Black Girls Consult TOO!
The Black Girls Consult Too! podcast provides a business resource for women in consulting, especially women of color, to successfully navigate a hyper-masculine, highly competitive industry. It demystifies how to start and grow a thriving consulting business by simplifying the process and helping to avoid common pitfalls that can derail even the best ideas. Each episode is crafted to dive deep into consulting practice, business strategy, mindset, and more. For more information, visit www.excelatconsulting.com/podcast.
Black Girls Consult TOO!
Episode 114: Achieving Long-Term Entrepreneurial Success as a Woman of Color in Consulting
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There’s a stark contrast between the number of new businesses launched by women of color in consulting and those that flourish into maturity. As women of color, we confront systemic barriers and cultural and economic pressures that make our journeys more challenging. However, there are tools and resources that we can use to our advantage to adapt, adjust, and excel.
Join us for a conversation that is not just about overcoming, but about building a legacy and changing outdated narratives, making this a must-listen episode for every woman of color striving to create a lasting and prosperous business.
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Here's a statistic. I bet you didn't know that in the United States, an astounding 17% of Black women are in the process of starting or running a new business. This is actually a statistic that I was reading in the Harvard Business Review not too long ago I think the article was from 2021, but it gave this statistic that sounds really, really good, especially when they go on to say that, compared to 10% of white women and 15% of white men, we're off to a great start. But the article continued, and what it shared was something that left me just feeling this urgent sense of need to, number one, do this episode, but to move faster and more purposefully in my mission, because only 3% of black women were credited with running mature businesses. So that means we lost 80% of the original 17% that we had and ended up faring far less in terms of our success compared to our white counterparts. What in the world happened? Well, I have some thoughts about what possibly could have influenced this, specifically in the consulting industry, but then also I want us to talk about how we can avoid being part of the statistics and instead creating another one where we fare much better. So if you're interested in this discussion and this resonate with you, then tune in. Let's get started. Then tune in, let's get started, they say. The odds are stacked against us as women, especially women of color, trying to thrive in the consulting world. But rather than wait for a seat at the table that may never come, what if we build our own tables? What if we channeled our talents into guiding each other towards the success we deserve?
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Black Girls Consulting Podcast. I'm your host, dr Angelina Davis, and I've walked the path from healthcare consultant to a mentor for women like you, ambitious, unstoppable and ready to make waves in the consulting world. This podcast is your go-to spot for all things entrepreneurial consulting. For us as women, especially women of color, think of it as your weekly coffee date with a friend who's here to dish out real talk on building a solid business, elevating your thought leadership and mastering that all important mindset. And let's not forget we're doing all of this while balancing day jobs, family life or running teams. Yes, we can do it all. So if you're ready to dive into how you can grow a thriving consultancy or get strategies and insights that actually fit your busy lifestyle, then you're in the right place. Grab your coffee, tea or, hey, even a glass of wine, and let's get started. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Black Girls Console 2 podcast. I'm your host, dr Angelina Davis, and I am excited to have this conversation today because I you look, I have a lot on my mind when it comes to this article that I was recently reading in Harvard Business Review.
Speaker 1:It's actually an older article, so it's not like it just came out, but I just saw it not too long ago, and one of the reasons why this stood out so much is because I think that we often see a lot of people starting businesses online, or maybe even you know mom and pop shops and larger businesses that have storefronts. We see those come up and pop up all the time, and we see a lot of successful women of color who are behind all of that. I can speak for being here in Atlanta, this very common place to see that, and I know it can look a little bit different depending upon what city you're in and kind of what you have around you, but it's not unusual for us to see people starting on their entrepreneurship journey. What was so shocking to me, though, is when I read the statistic of how many actually ran mature businesses. So when you look at that particular data and you get to this point where you realize that you know. If you look at the point from which you're going from 17% of black women starting businesses new businesses to 3% running mature businesses that's an 80% drop, and that steep drop off occurs for a number of different reasons.
Speaker 1:Now, in this particular article, they do talk about how they interviewed more than 12,000 people, of which 1,700 of those people identified as entrepreneurs, and there were 1,200 of those who owned established businesses. They identified several possible reasons why this may be occurring, and I want us to think about some of the reasons they gave and how that applies to our industry as consultants and ways that we can navigate around this. Now, one explanation that they had was that when they looked at the type of businesses that most Black women entrepreneurs started, they were either in retail, wholesale, or health, education, government or social services, and this was vastly different from our white counterparts. So that was 61% of Black women had businesses in those areas, as opposed to 47% of white women and 32% of white men. So what they attributed this decrease to is the fact that, in most cases, the businesses that many black women were starting were small, informal businesses that had low margins in a very crowded and competitive environment, and so it was very difficult for them to sustain, remain competitive and make money over time.
