Consider a company with 80 employees, offices in three cities and several million dollars in annual sales. Its founder commands a large online audience, attracts media coverage and gives the gets early customers that an unknown business would struggle to…
Many aspiring founders begin with a sheet of paper and an order to “think big.” Soon it is covered with fashionable industries, personal interests and predictions about the next big thing. The exercise may produce ideas. It says little about…
Bad advice often survives because it once worked. A founder protected an idea until the patent filing was ready. Another built the first version with savings and kept full ownership. Someone hired a cousin who became the best operator in…
By 2018, most artists in Jorja Smith’s position would have taken the label meeting. Drake had put her on two More Life tracks and brought her out on tour. She’d opened for Bruno Mars, worked with Stormzy, landed a song…
The headline number is encouraging: Black Americans owned about 4.4 million businesses without employees in 2023. Those businesses brought in $128.7 billion, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. Then comes the number that changes the story. Roughly 201,000…
The United States has millions of Black-owned businesses. Most employ nobody other than the owner. In 2023, about 4.4 million Black-owned businesses without employees brought in $130.9 billion. Spread evenly, that is less than $30,000 each. The figure needs care…
