For many entrepreneurs, the hardest part of building a company isn’t coming up with the idea. It’s figuring out what comes next.
Where do you find capital? How do you build a digital strategy? Which resources are actually worth your time? Who can help you understand the business side of turning a passion into something sustainable?
Those questions take on particular weight for Black and Brown entrepreneurs, who have historically faced significant disparities in access to capital, networks, mentorship, and other business resources.
This Black Business Month, Swag Her Magazine is putting access at the center of the conversation through its partnership with Verizon Small Business Digital Ready, a program offering courses and resources designed to help small-business owners strengthen their business and digital skills.
And some entrepreneurs aren’t waiting to see whether the opportunity might be useful.
They’re already participating.
Among them are Niquitta Wolfe, CEO of Pulse by Nspire; Yvonne of Cre8tive Assortments; Fancy, founder of Swag Her Magazine; and Tahyira Savanna, owner of TREMG.
From Inspiration to Infrastructure
For years, Black entrepreneurship has been celebrated primarily through stories of perseverance: the founder who started with nothing, the entrepreneur who turned a side hustle into a company, the business owner who built a brand despite limited resources.
But perseverance alone isn’t a business strategy.
At a certain point, entrepreneurs need infrastructure.
They need financial literacy. Digital skills. Market knowledge. Professional networks. Mentorship. And, perhaps most importantly, access to information that can help them make better decisions.
That’s where programs like Verizon Small Business Digital Ready can become valuable.
For Fancy, whose work through Swag Her Magazine centers women, brands and entrepreneurship, the opportunity extends beyond her own business. It gives her a way to put useful resources in front of an audience that includes aspiring entrepreneurs and established brand owners.
For Tahyira Savanna, participating through TREMG is part of a broader philosophy about entrepreneurship: you cannot leverage an opportunity you don’t know exists.
The Advantage of Getting Into the Room
Savanna’s entrepreneurial experience spans media, entertainment, marketing and education. Her approach to business has consistently involved looking beyond the obvious path—building relationships, entering rooms where opportunities are being created and learning by doing.
That’s a lesson many entrepreneurs discover the hard way.
The internet has made information abundant, but access to the right information at the right time can still be a competitive advantage.
A business owner can spend months searching online for answers that might take one conversation with the right person to clarify.
Getting offline still matters.
Networking matters.
Asking questions matters.
And knowing which resources are designed specifically for small businesses matters.
Building From Where You Are
Wolfe, Yvonne, Fancy and Savanna represent different businesses and different entrepreneurial journeys.
What connects them isn’t the size of their companies.
It’s the decision to keep developing them.
Niquitta Wolfe, CEO of Pulse by Nspire, brings a multidisciplinary creative background to entrepreneurship, demonstrating how skills accumulated across creative industries can become part of a larger business vision.
Yvonne, founder of Cre8tive Assortments, is another entrepreneur using the opportunity to continue developing her business and exploring resources that can support its growth.
And Fancy, through Swag Her Magazine, is doing something equally important: creating a bridge between entrepreneurs and information that could otherwise remain outside their immediate networks.
That’s the larger lesson of this Black Business Month initiative.
Small Doesn’t Have to Mean Stuck
Calling a company a “small business” describes its current scale. It doesn’t describe its potential.
The difference between a business that remains small and one that grows can sometimes come down to something as simple as access to the right knowledge, relationship or opportunity at the right time.
Black and Brown entrepreneurs don’t need another reminder to dream bigger.
They need access to the tools that can help turn those dreams into businesses capable of sustaining themselves.
That’s why Swag Her Magazine’s partnership with Verizon Small Business Digital Ready is worth paying attention to.
And that’s why entrepreneurs like Wolfe, Yvonne, Fancy and Savanna are getting involved.
Because the next stage of entrepreneurship isn’t always about working harder.
Sometimes it’s about learning something you didn’t know, meeting someone you hadn’t met, and walking through a door you didn’t know was open.
This Black Business Month, the invitation is simple:
Don’t just celebrate Black businesses.
Give them access.
And when the opportunity appears, get in the room.