Speaker 1:Now I do believe that this is actually one area where consulting truly, truly does win out, if done right, because in this instance, consulting offers the opportunity to create a business that has very high margins, mainly because you're not dealing with a lot of overhead stock. You don't have to have massive teams. If you are smart about how you develop and structure your business, it can actually be one that's able to generate significant profit without having a very low margin. So, from that standpoint, you're able to make more money. That allows you to be financially secure for an extended period of time. And then also, when you think about competition, the beauty in consulting is that we have the ability to structure our services and our offers to be more competitive so that they can stand out.
Speaker 1:A lot of what we do leans into our unique expertise, and this is one of the reasons why I'm such a huge advocate of finding what you do best and leaning deeply into that, rather than trying to go along with what you do best and leaning deeply into that rather than trying to go along with what you see everyone else doing in your space, mainly because you want to create an environment and a scenario where your business stands out, where you become the go-to person for one particular thing, especially when you're getting started. This makes it a lot easier for you to win over business. That is going to translate into more clients, it's going to translate into greater revenue and with the ability to have higher margins, and if you keep your systems lean meaning that you don't have a lot of overhead, you don't have a lot of unnecessary team then that is going to allow you to become more profitable. That extends your time and your success. So a lot of opportunity exists in our space to really overcome this one particular obstacle, because it's all about how we're thinking of the way we structure our businesses to be successful.
Speaker 1:One thing I share in my program, the Consulting Code, is that building your core offer works to your benefit in so many ways. Now, one of the reasons why it can be extremely helpful is because it helps to control some of these external costs that may come into play when we're creating more bespoke or highly tailored and specialized services and offers and proposals that we may devise for certain clients when we can avoid doing that, as often it creates our ability to control and contain our costs. That means, more than likely, you're going to have fewer things that you need to outsource, fewer subcontractors you may have to bring on, you're able to get things done in a faster way, which also also remember time saves you money, and by having things that you're doing consistently for all clients, you can use templates and automations and other tools that help you to keep that overhead low. You know, one of the things I think is really important is that we have to start focusing on how we build our business to last, meaning that not just serve clients in the moment, not just serve clients when the economy is doing well, but how do we create a structure in our business so that we can weather storms when they arise? Because often what happens is that many of these other entrepreneurs may have been doing extremely well when times were good, but when that competition ramps up, when the costs in terms of inflation goes up, then their low margin doesn't allow for them to be able to navigate that financially, and that's a huge part of building the level of financial stability that we need. So that number one, our business can survive, but then two so that we can maintain the lifestyle. That number one. You likely be in a custom of living, but then offering the things that you want to offer to your family or to your children, or vacations, or whatever it may be the things that you truly care about most. They need the financial support, and by us thinking ahead of time of how we can create a business that is more stable financially, it's going to lead to a greater chance of us being able to mature that business over the long term. So this is something that we have to start thinking about a lot earlier and not waiting until we reach a certain level of success before we start taking a lot of these things into account. They need to be part of our early build process, because how we build early on is really going to dictate what we're able to do later. Think about ways that you can begin to streamline your offers. Everything more than likely that you're offering now is not necessary for you to deliver the result or the outcome that your clients desire.
Speaker 1:We many times, myself included fall into this trap of adding on more and more and more, trying to improve our client experience, wanting to make sure that we're offering tremendous value and in the process of doing that level of service and trying to improve our offerings to that degree, we make them a little bit cumbersome and many times these are things that most often our client will not notice if they are no longer present, because in reality, the simpler and streamlined your approach is, the more valuable it becomes to your client. They're not looking for a lot of stuff. We get stuck on the items, the things that we can provide, because we've always been trained to say we in terms of just typically in traditional culture, corporate culture as well as in school, have been trained that the more that we do, the better. But in this instance it really is the more that we can help simplify, streamline and make it easier for someone to achieve a goal, the better. So a lot of what we are spending money, time, energy and resources in providing may not be required. Think about how you can simplify. Also, think about what you can do to provide the outcome without bringing on a lot of team. How can you reduce your overhead so that you don't have to outsource so much? These are just a few examples of what will be helpful to consider so that you are making sure that you are mindful of what is going out in terms of expenses in your business compared to what is actually coming in. We want to reduce the amount going out and increase and improve what's coming in so that we do achieve our financial goals. So this is one starting point for us that can be vastly different from what at least this article says is the negative result that can potentially occur as a woman of color going into entrepreneurship. So I just wanna pause right here and let you know that I have a free five-day email course that helps to outline what it takes to start a successful consulting business. So if you are aspiring to break free from your nine to five or you just want to get your business jumpstarted and up and running quickly, this can actually be super helpful for you. It's called the Consulting Mastery Blueprint. I have dropped the link in the description. All you have to do is click it, download and get started Now.
