Home Girl, CEO™
The Movement Continues

Does the recent financial devastation make you want to exchange your own employment situation for the business that you have long dreamt of? Are you waiting to reach a magic number that will allow you to trade your job for your dream only to find that the stock market has pushed that number even further away?

It is hard not to be frustrated with companies that make millions in revenue and spend it on bonuses for upper management while forcing instability on employees further down the chain of command. Many years ago, when I first read statistics about growing numbers of black women starting their own businesses, I was impressed
with the diversity of those businesses. Once again, I am starting to hear the buzz. The recent economic chain of events has inspired a surge in women who want to control their own destiny by becoming the CEO.

Not long after I began documenting the trends of sisters doin’ for themselves in Onyx Woman Magazine, I decided to keep a journal of my experiences and the challenges I faced starting and growing a home-based business. By the time you read this, a collection of those experiences should be on their way to print in my
first book, “Home Girl, CEO”.

Over the years, I found myself so busy growing my business that it was hard to make time to organize the thoughts into a book. I would beat myself up every time I thought about the manuscript sitting unfinished in my desk. I got a jolt last November when we nominated our first African-American president. What an example
for all of us to focus on—talk about putting a plan in motion! Little did I know that my moment of inspiration would coincide with socio-economic incidents that would motivate more women to say, “Take this job and shove it!”

As we get older, the choices we make have an even bigger impact because they become so much harder to reverse. The growth in lady bosses is no longer a trend, it is a movement and, for some, a necessity. That is why this issue also focuses on “Becoming”, a word that Onyx Woman uses to describe all the ways that we grow
and evolve with purpose. In my travels, I have talked to many women who were looking for short-term solutions to long-term problems. Some wanted to start a business to get out of a bad employment situation. Others wanted to “get-rich-quick” to get out of a financial situation or they simply wanted an easy way out of a
bad-life situation. These women wanted to “be” and not “become.”

I wanted these women to know that regardless of what they do, implementing life changes is a process. Becoming is the process, whether it is getting your financial house in order; changing your eating habits; reevaluating your choices or taking responsibility for simply being well.

There is no better time than now for me to tell my story as a Home Girl, CEO or to share the experiences of others around the country who are doing the same. Your dream job is now the career that you create for yourself.