I am a freelance writer, marketing agency founder, and adjunct professor teaching marketing at Northeastern University. My work focuses on crafting compelling content to support small business owners, particularly those from marginalized communities, to amplify their voices, learn the power and importance of marketing and in turn, grow their businesses.
Brand Before Bucks: How Building a Strong Brand Can Attract Funding
There are three key areas U.S. small business owners struggle — lack of capital, marketing and overall business operations. Coupled with significant economic, sociocultural and institutional barriers, Black entrepreneurs face even more unique challenges when creating businesses. Small business grants have proven to be a saving grace for entrepreneurs in our community looking to fund their dreams without the burden of debt.
What are Business Grants?
A business grant is a financial investment g...
Commentary: New data privacy regs could hurt my mom’s African food shop
For my mom, sharing food is a way of sharing love. When she emigrated from Nigeria to Massachusetts 40 years ago, she was really homesick. She longed for familiar foods. So she started preparing and selling traditional Nigerian favorites, like savory jollof rice, pounded yam, and sweet egusi soup. Soon, she had a thriving business catering to the Boston-area African/Nigerian community.
In 2020 she became deathly ill with Covid-19. After a miraculous recovery, she was even more determined to s...
Giving Things Away for Free Has Helped Me Build a Six-Figure Business
Sharing your knowledge for free can be scary as a service provider, but this founder has found it builds her business while supporting a more equitable world. When I started my digital marketing company, BDY Consult, seven years ago, I kept running into a problem that’s all too common for mission-driven founders. The customers who I most wanted to serve—small business owners and solopreneurs, particularly in historically underserved communities—could rare...
Black Mothers Are Dying in Childbirth—We Need a Solution
Bringing human life into this world, as frequent as it is, is nothing short of a miracle. For Black mothers that miracle often turns into a curse. The solutions are not simple, but what is clear is that doctors and hospitals need to listen to Black women and take their pain seriously.
SMALL BUSINESS EXPO TALK: Addressing Your Knowledge Gap as a Marketer
One of the biggest unaddressed issues in the marketing industry is the knowledge gap. Marketing is advancing everyday and quicker than ever before. To keep up with the future of marketing, we must seek to be more omnichannel. This session will engage attendees by addressing where marketing is, where it’s going, and what skills are necessary to be successful.
Takeaways
At the end of this session, attendees will be able to:Learn the research-based skills deficit in the digital marketing industr...
[UNIFIERS] Dustin Young + Lee Johnson Create Wellness Spaces for Underserved Youth
Our Own is retrofitting American schools to include wellness pods for economically disadvantaged students.
5 Strategic Ways to Grow Your Brand With TikTok
The power of this social networking service and its one billion users is undeniable, but what are the most profitable ways to harness its features?
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
TikTok, the result of a 2018 merger of two Chinese applications, Douyin (video) and Musical.ly (social media service), has taken the world by storm. Its associated app was the single most downloaded non-game variety over the course of the first six months of 2021 (383 million installs)...
Where are the Black Designers?
Where are the Black designers? We know they exist, but where are they in design agencies and companies that push culture forward, in places that influence the world and how we live or use products?
The Sex Worker and Playwright Who Fought to Register Black People to Vote
Endesha Ida Mae Holland's incredible life story is one you won't often find in history books about the civil rights movement.
The Impact of Instagram Accounts Dedicated to Black and Brown Beauty
For months, she had been searching through Instagram’s most popular girls, and could never find anyone who looked like her. So she joined Instagram as @UsDarkskins and @Darkskin.Makeup to promote self-love and confidence, discourage skin bleaching, and ...
A Convo with Denequa Williams of LIT Brooklyn
Denequa Williams' hand-poured candles set the media ablaze as a celebrity favorite in 2017. Angie Martinez called LIT Brooklyn, “One of the best smelling candles... ever." The candles come in two forms — a chic ebony jar and a portable metal tin can with a screw top to prevent spillage. A box of matches that reads, “Keep it lit,” accompanies each product.
Ori Inu x Adebukola
Adebukola Ajao launches her interview series with a conversation with the cast of "Ori Inu" a coming of age story about a young immigrant woman who must choose between conforming her identity and spirituality to the cultural norms of America or revisiting her roots in the Afro-Brazilian religion called Candomble.
Feature: 7 Women Who Embrace Their Mental Health Diagnoses As Entrepreneurial Superpowers
“The constant worry and fear of the unknown have pushed me to anticipate every possible scenario and prepare for it,” Ajao shares. “While this can sometimes be overwhelming, it has also helped me to be efficient, reliable, and always three steps ahead. Anxiety has given me a unique superpower: the ability to turn potential chaos into organized calm.”
Feature: How Your Business Can Make a Positive Impact on Your Community
Around the world, women entrepreneurs are proving that businesses can do more than just make a profit—they can transform lives and uplift communities. Such founders are harnessing their success to launch innovative programs, amplify marginalized voices, and build meaningful connections, showing us all how business can be a force for good.
We had the opportunity to speak with 31 inspiring female founders who are redefining what it means to lead with impact. From organizing fashion shows for at...
Feature: How Founder Adebukola Ajao Is Empowering Small Businesses with Creative and Cost-Efficient Digital Marketing Solutions
Adebukola Ajao, Founder of BDY CONSULT LLC, supports small businesses with creative and cost-efficient digital media services.
Adebukola, a former freelance writer, has a passion for sharing small businesses’ inspiring stories. Her ultimate goal is to help such businesses overcome marketing challenges and maintain their role as vital contributors to the economy. Through her experience as a brand marketer, Adebukola has had the opportunity to equip companies with the necessary tools to stand o...