The Business of Her Becoming

Black women are starting businesses at extraordinary rates. The next revolution is learning how to make those businesses grow.

There is a particular kind of woman appearing everywhere now. She has a laptop at the kitchen table. A business account on Instagram. A logo she designed herself.  A supplier somewhere in Guangzhou. A consulting contract on her phone. Perhaps a child doing homework beside her. Perhaps a full-time job she has not yet quit.Perhaps a second business idea she hasn’t told anyone about.

She is not waiting for someone to give her a seat at the table. She is building another table. 

And the numbers suggest that she is part of something much larger.

Women are becoming one of the most dynamic forces in entrepreneurship.

In the United States, women-owned businesses numbered approximately 14.2 million in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, generating about $2.8 trillion in receipts.

Black entrepreneurship has been rising too.

The Small Business Administration reported that Black business ownership had doubled since 2019, while women’s business ownership was increasing at nearly twice the pace of men’s during the period it examined.

And a 2024 Gusto study found that women accounted for 44% of new business owners in its survey, up dramatically from 29% in 2019.

Black or African American entrepreneurs represented 5% of new business owners in 2023, nearly twice their pre-pandemic share.

But here is where the conversation needs to become more sophisticated. Starting a business is not the same thing as building a business. Opening an Instagram page is not a business model. Getting a logo is not a business model. Having customers is not necessarily a business model. The real question is:

Can the woman turn her idea into an enterprise that survives without consuming her entire life?

That is where modern business development begins.

From hustle to architecture

Many women begin businesses from necessity. A job disappears. A child needs flexibility. A salary is no longer enough. A career has stalled.  Or a woman realizes that the skills she has spent twenty years accumulating could be worth considerably more outside traditional employment.

For Black women, entrepreneurship can also represent a response to structural barriers.

Research from Wells Fargo’s Investing in Women-Owned Businesses report found that Black women-owned employer businesses have been growing in employment and revenue, while also facing greater barriers to capital.

Black women-owned employer firms in its analysis had the highest average number of employees among women-owned employer categories—9.4 employees—yet financing constraints can prevent businesses from reaching their full potential.

That contradiction deserves attention. The woman is capable of creating jobs. She simply needs capital, systems and markets that allow her to scale.

Stop building yourself a job

One of the most important transitions in entrepreneurship happens when the founder realizes: I cannot be the business. 

If every customer needs her personally, she does not own a scalable company. She owns a demanding job.

Business development means creating processes. A customer-service process. A sales process. An accounting process. A hiring process. A marketing calendar. A supplier system. A pricing strategy. A way to measure what is working.

The woman who can document how her business operates can eventually train somebody else to operate it. That is freedom.

And freedom is one of the great luxuries of entrepreneurship.

Know what you are actually selling

A surprising number of businesses sell products without understanding the problem they solve.

A woman might say: I sell skincare. But that is a crowded market.

Another woman who has done her business development woman says: I create premium skincare formulated specifically for melanated skin and designed for women experiencing the dryness and sensitivity that can accompany midlife.

-Now we have positioning.

Another woman who invests in the Business Development Says:

I provide skincare education and products for Black women over 40 who want science-backed solutions without bleaching agents or harsh formulations.

-Now we have a market.

The question is not simply: What do you make? It is: Who desperately needs it, and why should she choose you?  That distinction can transform a small business.

Know your numbers

The glamorous side of entrepreneurship is branding. The less glamorous side is arithmetic. Every business owner should know, at minimum:

What does it cost to acquire a customer? How much does that customer spend? What is the gross margin?

How often do customers return? How much cash is sitting in inventory? How long does it take to get paid?

Which product makes the most profit? Which product merely looks popular? A business can have spectacular revenue and still lose money.

Revenue is not wealth. Profit is what allows a business to breathe. And cash flow is what keeps it alive.

The opportunity hiding in government contracts

This is one of the least discussed opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

Government procurement.

In the United States, the federal government has programs designed to increase opportunities for women-owned and disadvantaged small businesses.

