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THE CAKE
4 Ways Optimism Is a Competitive Advantage for Black Female Founders
Number two is one we all need
There’s no denying that African American women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States. In less than two decades, Black women-owned businesses have increased by 322%. And in almost every industry — from sustainable food to renewable energy to honest media to smart retail to community connections — Black women are choosing to fix what they see is broken. But with fewer resources being allocated to Black women, how are our startups, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations growing in count and outperforming our peers? Simple: Black women use optimism as a competitive advantage.
1. We are happier building our own futures and betting on ourselves, which in turn reduces founder stress
As business owners and Black women, we seem to always be operating from a place of lack: lack of fair pay, lack of resources, lack of work cultures that value our uniqueness, lack of time to accomplish our personal goals, lack of sleep, lack of fair promotion, lack of family-friendly policies in corporate America, lack of self-care… the list goes on.
Margot Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, shared in a recent Fortune article that “women of color, when you look at the statistics, are impacted more significantly by all of the negative factors that women face. It’s not surprising that they have chosen to invest in themselves.” Charting our own destiny as Black female founders is good for business.
The 2019 “State of Women-Owned Businesses Report” commissioned by American Express reminds us that we own and operate 21% of all companies in the United States, a figure that is larger than the total number of firms owned by all minority women combined. Not only are Black women creating millions of jobs that didn’t before exist, but we are responsible for injecting billions of dollars in revenue annually into the American economy.
When Black women choose optimism, we place ourselves (and those around us) on the road to emotional freedom…
