Black women are starting businesses and getting into entrepreneurship like never before as the face of female entrepreneurship is becoming a lot less white. The Kappa Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc hopes to open even more doors by hosting “Entrepreneurship in Unprecedented Times,” a virtual event, tonight from 6:30-8:30 p.m., for women interested in starting a business or becoming an entrepreneur.
“We really want to really raise awareness on this issue of business ownership as a viable outcome. Not just for black women, even though that is the population we are focused on right now, but we want to essentially just drive home the awareness and the aspect of financial independence and legacy,” Enid Glenn, chair of the AKA’s overall target Building Your Economic Legacy, tells Madison365.
“We’re into this target of Building Your Economic Legacy and this is one of the aspects to that that our sorority has been working on,” Glenn adds.
Building Your Economic Legacy is one of the five program targets for the AKA’s for 2018-2022 and emphasizes financial planning, asset accumulation, and wealth-building including savings and investments, managing debt, and improving credit.
As part of tonight’s “Entrepreneurship in Unprecedented Times,” Kappa Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc will be hosting virtual panel discussions to encourage entrepreneurship and provide practical business approaches for women.
“This event is all about encouraging and promoting entrepreneurship,” Glenn says. “We’re highlighting and promoting successful African-American female business owners who are emphasizing their goals and development.”
The first panel is comprised of women who have been in business for over 20 years. They include Hyacinth Henderson, Diane George, Alyce Herdon and Adonica Randall.
“The second panel is aimed at those who are a little newer to business and those women will talk about the road that they have traveled,” Glenn says.
Those panelists will include Candi Cyclar of the Candi Cyclar Agency, Camille Carter, president of the Black Chamber of Commerce, and Valencia Riley of the Sophisticated Lady.
“These women in the second panel are a little newer and have fewer years in business than the first panel, but all have valuable information to impart as they discuss the road that they’ve traveled,” Glenn says.
The idea for the event stemmed from viewing the recent limited series on Netflix inspired by the life of Madam CJ Walker, the first documented black millionaire and quintessential black entrepreneur.
“This inspired us to think about ways to further promote awareness on the subject of black entrepreneurship, which as I mentioned is in line with AKA’s target of Building Your Economic Legacy,” Glenn says. “Under the leadership of our chapter president, Nichelle Nichols, we also have organized workshops in conjunction with UW Credit Union around the topics of personal financial planning and credit monitoring.
“These workshops have been held in the community for various workforce training programs, in collaboration with the YWCA and the Urban League of Greater Madison at their respective locations,” she adds. “The other aspects of our Economic Legacy target are aimed at support for homeless families.”
Sabrina Robins, who leads the AKA efforts with entrepreneurship, will be the moderator of the panels.
“It is possible to emerge from the pandemic with a strong and profitable business. This is really Sabrina Robins’ brainchild who had a subcommittee develop this event in a very short time and worked to bring together all of these knowledgable and accomplished women who will deliver this great product for people online,” Glenn says.
“We are interested in getting the word out,” she adds. “This is open to everyone. It will be recorded, too, so people will be able to look back upon it.”
There’s no need to register for this event. People can click on the link whenever they want and join either panel or both.
“It’s great that there are two panels. The first one is the master class aspect of thriving in extraordinary business times where these ladies are going to share their experiences with us,” Glenn says. “If that’s what you’re interested in, you can jump in for that. If you’re more in the arena of start-up or less than five years in the business world, you might want to join panel 2. If you’re in the business of financial planning, there are plenty of top financial advisor coaching programs that will help you better serve your clients and develop the best strategies for sustaining and building your financial advisory business.
“Or, you can experience the whole thing. It’s a two-hour event and you can jump in and out whenever you like. There should be something for everyone.”
For more information about “Entrepreneurship in Unprecedented Times,” click here.