Speaker 1:Another possible explanation that is cited in this study is access to capital. I think we are very much aware and mindful that it is hard to find money when you're starting up, that access to capital can make all the difference, and even when you consider the fact that you can bootstrap or use your nine to five income from that in order to get your business started. Money from relatives and friends and family, all these avenues of being able to generate the money needed in order to fund the start of the business. It's important that we have access to some level of capital. It can make the difference in whether or not the business even gets off the ground. But let's be honest, it takes money in order to just put the foundational pieces together, and a service-based business is one of the least expensive startups that you can have. So, although we are in a industry that really is, it's rather easy to get into and to start a business as a consultant, we have to be smart when we do it, because the access to money it just isn't there. I mean, when you look at the data, it shows that, as Black people especially but it does also pertain to just people in color in general we tend to take on a higher level of debt when we're going to college. So you're not only in a situation where you have less access to the capital that you need, but you also have less money readily available because you're paying out in terms of being able to pay off debts such as your education.
Speaker 1:It can be very challenging, and this impacts us because it can be distracting. Instead of being able to focus on the basics of just getting a business started whether that is determining whether or not you're going to build a website, what it's going to look like, how you're going to land clients, what conferences you may want to go to in order to meet people in a network you may not have the ability to do that, especially if you're trying to build while you're holding down a job, raising a family, doing all of these different things that keep you from being able to devote the same amount of time. This is why I always like to remind my clients that we are actually adapting what typically works for starting a consulting business. We're adapting those concepts, those traditional approaches, to our lives, because when all of these things were established initially, they didn't have us in mind. So many of these challenges are not necessarily new, but they were not the same challenges that maybe our cisgender, white male counterparts face. Let's just be honest. So it looks different for us to navigate this journey, which is why we have to take a different approach Now, one of the ways that we can work through this limited access to capital is to control our spending, is to build so that it does not require a lot of money from the start.
Speaker 1:This takes thinking more creatively about how we're able to generate the visibility that we need. It's one of the reasons why I always say that the digital space is a huge benefit to us. It's an asset when we think about our ability to go online, to market our services organically and to be able to establish our own platforms, that we don't have to be invited into inner rooms, we don't have to travel across country. We can now land business globally, even via a Zoom meeting. It's something that we can work to our advantage and it can help us overcome much of what held us back previously because we did not have access to that capital. So, unlike someone who is starting a business, let's say, for instance, as a restaurant or maybe a flower shop or a gym even these are all brick and mortar type locations where they have to pay overhead. They may have to hire employees. There are so much more that goes into getting that business off the ground. With consulting, you can make tens of thousands of dollars by the use of your mind and a Zoom meeting. Think about that. That's huge.
Speaker 1:So I want us to begin to really appreciate what we are able to do through consulting, but then also how we are designing our business. I want us to be very mindful that we are utilizing these channels to overcome some of these obstacles. So, although being online whether it's LinkedIn or Instagram or whatever other YouTube, whatever platform you're on although that can be a challenge sometimes, dealing with algorithms, it can be frustrating to have to navigate and change what we're doing because all of a sudden, it stops working, it's free and change what we're doing because all of a sudden it stops working. It's free. It's something that we are utilizing through the investment of time early on, because this capital may or may not be available in order to reach the people that we need to reach, in order to become more visible, to expand our brand awareness and to be able to land the clients that we know that we can serve. So I want us to think about the way that we are approaching that aspect of our business differently, because it really is something that is available to us in terms of being online that can help us overcome this barrier of not having the same capital that many have when they get started.
