NORFOLK, Va. — As Black History Month begins, it is important to open conversation around the "Black dollar."
In Hampton Roads, many Black entrepreneurs are looking for ways to start, elevate and enhance their own businesses locally.
CEO and Creative Chief ofHummingbird Dessert Boutique in Downtown Norfolk, is shifting her mindset around being a Black-owned business owner by working towards generational wealth for herself and her family.
Despite being a Black business owner, Kisha Moore doesn't let her skin color define her creativity level.
"Color doesn’t define how creative you can be or what your skill is or whether you can be a pastry chef," she said. "We have all these qualifiers, and they don’t matter they have no importance."
For many aspiring entrepreneurs, knowing where to start is the hardest part of jumpstarting their journies in entrepreneurship. In addition to a lack of informational wealth, many also fear the thought of rejection or failure which can be evident when launching a business.
"We don’t step into places to allow our gift to shine because we are afraid of the 'no', and the 'no' may come and may come a lot of times," said Moore.
To reduce this fear Blair Durham and others who founded the"Black BRAND of Hampton Roads' Regional Black Chamber of Commerce" hosted a week-long summit at Slover Library, entitled, The State of Black Entrepreneurship in Hampton Roads Summit.
This is the organizations fourth annual membership and this summit is one or eight events being organized by the group to help support black businesses.
The summit's focus was dedicated to providing information to Black entrepreneurs with valuable information necessary to expand the Black business market.
Each day focussed on a specific area of concern, all with one focus on generating capital in the Black business community.
Co-founder and President, Blair Durham tells News 3, that one of the biggest challenges for business owners is creating generational wealth, and with the help of this summit they will have access to tools necessary to reach success.
"One of the biggest challenges that particularly when we are talking to business owners is around accessing capital and our keynote speaker today spoke about how she’s open eight, nine, ten businesses that have become successful all through bootstrapping," said Durham.
Through workshops, panel discussions with local business owners, and digital strategy sessions, attendees received information that will be crucial to their business plans.
For owners like Kisha Moore, events like this help them get one step closer to their dreams.
"These types of events help you to realize, yes there may be hard but on the other side of hard is a, you know a treasure and there’s gold on the other side of hard, and when we are able to get through it and see and realize our dreams," said Moore.
