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!

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!