Speaker 1:Now, the last thing I want to kind of touch on a little bit is the racial inequities that exist, racial and gender. Let's be honest, there are not very many Black women and women of color in general that make it to a high level in consulting, if you actually look, or in the corporate space in general. I always go back to the McKinsey annual study that's done looking at women in the workplace, and the most we've ever had in terms of those who have reached the C-suite in women in the workplace is 25%, and Black women represent less than 5%. When you think about that on the grand scale, in the grand scheme of things, it's minuscule compared to our white counterparts, white male counterparts. So this is something that we always have to keep in mind when we are trying to navigate the space. Now, it doesn't mean that we use this as a crutch, no, but we want to be mindful that there are hurdles that exist if you are a person of color navigating in the consulting industry and that, no matter how much education you have, what degrees you have and certifications, there are still going to be some hurdles that really do tie to our sex and our race Now.
Speaker 1:With that being said, we want to think about how we can structure our businesses to overcome those obstacles, because, although they exist, they don't have to play a major role in our business. And the easiest way to change this dynamic, where we increase the level of diversity that we have in the consulting space, is for us to also be successful. You need to succeed so that you can change that landscape. Your business has to survive so it can hire others that look like you. Your business needs to be part of the conversation so that other people know that you exist, have interest in what you do and then decide to walk a similar path. So we have a role to play when it comes to being successful, so that we can bring others into the fold.
Speaker 1:We have to think about how we can be around for the long term, and I know when I give the mission of our business. When I talk about Accelerate Consulting, I always state that Accelerate Consulting is here to increase the likelihood of success and longevity for women in consulting. That's the purpose, that's the goal and that's why this is the goal, because there's so many barriers that are often in place that makes it very difficult for us to normally be successful and survive over the long term. Just look at the number of businesses that you know of that went out of business following the pandemic. Think about it, and if you have your business on pause right now because you've been waiting for the perfect time to get everything back up and running after you may have hit a lull, think about what you're going through right now. Think about the fact that many of the people that we know personally are not working in their businesses right now due to some of the obstacles that they have faced even in the last year. It can be difficult, so we have to support one another if we're going to navigate this journey for an extended period of time.
Speaker 1:The goal is to become financially stable, to build a level of stability and wealth so that our businesses can then become legacy businesses, so that they are able to grow and evolve, not just for a couple of years or a few years, but for decades and decades, generations and generations. That's possible through the work that you're doing right now, and I think that the more that we are aware that these challenges exist and don't just turn a blind eye to them, then we're going to be in a better position to overcome these challenges and find the success that we're looking for. But it starts with us adapting the way that we are currently practicing, or have traditionally practiced, to what is necessary for us to overcome the obstacles that we face. A lot of the work that I do with clients centers around adaptation, resilience, around adaptation resilience how we can navigate this space differently. The systems that we work on are systems that are going to overcome not having a big network is going to overcome not having a lot of capital or having to work a nine to five with kids. It's going to overcome much of what you face in terms of lack of diversity or inclusion in your space. That's the work that we do, and the reason why we do that work is because these are the areas that, not just emotionally, I feel is a need, but these are the areas that the data shows that there is a need.
Speaker 1:But I can say that consulting offers a very unique opportunity to overcome all these obstacles financial stability, to be able to buy into the financial freedom that you desire so that you can be with your family and chase the dreams that you have, and to then achieve longevity and success because you're able to remain profitable over time and your knowledge, your intellectual property. What you can offer is something that will not easily be replicated, nor will it go out of style per se, because we will be constantly adapting, iterating, evolving and innovating so that we remain relevant in our fields. So, listen, you have chosen the right thing and now all you need is the support around you so that you can succeed. You need the support systems of people, the structures, in order for things to be easier, so that you don't have to stop, so that you don't become part of that 80% that dropped off. We want to expand that number. It's no longer going to be 3% with my mature businesses. We're changing that, because that 3%, that's some stuff and that's going to change. We're going to change that. I have faith in the fact that that is already changing.
Speaker 1:But I hope this episode has been helpful for you. I hope it helps you think about your journey differently. I hope you are able to find that encouragement and that motivation to just push harder not harder in a hustle way, but harder in a determined way to allow your business, your dreams and your goals to truly, truly catch fire and to take on a life of his own. Until next time, take care. Thank you for tuning in to the Black Girls Console 2 podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave your review on Apple Podcasts, subscribe and share it with a friend. We're on a mission to increase the success and longevity of women in consulting, and you can help us do just that. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so let's connect at Dr Angelina Davis on Instagram or LinkedIn, and don't forget to visit excel at consultingcom for more information to support your consulting journey. Until next time, keep breaking glass ceiling. All right, take care.