The Women-Owned Small Business program can provide eligible companies access to certain set-aside federal contracts.

Businesses that qualify as economically disadvantaged women-owned businesses may have access to additional opportunities.

Then there is the 8(a) Business Development Program, designed to help eligible socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses compete for federal contracting opportunities while receiving training, counseling, mentoring and technical assistance.

This is important because many entrepreneurs spend years trying to find individual customers when there are institutional buyers purchasing at scale.

In Africa and across the Caribbean-many governments have established portals for doing business and procurement, yet very few women owned African businesses actually participate or have the ability to grasp this opportunity.

And his is where the value of Networking and Workshops become life for an A Woman Owned Business in Africa.

Schools. Hospitals. Prisons. Government agencies. Universities. Large corporations. Nonprofits. International organizations, All Need Your Business.

The mature entrepreneur learns to ask: Who already has a budget for what I sell?

That question can change a business. And the opportunity isn’t limited to America.

African and Caribbean entrepreneurs should be looking for equivalent procurement, supplier-development, women-owned-business, export and SME programs in their own countries.

Build Beyond Your Borders

The interne has created a smaller world making selling across borders an opportunity our mothers could only  dream of. A Black woman in Lagos can sell to London. A woman in Kingston can serve Toronto.

A designer in Nairobi can sell to Atlanta. A consultant in Philadelphia can work with clients in Johannesburg.

Technology has made geography less restrictive-but only for businesses prepared to operate professionally across borders.

That means proper invoices, Contracts. Payment systems, Taxes, Shipping arrangements, Intellectual-property protection, Customer data protection, Currency management And professional financial records.

The global Black consumer is not one market. She is a network of markets.

And that network is hungry for businesses that understands her and her needs and desires.’

The Capital Problem

One of the hardest truths about entrepreneurship is that a brilliant idea can remain small simply because the founder cannot finance growth.

Black women continue to face disproportionate barriers to financing, according to research on women-owned businesses. That makes financial literacy part of business development. The entrepreneur should understand the difference between:

Bootstrapping, Debt, Equity, Grants, Purchase-order financing, Asset-backed lending, Crowdfunding, Strategic investors And retained earnings.

Not every business needs investors.

Some businesses should remain privately owned and grow from cash flow.

Others require substantial capital to scale. The goal is not to chase money. It is to understand which kind of money fits the business.

Her age may be her advantage

There is another reason the rise of women entrepreneurs is so interesting in Her Golden Era.

Many women discover entrepreneurship later. At 35, 45,55 and even 65

By then, she has something a twenty-five-year-old founder may not possess:

Context.

She knows people. She understands negotiation. She has worked inside organizations. She has watched businesses fail. She understands customers. She may have professional credentials. She may own property.

She may have a network spanning several countries. She knows what she does not want.

That is not a disadvantage. It is intellectual capital.

The mature woman should therefore stop asking whether she is too old to start.

She should ask:

What can I build with everything I already know?

The next level

The entrepreneurial revolution among Black women is already underway. The next revolution is not simply getting more women to register companies. It is helping those companies become valuable assets.

Businesses that employ people. Businesses that generate intellectual property. Businesses that own property.

Businesses that export. Businesses that win contracts.  Businesses that can be passed to children. Businesses that can be sold. Businesses that create retirement income.  Businesses that become part of a family’s wealth strategy.

That is the difference between entrepreneurship as survival and entrepreneurship as wealth creation.

So, to the woman with the idea scribbled in her notebook:

Start. But don’t stop at starting. Learn your numbers. Protect your intellectual property. Build systems.

Study your customer. Find institutional buyers. Explore certifications. Understand capital. Document your processes. Hire strategically. Think globally.

And eventually, build something that can operate without you standing over it every morning.

Because the goal was never simply to become your own boss. The goal is to become the owner of an asset that creates freedom.  And perhaps that is the most exciting chapter of all.

Black women are already proving that they can start businesses.

Now it is time to show the world what happens when they are given or create for themselves—the resources to scale them. That is not a side hustle. That is economic power.  And she is just getting started.