Trending stats show how owners thrive in health, beauty and fitness industries.
Penny Dickerson

Survey urban neighborhoods in metropolitan cities across America and your visual acuity will be drawn to the innovation and entrepreneurship of small businesses operated by savvy Blacks. From the early origins of FUBU (For Us By Us) started by Daymond Johnson in his mother’s home in Hollis, Queens to the humble beginnings of Lisa Price whose first Carol’s Daughter products were kitchen-cooked atop a Brooklyn stove, Blacks continue to thrive in small business.
Guidant Financial provided credible statistics that illustrated the habits, traits and financial framework of minority businesses. Accordingly, its close of 2019 reporting demonstrated that Black small business owners opened more health, beauty and fitness businesses than in year’s prior. Further, that trifecta surpassed business services as the previous year’s most popular industry for Black businesses.
According to Guidant, “There are more Black female small business owners than the average by a solid 15 percentage points. Thirty-eight percent of Black small business owners are women – a big distinction from the average small business owner, of whom only 23% are women. This percentage hasn’t changed since last year, suggesting that though the number of Black women in small business is greater than the average, it has hit the same plateau of growth seen in the average small business owner populace.”

When Black women convened in Miami Beach last year for the annual Who is the Bawse Conference, self-made female entrepreneurs proved why Black Girl Magic in the small business arena is more than simply pulling a proverbial rabbit out of a hat.
From multi-millionaire and business entrepreneurial maven Courtney Adeleye, whose most impressive trick move was taking just five years to turn $500 into over $50 million in sales to Jesseca Dupart, founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope Hair and Alycyone Gunn, The Six Figure Chick, Black women in small business proved their worth.
Reports show that from 2012 to 2017, minority-owned small businesses grew by 79%. However, from 1997 to 2015, the number of businesses owned by Black women grew 322% (making them the largest growing group of entrepreneurs at that time).
A Black small business owner is a happy example of the American Dream. The leading incentives Blacks shared regarding their desire to be small business owners were to “pursue my own passion,” a sentiment shared by 28% while 27% were “ready to be my own boss.” Additional perspectives were that an “opportunity presented itself” and “dissatisfaction with corporate America.” The latter two were respectively 17% and 11%.