The stories of Black entrepreneurs overcoming challenges to pursue a vision are inspiring. From small businesses to global multi-million dollar corporations, Black men and women have shown that success begins internally.

According to the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, Black men and women own more than 3.2 million businesses. They employ nearly 1.2 million people and generate $200.6 billion in sales. The story of Black entrepreneurship is one of pursuing a vision no matter the challenges. The eclectic mix of people named in the following sections is just a sample of the past and current Black entrepreneurs who never took “no” for an answer.

Seeing Opportunity and Then Making Smart Decisions

The name A.G. Gaston may be familiar. He paid $5,000 to get Martin Luther King, Jr. out of the Birmingham jail in 1963 during the civil rights movement. You may not know that he was an entrepreneur through and through, able to see opportunities to help fellow African Americans despite a segregated society. His phenomenal success proves opportunities exist even when the barriers seem insurmountable.

Before the civil rights movement, Black men and women lacked access to financial services. In the mid-1910s, Gaston began at the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company in Fairfield, Alabama, by selling meals and affordable burial insurance to Black steelworkers. Over the following decades, he opened a successful insurance company, a funeral home, and the state’s only black-owned savings and loan. In 1954, Gaston opened the A.G. Gaston Motel so black visitors turned away from hotels had a place to stay. When Gaston died on January 19, 1996, he left behind the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company, sold to employees in 1987 for $3.5 million, the A.G. Gaston Construction Company, the A.G. Gaston Boys and Girls Club, and CFS Bancshares, the nation’s second-largest black-owned bank.

Forty-five years ago, Janice Bryant Howroyd founded ActOne Group in front of a rug shop. The company is a workforce solutions organization operating in over 32 countries. She grew up during the segregation era and discussed how she overcame racism and sexism to succeed in her book Acting Up: Winning in Business and Life Using Down-Home Wisdom. She turned a $900 loan from her mother into a billion-dollar enterprise.

Howroyd attributes her ability to grow her business to her parents, who believed in leveraging what was available combined with intelligence. Howroyd grew the company, which started with a phone and fax machine, by staying current with technology. For example, in 1995, the staffing agency was among the first to use the World Wide Web. In 1989, the company went global. Howroyd’s bottom-line advice is never to compromise your personal self for your professional self.

Growing Businesses Through Relationship Building

Warren Thompson is the founder, president, and chairman of the Thompson Hospitality Corp. The food and facilities management company is the largest minority-owned food services company and one of the largest retail food and facilities management companies in the U.S. Thomson first started Thompson Hospitality with a $100,000 personal investment to pursue his vision of becoming a restaurateur after working for nine years at the Marriott Corporation. In 1992, he expanded into contract food services by founding Thompson Hospitality Services through a strategic partnership with Compass Group.

The largest black-owned company in the U.S. is World Wide Technology, founded in 1990 by David L. Steward and generating $14.5 billion in annual revenue. It began with a few employees and a 4,000-square-foot office but now employs more than 9,000 people globally. The company specializes in data center and visualization, cloud capabilities, mobility, security, and networking technologies. How did he grow his business? The answer is by developing strong business relationships.

Starting Small and Growing

There are millions of successful Black entrepreneurs growing their businesses. They may not generate hundreds of millions of dollars, but they are successful and inspire other Black entrepreneurs to follow their entrepreneurial visions. For example, Cashmere Nicole Carillo is a single mother and breast cancer survivor who founded Beauty Bakerie in 2011 to sell a non-toxic, vegan, and cruelty-free lipstick brand. She featured the brand on her website and began marketing it on Instagram.

From a struggling mother on housing and food assistance to an entrepreneur selling products in 130 countries, her story is one of persistence. When social media advertising did not get enough attention, she repeatedly revised her advertising and used different platforms until sales took off. She kept expenses low rather than taking on debt, which helped raise capital. Annual revenue is more than $5 million and still increasing, and the company is profitable. She has raised over $14 million in capital by 2022.

Many Black entrepreneurs combine their business and social responsibility. Rodney Williams is a co-founder of LISNR. Born completely deaf in one ear and partially deaf in the other, he and the other founders developed SmartTones, a software solution for encoding data into inaudible tones. The solution sends micro-communications using sound between devices on standard microphones and speakers. LISNR is now deployed as a communications solution for payments, retail, and mobility in eight countries. Over seven years, the company has raised over $35 million and pioneered ultrasonic technology advancements.

Black-owned companies, big and small, are driving innovation and economic growth. It is an old story in that Black entrepreneurship began hundreds of years ago. Christiana Carteaux Bannister was an African-American abolitionist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur in the mid-1800s. She helped raise money for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of black soldiers, the subject of the modern-day film Glory. Bannister also helped establish a nursing home for African-American women in 1890.

Always Believe in Yourself

There are many stories of Black entrepreneurs who have been immensely successful in business and made a difference for other Blacks. They are not lucky people. They have deliberately and strategically overcome enormous challenges to pursue their passion in life and become role models for entrepreneurial Blacks.

Antonio Wells is a serial entrepreneur who creates numerous companies, often in partnership with another entrepreneur. Underlying his companies is NAMYNOT, which helps businesses with tech-based marketing strategies. His philosophy is never to let others stop your vision because they lack it. Never give up. Always believe in yourself. This is advice that echoes through the years of Black entrepreneurship.