Black women-owned companies and black brands are growing rapidly in the corporate world of small business owners.
Let’s explore a few Black women entrepreneurs who are making their mark through both established and innovative businesses.
Black Women Entrepreneurs Will Inspire You
Businesses run by female black entrepreneurs started in different ways. Starting a business wasn’t easy – it’s never been easy!
Here are brief profiles of Black women business entrepreneurs who paved the way for Black women entrepreneurs to follow in their determined footsteps.
Sheila Burgess
Black women entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones celebrating the launch of Fria, one of the fastest-growing women-owned companies. Burgess has developed a line of jewelry that uses advanced technology including thermal heat transfer and evaporative cooling to help reduce hot flashes.
Maya Penn
Penn is partnering with black women entrepreneurs to create a fashion line that uses sustainable materials like organic cotton, hemp and bamboo. Her collection, Maya’s Ideas, includes global activism, expanding her business into the fashion industry and making her a sought-after speaker. In addition, his book You Got This serves to inspire teenagers and young adults.
Natalie M. Caufield
Cofield is the founder and CEO of Walker’s Legacy Foundation, a resource and support organization dedicated to women entrepreneurs of color. In addition, the foundation operates an online career accelerator to help women of color grow professionally.
Essynce Moore
This young black entrepreneur is a fashion designer who created his own line when he was 6 years old. Moore is also an actress and writer. Her Essynce Couture line expanded to include clothing and body products for teenagers.
Tiffany Aliche
Aliche is the founder and CEO of both Budgetnista and The Live Richer Academy. At one point in her life, Aliche became homeless and moved in with her parents. Its goal is to provide life-changing financial education to women around the world.
Asmau Ahmed
Ahmed started his career as a chemical engineer. He also earned an MBA from Columbia Business School. These two areas gave him a great background after 8 years of research to launch Plum Perfect.
Plum Perfect offers a digital shopping experience designed specifically for women of color. Just upload a selfie, create your color signature and explore recommended products.
Asia Newson
This Super Business Girl started her entrepreneurial journey by creating and selling candles featuring her signature pink, yellow and light blue candles. He then tried to inspire his peers to start their own businesses by implementing the strategies he learned from his seminars. These workshops are intended for middle and high school students.
Spinning Beauty
Swivel Beauty was founded by attorney Jennifer Lambert and editor Cihan Thomas. Both women were frequent travelers and were desperate to find quality hair care in unfamiliar towns and cities. They developed Swivel Beauty, an app that connects women of color with hair professionals.
Nathalie Walton
Walton is the CEO and co-founder of Expectful, a comprehensive care company for mothers. Through the expected site, women can participate in meditation and events. They can also join support groups. Expectful is staffed by experts, including experts in nutrition and postnatal care.
Mikaila Ulmer
Being stung twice led Ulmer to learn more about bees. He participated in a local business competition by making lemonade from flax seeds. She modified her great-grandmother’s recipe in the 1940s, substituting honey for sugar. He donates a portion of the profits from his Me and the Bees Lemonade business to save honey bees.
Arlan Hamilton
Hamilton founded Backstage Capital after discovering that less than 10% of venture capital deals went to women, people of color and members of the LBGT community. Backstage Capital aims to address this imbalance and promote economic equality for these groups. To date, Backstage Capital has facilitated the investments of more than 180 companies for small businesses.
Tracy Reese
One of the most famous black women to wear a Tracey Reese design is Michelle O’Bama, who showed off one of her creations at the Democratic National Convention. Reese’s newest line is Hope for Flowers, which focuses on ethical sourcing of materials to create a sustainable production line with economic and social value.
Janice Bryant Howroyd
All he had was a cell phone. Howroyd had no office furniture – not even a fax machine. When Howroyd returned to Tarboro, North Carolina, he was able to launch and grow Act1 Group, a leading employment agency with consulting services today.
MoAnA LUU
Founded by MoAnA LUU, ManLUU fashion house is an American fashion house featuring Creole luxury styles. Luee also excelled in brand transformation, including the redesign of leading fashion and culture magazine Essence.
Cathy Hughes
Hughes is the first African-American woman to lead a public media company. Hughes was once homeless and was turned down by 31 banks before taking out a loan and buying his first radio station.
Today, self-made Hughes is one of the richest women in America. He founded and directs Urban One, Inc., which includes 56 radio stations.
Vimbaji Kajese
Kajese and his staff are known as “diversity crusaders”. Kajese realized that only 1% of stock images used for advertising were of people of color. Committed to social and economic equality, Kajese is the founder and CEO of #Adtags, a company dedicated to improving stock image content to include people of color for use by companies worldwide.
Binta Niambi Brown
Brown was a lawyer for international corporations before co-founding and co-chairing the Black Music Action Coalition. He is also the founder of Omalilly Projects, an artist management and production company. He is head of music at Keep Cool/RCA Records. Brown is also a prolific fundraiser, focusing on raising money for political, humanitarian and cultural initiatives.
Kimberly Bryant
Bryant is the founder and CEO of Black Girls CODE, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching computer programming and technology skills to young black women. Her goal is to train 1 million young black women by 2040. Google has contributed more than $2 million to support the initiative, and Nike recently partnered with Black Girls CODE to sponsor an event.
Anne-Marie Imafidon
One day, while in college, Imafidon looked around the classroom and realized that she was one of only 3 women in the class. She is the founder of Stemettes, Girls Do Stem Too, a social enterprise that seeks to inspire and support young women of color in science, engineering, art and math.
Oprah Winfrey
No list of inspiring black women entrepreneurs would be complete without Oprah Winfrey, one of the nation’s most prominent and widely recognized public figures. His legendary business success and extensive philanthropy in various social service sectors have had a significant impact. It has offered long-term financial resources to underserved communities.
Mrs CJ Walker
Walker lived in a village in the American South from 1867 to 1919. Through her hard work, she achieved the American dream, producing and selling hair care products (and later expanded to a body care line) for African Americans. His method of using his products was known as The Walker Method. She was one of the first American women to become a millionaire.
How many black business owners are there in the US?
According to Fundera, there are more than 2 million black-owned businesses.
Most of the black businesses started are in healthcare. The highest percentage of businesses are in Washington.
What percentage of black-owned businesses are owned by black women?
According to Fundera, black women business owners make up 35% of all black business owners.
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