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: The Struggle Is Real, So Is The great Outcome

Oprah, Chimamanda Ngozi, Madam C. J. Walker. All these women have not just the color of their skin in common, they’ve struggled to get to where they wanted to be. They are Black women entrepreneurs that faced many challenges and have a lot to inspire us, despite our race. But why, year after year, minority women are being shut out?

Racial and gender-based biases can be one answer. Fortunately, not the reason to make us give up on our dreams or the demand to increase our income. When it comes to access to capital, a simple “no” can be another answer to stop black-owned business to come to life. Even though 50% of women-owned businesses in the U.S. are controlled by minority women, they are still being denied by banks and fund companies - Black women have even more problems to receive the financing they asked for, besides paying higher interest rates for no reason. But there is still hope: resources to support Black women entrepreneurs are growing – Black Girl Ventures is an outstanding example helping to change this reality: they provide Black/Brown woman-identifying founders with access to community, education, and leadership development.

Networking is another major barrier that leads black entrepreneurs to a disadvantageous place. How can you have good connections if you weren’t given the chance to be in the same space of people who can help you get through financial or mentoring issues? Following Madam C. J. Walker aspiration, we have to find our own ground to build up outside the idea field. Bringing a business to life is, for us Black women, also fighting against discrimination.

A work-life balance, strengthened negotiation skills and a need for a powerful support system are other challenges Black women have to overcome. At all business stages, networking and counseling are critical even for emotional support during a lonely undertaking for the main part of the 2,681,200 Black women-owned companies in America. Remember: a new business can result from poor treatment and undervalue in the workplace, not to mention family economic problems, which are big triggers to mental health issues. The American dream of “skill + creativity + hard work = success” may not be the case for women of color. Our fair share is unfair even when we are hungry for prosperity.

In this scenario, determination and passion win though. Black women are known by being self-learners, regardless of all hard-lifetime-things. We turn exclusion into motivation and faith, and to make a business succeed, we need to learn from a wide variety of sources. That is how we can keep striving instead of letting fear keep us struck. In our history, we have a fear-of-not-being-capable chasing us nonstop, but we overcome it because we take the risk to encounter our place in life. It took a moment for us to realize how good we are in everything we want to do. We battle our inner selves to find the courage to say “we can do it”.

Oprah’s entrepreneurial life has a lot to teach, but one of her most valuable takeaways is to listen to your own voice, following things in your unique way. You need funding, but perseverance has a lot to do with investing in yourself first, making a plan you really feel passionate about to show the investors how valuable you are. Chimamanda uses her words as her powerful business to tell us that whenever we wake up, that is our morning for a fresh start to shine, to change the world beginning from our own world.

Black women represent the fastest growing subsegment of entrepreneurs. So why aren’t we in the same positions of all the rest of the business ecosystem? We need to raise awareness of why it is still so difficult for Black women to build their entrepreneurial careers when they are so competent. We need to find people to fight for our businesses with the same strength we are doing it. We know how hard it is to change our social structure, where POC are on the margins since forever. New challenges appear every day to get the better of. The journey can be daunting, but we always see brighter days ahead. Our purpose as Black women entrepreneurs will drive us forward, and when it happens, the whole market wins.

PS: next month, we will have the last blog post of our series to talk about the importance of community support for Black female entrepreneurs. See you then!

Embrace your Wellness: Mental Health Issues Need to Be Addressed in the Workplace

There is no way to deny that most of us spend more time in our workplaces than at home. And, at the same time that it can be good for your professional career and success, it can also increase your chances to be affected by the stressful atmosphere you are working in. But how can we deal with that, besides the fact we are women fighting, day after day, to occupy spaces we deserve in our fields?

Just to contextualize before we go deeper in our topic, take a look at some numbers about women in the American workforce, important data to understand where part of the stress comes from. There are 75.9 million women in the civilian labor force (U.S. Department of Labor), and even with more than half of management occupations held by women (51.5%), we are less represented the higher up we go inside the companies: female workers make only 5% of CEO positions, and 11% of the top earners in the country (Catalyst Women in S&P 500 Companies). 

Now, speaking about mental health, the numbers are also worrisome: 58% of people are unmotivated at work, 50% engage in unhealthy behaviors to cope with workplace stress (Mental Health America); and 37% said their work environment contributed to their symptoms (Mind Share Partners Mental Health at Work). For us, it’s even worse: around 5 million employed American women deal with depression each year, and 54% say they couldn’t discuss mental issues at work without fear of discrimination (Good Housekeeping Institute). All the statistics have shown us that, even though mental health is still a stigma, we really need to talk about it since who’s struggling needs to be seen. It means we need to urge for companies to create safe spaces for disclosure because we all need an open way to communicate about our problems.

Mental health has everything to do with wellbeing, not the opposite as some people may think. When you work for a company that fosters motivation and engagement, you’ll be more likely to be in a healthy workplace. Also, it will strongly encourage us to not remain silent anymore. Talking about behavioral health is challenging but necessary, and it can save lives. Women are dealing with equality issues in their jobs all the time, and sometimes it is impossible to avoid that it will have a negative impact on their mood, productivity, relationships inside and outside the workplace and, of course, their health.

Stress from work can increase the risk of chronic diseases and heart attack, so we need to accept the idea that stress is a big part of the job. Besides stress and anxiety, it’s important to pay attention to symptoms such as deep sensation of sadness, loss of interest in activities, difficulty to concentrate, trouble remembering and making decisions, feeling of worthlessness and guilt, energy loss, irritability, and procrastination. Simple daily events can pull triggers, the main point is when or if you or your colleagues are ready to identify them.

In a recent Time magazine’s article, specialists said that the Millennial employees (24-39 years old) are getting companies to rethink workers’ mental health in a radical way: depression and anxiety are changing the business scenario with different needs from the young workers, especially female ones. Burnout is the new emotional-physical-mental state of people who work under excessive and prolonged stress, which makes them feel totally overwhelmed, drained and unable to be productive, motivated, and satisfied as they could be. Depression is now the fastest-growing health condition between them, but fortunately young people are more likely to share their struggles with their bosses compared to people ages 54 to 72 (American Psychiatric Association). It’s a fact companies have a lot of requirements to hire people, but as professionals and human beings, we need to require environmental wellness from them too. 

We deserve to be in a work environment that inspires us. We need to feel safe, seen and valued in the place we are spending most of the time in our daily lives. Nowadays, more and more companies see mental health as crucial for everybody’s success. They are already aware about the challenge to address mental health correctly, and we believe hard times like the pandemic can help the market to see that they need to work closer to their employees, even more when they cannot be close physically. 

When you share, you feel empowered. If your company doesn’t have a mental health support group/counselor, you can suggest them to create one. You may not be the only one dealing with issues, but can be the first one to change your workplace for the better!

If you or someone you know needs help:
https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline

Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255