Black women have created employment, started businesses, changed industries, redefined television, and more throughout history—oftentimes without receiving much praise. In fact, after Hispanic women, they constitute the group of women entrepreneurs with the second-fastest growth.
As admirable as this may sound, black women entrepreneurs had to overcome the greatest obstacles to get where they are now. Looking back a few years, they confronted the big hurdles to obtaining finance. However, things have changed, and people’s attitudes about leadership have significantly improved.
Today, black women are not just one of the fastest-growing entrepreneurial groups but also account for more than 40% of all new women-owned firms established in the US each year. From entertainment to the business world and everything in-between, there is no shortage of genius-level performers who have not only left their imprint, but paved the way for those walking in their shoes to do the same.
To highlight their fortitude, we are featuring 13 successful black entrepreneur women 2024 who have made waves in a variety of industries and are role models for a large portion of the younger generation.
Keisha Greaves launched her own clothing business, Girls Chronically Rock, after discovering she had muscular dystrophy. She did this to encourage other people with chronic illnesses to have confidence in themselves and not allow their sickness define who they are. She established a blog and later opened an online shop where she sold premium graphic shirts with motivating themes for the Black disabled community. She now not only designs clothing but also doubles as a motivational speaker for the Black disabled community, telling her story in classrooms and on industry panels.
She founded Walker’s Legacy, which began as a symposium for female entrepreneurs of colour but has grown into a resource and support group with programming and career life. At age 26, she founded her first business in consulting and business development and struggled to be taken seriously in the old boys’ network. This was the beginning of her route to Walker’s Legacy. Today, it is a robust global network of women in business actively building entry points and platforms for women of colour in the workplace.
Tiffany Aliche is the founder of two prosperous entities: the Live Richer Academy, an online school focused on financial literacy, and The Budgetnista, her speaking, teaching, and writing business. It’s not surprise she earns a living by discussing money given her upbringing. Aliche grew up with financial education as basically a way of life. However, instead of the conventional one-on-one match, she sought out to the NGOs she had served with while unemployed and obtained a job teaching financial and budgeting seminars with the United Way. She currently runs a million-dollar business and serves as an inspiration to many.
The background of Arlan Hamilton differs from that of other venture capital group founders and managing directors. When she worked on branding for certain entrepreneurs who frequently encountered fundraising challenges due to their ethnicity and gender, she became acutely aware of the financial barriers that minorities confront. The 36-year-old mastermind behind Backstage Capital has experience in the music business—she has worked with Toni Braxton and is currently managing a singer signed to Atlantic Records. But her position as an exception offers the precise kind of disruption that the mostly white heterosexual male startup funding sector needs.
For becoming the first African American woman to lead a billion-dollar company, Janice Bryant Howroyd is widely praised, and rightfully so. The 65-year-old businessman is the founder and CEO of Act 1 Group, Inc., a Las Vegas-based staffing and consulting firm with agreements with 17,000 clients in 19 nations. The ActOne Group is the biggest privately held, minority woman-owned staffing firm established in the United States.
Tracy Reese entered the national attention after ex-First Lady Michelle Obama deemed her bright and feminine designs a privilege. More precisely, when She wore a sleeveless pink and teal dress styled by Reese to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Today, her firm Tracy Reese Designs, Inc. is renowned for ready-to-wear clothes, accessories, and home designs like linens. Along with her clothing brands, her empire has grown to include home decor, nail polish, and shoes.
Cathy Hughes, is not a big name, yet she is the founder and chairman of Urban One, Inc. Hughes is one of the wealthiest black women in America and the first African-American woman to run a publicly traded media corporation. It goes beyond radio at Urban One, Inc. In addition to its 56 radio stations, it also owns all of its subsidiaries, such as the cable television network TV One and publishing websites like The Daily Grind and Hello Beautiful.
Matthews has founded and leads Uncharted Power, a company that makes toys that produce power. Due to the soccer fandom of her family and friends in Nigeria, she first thought of the “Soccket.” It felt reasonable to have a soccer ball that might be an energy source. Since then, her firm has created the Pulse jump rope, a second energy-generating device for nations where females don’t normally play soccer. Internally, 3D printers are used to manufacture the jump ropes.
Tyra Banks is much more than simply a lovely face. This former Victoria Secret model has appeared on multiple seasons of America’s Next Top Model. She also runs Bankable Production, an independent television and film production firm. She recently launched TypeF, a Demand Media fashion and beauty website.
Although she is best known for hosting daytime talk shows, Oprah Winfrey is also making headlines as the founder of the Oprah Winfrey Network. She is the second Black woman to launch her own network (after Cathy Hughes). She also started Harpo Productions in the late 1980s. She is currently valued at over $2.7 billion per Forbes.
In order to assist businesses in capturing the tastes and attitudes of the young market, CEO Tina Wells launched the Buzz Marketing Group in 1996. Her business uses social media, trend-spotting, and other techniques for research on behalf of clients including Nike, Steve Madden, and MAC Cosmetics. In addition, Wells is the author of the books Getting It Right and Chasing Youth Culture.
Tina Knowles, the mother of singer Beyonce, has always been passionate about starting her own business. Before her daughter became famous, she established Headliners in Houston. Her two profitable clothing lines, House of Dereon and Miss Tina, which are only offered through Home Shopping Network and Walmart, are the result of her passion for fashion design today.
After becoming the first African American woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1971, Beverly Johnson made a big impression on the fashion world. More than 500 foreign magazines have had Beverly on their covers since that time. Beverly Johnson now has a self-name brand of hair wigs, hair care, skin care, and bath and body products, expanding her love of all things beautiful into the world of beauty.
That concludes our list of the 13 successful black entrepreneur women in 2024. In nations like the US, black women are poised to take on a more prominent and public role. They require a means of gaining access to long-term funding sources and solutions that will give their enterprises the chance to expand and flourish if they are to advance their voices, their careers, and realise social and economic equality.
First and foremost, the financial sector needs to acknowledge the prejudices in investing analysis that have existed for far too long and put Black women in this situation. The worth and advantages of companies led by Black female leaders must also be understood by the society.
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Business Talk is a digital business magazine that caters to CEOs, Entrepreneurs, VC, and Corporates. While working with entrepreneurs and business executives, we focus not only on their achievements. Our mission is to shed light on business entities, including their innovations, technological benchmarks, USPs, and milestones/accolades.
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