NEW HAVEN — When Sheena Postell noticed that everything was going virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she took advantage of the opportunity by starting a social media company earlier this year.
Although Postell was reluctant to quit her full-time job to pursue entrepreneurship, she said the pandemic pushed everyone against the wall to the point where people began to believe in their dreams. Her startup is called Bilonn’s Vision.
“At the end of the day, failure is just an experience added to my resume — so if it fails, it fails, but if it goes, it goes,” Postell said. “I’d never know unless I tried.”
About half a year since Postell put about $1,200 to $2,500 into her business, she said she’s seen a huge turnaround and it was “the best decision I ever made.”
“I definitely see us at the table,” Postell said of the future she envisions for black entrepreneurs. “I definitely see black women and men of entrepreneurship making a big, bigger statement in this country and more so that corporations can open the door for us and take more seats at the table.”
As Black Business Month comes to a close, local owners reflected on the challenges they faced starting a business and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting community support and networking as keys to success.
Between 2017-19, black-owned businesses grew across all sectors of the economy, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Through the pandemic, black businesses saw a 38 percent increase in creation compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Eyewear company Positivelee started in 2020 when owner Daleesha Bethea was laid off from her 9-to-5 job. Bethea said he likes sunglasses, so he turned it into a business. The process was relatively easy, she said, given the state of social media.
“I get it from my dad,” Bethea said. “I’m such a pushover. When I have a thought, an idea, I would go for it. So it wasn’t difficult at all. I just pushed myself.”
Athena and Melissa Murphy, co-owners of Lip Lock, started their cosmetics company in 2019, but the pandemic delayed their launch in April of this year due to supply chain and transportation issues.
However, the sisters said their business has grown since then, in part due to networking and community events. Melissa Murphy said there are more resources out there in terms of capital and support for black entrepreneurs than she thought there would be.
“Sometimes, it can be a little limited, but the more you network, the more you do events like this, it opens up a lot more resources for all of us,” said Melissa Murphy, noting that all entrepreneurs The next thing you need to do is reach out.
The “it” Murphy spoke of was New Haven’s first annual Black Wall Street Festival, held Aug. 27 in Temple Plaza as part of a broader effort to foster and support inclusive economic growth and equitable arts programming. . Business owners said events like this help them build a network.
Shatea Person, an author who was at the New Haven festival to showcase her first children’s book, When I Grow Up!, said if someone has a product or an idea, there will always be opportunities out there that they can help
The book she featured aims to uplift black children, sending a message that they can be anything they want to be. She said she wrote this book since her son, who is now in high school, was in kindergarten.
When Person decided to put aside his fear of failure and start thinking about publishing, it was easy for him to seek out freelance illustrators and support through black entrepreneur events.
“Once you get into the right circles or wake up with the right people, those opportunities sometimes just fall into your lap,” Person said.
Alana Ladson, an artist who has sold works that empower black people for nearly a decade, said it is possible to start a business as a person of color, noting that the most important things are pushing for new opportunities and networking.
She started her business because she wanted to portray a queer, magical representation of members of the BIPOC community—something that society looked up to at the time.
The pandemic hit Ladson hard, as the main way she sold, other than online, was to attend pop-up events, all of which were canceled for nearly two years. Now that everything has turned around, Ladson said the future of black-owned businesses is bright.
“I think there’s going to be a lot more people that are out here doing their thing,” Ladson said. “People are so talented, black women in particular, so talented, multifaceted.”
Supporting local businesses, especially black-owned businesses, also translates into supporting generational wealth and employment for their communities, Melissa Murphy said.
“They will all go back to the community,” she said. “Your community is where you came from. There you started. So if you want to get out of the community, you have to support the community to show that anyone can make it.”
Person said New Haven business owners can benefit from each other as well as the community, and that events like Black Wall Street would help portray the city to outsiders that New Haven is something else.
“There’s more to New Haven than what you see on the news, there’s more than just shootings,” she said. “It’s more than just where Yale is. There are so many wonderful things happening in New Haven.”