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Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, I had my professional aspirations in a Canadian company. I’ve come to believe that any company is a meritocratic ecosystem where those who work the hardest and wait the most are rewarded with higher salaries and bigger titles.
However, the more I waited, the more I realized that this was not true. The glass ceiling remains firm, and in 2022 he will hold only 8.3% of the CBCA-administered board seats for visible minorities. If you wanted to steer an organization, you had to build it yourself.
Sadly, many marginalized professionals find themselves in a similarly uncomfortable position. But more and more, they are discovering that entrepreneurship is no longer the road to go: According to his Intuit QuickBooks survey in 2022, a staggering 2.2 million Canadians have I started a new business. I’m sure many of these people, like myself, were wondering why we should continue to serve biased institutions that no longer serve us.
But as every entrepreneur knows, launching a business is both glamorous and intimidating, and growth never happens in a linear fashion. Hills and valleys can be particularly steep if you are part of a marginalized population. We expect profitability to decline sharply.
As always, I am inspired by business owners of color who are building companies to fight stereotypes, bigotry, and racism. But I’m also disappointed that they are against it. Everywhere you look you see highly incremental progress, entrenched barriers to entry and exclusive beliefs and practices.
My wish for 2023 is faster, bolder evolution. A definitive dismantling of systemic inequalities. To meaningfully embrace diversity, equity and inclusion in Canadian business.
This looks like financial and entrepreneurial equity for business owners of color. In recent years, we have launched many original initiatives such as the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund to provide adequate funding. These targeted programs have enabled previously excluded groups to access needed funds. But this should not be the only path to business success. Entrepreneurs of color must be taken seriously by those in power, even if they don’t share the same life experiences. A new story should be one that can be approved for venture capital and financing by whoever leads her business.
Gender equality must be part of this. Spaces where women entrepreneurs operate are not always the most invested. We are more likely to build expertise in the services sector, which has been hit hard by economic turmoil and has lost funding for flashy tech ventures. As a society, we must expand our definition of what constitutes a legitimate business and think about entrepreneurship beyond male-led tech startups.
Black women are plummeting more and more, but we are more likely to become “solopreneurs” who work from home. Even if they do get it, they are often dismissed for being premature or unsophisticated.
We must defend black business representatives. Even if our business is small or community-based, they still matter. Compounding the challenges facing our company are anti-black discrimination, generational trauma, and neighborhood asset sales. We often come from communities that lack the social capital, networks, and initial funding to launch strong. Anticipating this, how can other businesses, government officials, and society at large cheer us up so that black business failures don’t become self-fulfilling prophecies?
When we talk about leveling the playing field for marginalized people, we often look far into the future. But this is a moral and social obligation. It’s time to stop envisioning this as the future and make this the reality of today. It’s what I dreamed of when I started my first business, and what the emerging class of entrepreneurs deserves.
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