Atlanta Entrepreneurs Save Black Women-Owned Business

Black women make up 42% of all start-ups. However, that number far outweighs the quantity that raised equity, just 4%, According to LinkedIn. To bridge the gap, these two entrepreneurs made it their mission to uplift and educate black female business owners in Atlanta.

Nehemiah “Neo” Davis initially got here up with the concept to assist. The multi-talented entrepreneur connected together with his fellow business expert, David Shands, to offer the platform and reach to make an impact. Over the weekend, they brought in a whole lot of recent customers to The Sistah Shop, belonging to Aisha Taylor Issah. Rightfully so, the flash mob event went viral.

While Issah achieved a record-breaking day of sales, her business was just starting to grow. Building on this success, Davis and Shands hope to start out a movement where Black businesses feel supported by their community while celebrating our collective strength.

Both Davis and Shands spoke exclusively to BLACK UNDERTAKING about putting this mission into practice and the way we will develop it.

“We always had this vision of, ‘I want to do flash mobs in the business, and we want to buy everything that’s on the shelves.’ So I said, ‘Hey, we need to bring this to Atlanta.’ So I put it on Instagram and called Shands to get people to come,” Davis explained. “(We) came up with a story to really promote it and make it even better. And the rest is history, really. She did about $14,000 in sales, so that was her best day in business.”

He added: “Now, David and others, we’re going to offer business coaching to really help her. We’re also going to show her how to fish. It’s not just giving her money; now she’s also going to get live coaching on what she needs to do. (We’re) focused on making this thing a viable business model that will continue to work.”

For Shands, who identifies as an Entrepreneurship Coach, constructing that momentum is the opposite half of that mission. He plans to bring Issah on his podcast, where he’ll analyze her business model and offer suggestions for its sustainability and growth.

He shared, “I think the key part is education and training. So my mission is to educate entrepreneurs. That’s my thing. So when we meet, Neo does philanthropy and I do education. Because we can’t come back next month, right? So we have a platform where we can give some people a leg up. They just need a little help. But because they’ve figured it out, you can help them grow. But without education, mentorship and experience, entrepreneurs who are going through this are still going to need a handout.”

But Shands also wants to emphasise the importance of community and collaboration. No corporate sponsors wrote a check to this woman, but patrons did, buying items starting from a couple of dollars to a couple of hundred. Beyond him and Davis, the lasting message is that individuals are using their collective power to support change.

“I want to continue it because the reaction. It wasn’t the likes and views that really got me excited,” Shands explained. “It was people saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this in my city,’ or ‘I think we should do this next month,’ or ‘I know another business owner, let’s do this.’ So yeah, our goal is to continue the mission… We’re trying to create a collaborative narrative. Let’s forget about the money we’re giving to the person, but a collaborative narrative and an education narrative.”

Because Davis is seeking to expand his holdings and find one other business to sell next month.

“What we’re doing next month is going to be crazy and we’re probably going to do 5 times what we just did. We’re going to bring in 500 to 800 people with this free networking event called The Room. So next month, mark my words, there’s going to be nothing left in the store. That’s my goal,” Davis shared.

The more flash stores mob, the more they need participants to feel like their money goes right into a long-term business. For them, combining giving with education is vital to attracting more customers while feeling pleased about where their dollar goes.

“We want to combine giving with coaching,” Shands said. “We want to combine that with information, while also coaching and teaching them how to be good stewards. So I think even people who go out and support companies are more comfortable saying, ‘Oh, well, I know this is going in the right direction’… I think it’s important that we build successful, sustainable companies. Because what’s more important than supporting a company is that it walks through the fire and builds something special and can teach. So what makes what we do so complete.”