming about too. It fosters an essential collaboration between businesses, universities and local government. BGV also started an incubator to take Black and Brown founders to wherever they want to be, accelerating 100.000 business journeys through social capital that unlocks financial capital to celebrate victories all together. Besides that, BGV has a bunch of amazing programs to help Black entrepreneurs to fly higher. You can check it out here and join their Facebook group that makes the community-building visible and stronger.

Building community is our power to come to a wide-ranging change. Finding a group where you feel part of is what fuels us to fight for inclusion. Scenarios are shifting, paradigms are being broken, diversity is speaking up more than ever. But we still have a long way ahead to get to where we want to go, even though we have that steady confidence to drive us forward. It’s time for us, Black women entrepreneurs, to not just feel that we belong. It’s time to, during and after the endeavor, to be the revolution. 

Click here to find more funding and resources as incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces and communities for Black female founders.

Black Women Entrepreneurship: We Need to Rise Because of Our Talent, Not Our Skin Color

I am a black woman entrepreneur myself, and I know how we are struggling to get to all the spaces we deserve to be in. Here in America, the scenario is not different than Brazil or most of the places around the globe, but what needs our attention is how black women are thriving as being their own bosses. More than that, how their success shows their potential to contribute to economic growth in so many ways if they are given the power to accomplish that.

From 2007 to 2018, the U.S. saw an increase of 164% in the number of black women-owned companies. There were 2.4 million African American women opening their own business (State of Women-Owned Business Report - American Express). According to the Federal Reserve, black women are the only racial group with more businesses ownership than their male peers. However, companies run by non-minority women still have higher revenues compared to women of color brands, whose income dropped from $84K in 2007 to $66,4K in 2018. 

In 2020, even more after all the protests happening outside to change our history, we need to ask: why is this disparity still happening?

While diversity should be the key to society’s development, it seems like it is the fact that burns bridges between successful women and minority acknowledgment. But names like Alexandra Winbush, Aziza Handcrafted, Dorcas Creates, Golde, The Wrap Life and so many others are trying to prove they are wrong. Those are great examples of women of color who overcame stats to bring creative ideas to the market.

The gap between revenue is just one problem. Black women endeavor to get bank loans and credit and battle to be valued when they decide to dive into the entrepreneurship universe. But guess why they normally choose to change their careers? Because of the gender and pay gap, high unemployment rates, frustration in the workplace, racism. For black women, opening a business is a matter of survival.

All those difficulties are, in many cases, the answer why black women-owned businesses remain small, with annual sales way below the average number of white and Hispanic women-owned companies. One of the solutions black females found to make their ideas come to life was spending personal savings and retirement accounts, which is a high risking their future. Adding to that, some women are breadwinners and find no support even from their families, who cannot be blamed because they were taught to believe minorities cannot go big, that failure is easier than victory.

Besides financial problems, they can also encounter educational-training-mentoring issues considering that black people have less access to good schools, aggravated by the fact we have less business role models we can relate to. I say “we” because, in my journey as a freelance copywriter, I couldn’t think about more than one example in my family I could connect with: my people have been working as someone else’s companies’ employees for decades to this day. And it doesn’t mean they didn’t want to work for themselves, it means they didn’t have the opportunity to do so.

For me (and for a lot of my black sisters), resilience spoke louder, and I realized when I had the nerves to quit my job to work for myself, that fear cannot stop us from being what we are meant to be. On the other hand, it can make us persevere despite all the prejudice problems we may face. The decision to become an entrepreneur is hard, but the outcome can be beautiful.

Now, with all the attention protests brought to the black entrepreneurs community, maybe it’s time for the real change we are expecting. I say real because, for years, my people have been trying to succeed in their business overcoming privilege. And getting tons of followers and customers now will be great only if this support is genuine. In a month or two, black women-owned brands need to keep the good numbers they’ve got recently. It cannot be just a black-lives-matter-temporary-wave. Our businesses need to survive not because we are black, but because we are good in whatever we create. We need to be authentically valued by that, despite protests or trends.

Black women want to grow sustainably, want their brands to speak up their truth as successful entrepreneurs, regardless the color of their skin. We need to change stats, we deserve visibility, equal funds, and we are waiting for people to show up for our businesses because they truly believe in us.

PS: next month, we will go deeper on this topic, talking about challenges black women entrepreneurs have been facing and why they do not give up. See you soon!