If entrepreneurship was an outlift, Black women would be among the finely dressed. Owning a business is not only an outstanding personal achievement but an act that requires power, knowledge, wit, and perseverance.
It is a dream many women chase because working for oneself means having more freedom. Being an entrepreneur means being your boss and deciding the outlook of your career. It also means bringing your ideas to life and supporting your community.
Every time a Black woman steps away from the norm and decides to drive in her lane by creating a business, there’s a ripple effect. Every Black female entrepreneur serves as a beacon of light and a source of inspiration for other women who want to follow the entrepreneurial path.
Here are five Black female entrepreneurs whose journeys are inspiring and show everyone what is possible.
1. Alicia Holmes, CEO and Founder of Journey to Wealth
The gender wage gap and the racial wage gap are two issues that have been plaguing Black businesswomen for years. Alicia Holmes plans on closing that gap. Her first step in helping to close this game is becoming an example of how gaining wealth is possible for women of color.
As a self-made millionaire, Holmes, also known as the wealth whisperer, has become a master at investing and cryptocurrency. Holmes built her legacy with her knowledge and experience and founded Journey to Wealth in 2016. Holmes’ business uses coaching, workshops, and a financial boot camp to help women of color build better financial futures for themselves. Through her various programs, she helps women shift their mindset to get out of debt and build wealth.
What’s most inspiring about Holmes’ story is her mission and focus to support other women. Her business shows the world that if one woman can obtain wealth, so can many others.
2. Chrishon Lampley, Founder and CEO of Love Cork Screw
The name of the business is eye-catching, without a doubt. However, the story of the women who created this award-winning Chicago-based wine brand is more interesting than the name.
In 2009, Lampley shared her love for wine with the world by opening an art and wine bar in Chicago. It was so successful that it made the Best Wine list in Chicago. However, just two years later, her business went underwater, literally. Because of a flood, she lost everything. However, she bounced back two years later, in 2013, when she launched Love Cork Screw wines. She became the first Black woman from the Midwest to take her wine brand national in 2022. Since the start of her company, she has sold over 1 million bottles.
Lampley’s story is one of perseverance because she didn’t give up when tragedy hit. Also, she was able to turn her passion into a thriving business. Because the Love Cork Screw focuses on supporting unrepresented communities, Lampley says it’s more than a business, it’s a “whole mood.”
3. Cathy Hughes of Urban One, Inc.
Entrepreneurship is not absent of rejection and struggle. And entrepreneur Cathy Hughes has endured rejection from 32 banks after trying to get a loan. However, she never gave up and used the rejection as fuel to keep going. Once she obtained a loan, she bought her first radio station.
From that initial radio station, We Offer Love, she created Radio One Inc., a multi-media conglomerate. The business comprises over 56 radio stations nationwide, including talk/news R&B, gospel, and hip-hop formats. Radio One, Inc. has been renamed Urban One Inc., making Hughes one of the wealthiest women in America.
Being the first African-American woman to head a publicly traded media company, she has won numerous awards. She continues to scale her company’s success.
Hughes inspires young entrepreneurs not to give up. Eventually, you’ll get a yes after several no’s. She is an example of what hard work and perseverance can achieve.
4. Noëlle Santos, Founder of The Lit. Bar
When is the last time you’ve been to a bookstore? Has it been a while? With the advancement of technology, bookstores have been slowly dying out. However, even though many bookstores had to close down, they are still necessary.
Noëlle Santos is one person who saw the importance of bookstores, especially in her neighborhood in the Bronx, New York. Santos is a venture activist and owner of the only brick-and-mortar bookshop in the Bronx. The Lit Bar is not just a place where you can find tightly bound stories but also moonlights as a wine bar and community center.
Santos inspires Black entrepreneurs to follow their passions and incorporate supporting their community into their business.
5. Yve-Car Momperousse, Founder of Kreyol Essence
An essential part of being a business owner is ensuring you conduct ethical and safe practices and understand how to tap into the global market and utilize resources worldwide. Yve-Car Momperousse and her partner, Stephane Jean Baptiste, created an agribusiness that has become an international sensation.
If Momperousse’s name looks familiar, you may have seen her on the television show Shark Tank. She created Kreyol Essence, a beauty product company that sources natural ingredients from Haiti to support people with dry hair and skin and those experiencing hair loss.
What is unique about KE is that it stimulates two economies. By selling products in the United States in stores such as Whole Foods Market, ULTA, and Urban Outfitters, she also connects her sales to Haiti to help improve the country’s economic and environmental development. The company has created jobs for over 300 women and farmers.
Momperousse is an inspiring entrepreneur as she shows the good a business can do when you focus on supporting a community and making a profit.
Look to others for inspiration
Hopefully, reading these stories inspires you to follow your dreams and create your business. As the previously mentioned women have shown, there will be obstacles. Entrepreneurship isn’t a one-way road to success. However, staying on the path will eventually achieve the success you’ve always dreamed of.
