Let’s face it! It has been a challenging few years for women small business owners; we have dealt with a global pandemic, shaky supply chain, uncertain economy, labor shortages, and inflation. In last week’s Wiser Wednesday, I discussed the Inflation Reduction Acts potential benefits for women business owners as black women small business owners are booming with post-pandemic entrepreneurial success.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a racial equity downturn, resulting in many black Americans leaving their jobs due to workplace discrimination and corporate practices discouraging remote working. Whether women lost their jobs or decided to become solopreneurs, using key skill sets and side hustles to become self-employed, we watched many walk away from established careers in an unstable economy and chase their entrepreneurial dreams. Black entrepreneurs were the hardest-hit demographic groups during the pandemic, yet black entrepreneurs continue to rise. Thanks to a record number of black women entrepreneurs launching new business start-ups, the tables below show the surge in black new business applications increased by 58.33% entrepreneurship is particularly pronounced from 2019 to 2020. In 2022 we saw a significant increase in consumer spending rallying to support black businesses. A win for black-owned businesses and black women, a demographic where the unemployment rate was nearly 6% this past December, revenue increases, and an uptick in hiring employees is a natural part of the growth phase.
Table 1. Rate of New Entrepreneurship by Gender (2007-2021)
Table 2. Rate of New Entrepreneurship Race (2007-2021)
Lack of resources in adverse times and recession has never deterred black women entrepreneurs. In the recent Kauffman report on early-stage entrepreneurship, during the Great Recession of 2007-09, 0.32 percent of the adult population created a new business each month. Minority entrepreneurs were substantial in start-up development following the 2007-2009 recession averaging 600 out of every 10,000 start-ups were minority founded.
Sista’s have been doing our thing! Even before the pandemic black women professionals were increasing their education, starting and owning businesses, and supporting companies as freelancers, consultants, and content creators. The number of black women start-up businesses between 2007 to 2018 shot up 163%, ten times the growth for non-minority women-owned companies. As double minorities with more economic disadvantage, recessions unveil the harsh reality that black women have fewer opportunities to accrue generational wealth. Is this a pivotal time for women to determine if entrepreneurship is the next step on their career path? Entrepreneurship’s flexibility offers women to remain in the workforce but in a different capacity. With this surge in black women’s small businesses, this will be less about survival and more about wealth creation.
