‘The Pandemic Helped Me Find My Purpose’: Black Women-Owned Businesses Persevere in 2020

Karissa Gering owns Spellbound Cosmetic Company located inside the Barberella Salon in South Milwaukee. She started the business a year ago and offers services such as barbering, microblading, waxing and eyebrow lamination. She graduated from Paul Mitchell in Waukesha 11 years ago and has been in the industry ever since.

Gering has worked for a number of different employers but didn’t see herself sticking with it long-term.

“I started my business because I didn’t feel like the corporate world that I was working in was utilizing me to my full potential, and they were having me work hours that made it hard to see my son some days,” Gering said. 

With encouragement from people around her, she took the leap and started working for herself. Now she has the ability to create her own hours, spend time with her 2-year-old son and focus on her baby on the way. 

But only a few months after Gering created Spellbound, she ran into difficult times when Governor Tony Evers announced that the state would be under a mandatory lockdown in response to growing Covid-19 cases. The mandate closed all businesses that were not deemed essential, including salons. Gering said her business came to a halt, and she eventually had to rebuild it. 

Before the pandemic, women-owned businesses grew 21% from 2014 to 2019, and Black women-owned businesses grew 50%, according to an American Express annual report on women in business.

The pandemic has disproportionately affected Black-owned small businesses across the country. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, about 40% of Black-owned businesses closed between February and April, while only about 17% of White-owned small businesses have closed over that same time period. About 36% of all Black-owned business are owned by women, according to the USA Facts 2018 Annual Business Survey. 

Black women-owned startups in the US are the least likely to receive government funding. According to the 2016 Digital Undivided survey, they received only 0.2% of all venture capital funding. 

In spite of the barriers and the pandemic, a number of Black women-owned businesses in Milwaukee have kept their operations alive. 

Lexi Watkins owns iLashout on Old World Third Street downtown. She had to close her doors in March due to Covid-19, but she was able to reopen in May. Eight months into the pandemic, she has made the necessary adjustments to keep her business open. 

Angel Washington is a 27-year-old Black business owner from Milwaukee who got married during the pandemic. She has worked in retail or customer service all her life. She was most recently employed at Spectrum in Milwaukee, but quit the secure job to pursue her dream of owning a clothing store called Angel Feather’s Boutique.  

Washington was working for Spectrum from home after the pandemic hit, and she said it was a good opportunity for her to start her business since everybody was shopping online. She began her business in May 2020 and quit her spectrum job the following month. The boutique is currently all online, and Washington personally delivers orders to local customers. 

Shortly after Washington opened Angel Feather’s Boutique, she experienced a tragic loss. Washington’s mother died unexpectedly in July. She was one of Washington’s biggest supporters. After that, Washington put her business on hold for about four weeks. She said it gave her time to think about what she wanted to do with her life, and she decided to carry on with her business. 

I wasn’t going to let what happened deter me from what I know is destined for me.

Angel Washington

Three months later, Washington is planning to expand her business. Her store includes clothes, shoes and accessories for women. She has been looking at storefront locations in Milwaukee, and she wants to branch out to bigger cities like Chicago and Miami.  

“After I got my mind together, I just went hard, and that’s how I’ve been going ever since,” Washington said. “As a Black woman, I always have to go hard.” 

Like Angel Washington, Aaliyah Covington quit a steady job to start her own business. She is 24 years old and teaches Zumba and bootcamp classes online at the Pink House Studio and the Wisconsin Athletic Club. She is working toward her certification in personal training and nutrition from the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She grew up in a military family, but has spent most of her time in Southern Illinois. 

She earned her master’s degree in social work at Saint Louis University where she also played Division I women’s basketball. After that she spent one year at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee studying higher education. While she was there, she was the graduate assistant coach for the women’s basketball team with her sister, who was the head assistant coach. 

After she graduated and stopped playing basketball, Covington said that she wasn’t in a great place mentally or physically. She said a big part of an athlete’s identity is their sport, and they dedicate so much time and energy to it that when it’s over, a lot of athletes have a hard time figuring out who they are. 

“It’s not the complete picture of you,” Covington said. “I wanted to find joy within. I wanted to find out who I really was outside of basketball.”

Covington suffered from seasonal depression and said she didn’t feel good about herself. Her friend suggested they both go on a food cleanse. Covington said she had more energy and wanted to continue feeling better. She started doing research and began the process of switching to a plant-based diet. Now she wants to help other people on their health journeys. 

The pandemic helped me find my purpose.

Aaliyah Covington

After one year at UWM, Covington became burnt out on school. When the pandemic hit, she decided it was the right time to quit her coaching job, and start working for herself full time. She said her parents were concerned about her quitting her job while the market was so unpredictable, but she convinced them that it was the right decision for her. Her workout classes are at half-capacity in order to maintain a safe distance from everyone in the room. She also streams her workouts online for anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable working out in person. 

“The pandemic helped me find my purpose,” Covington said. 

She said she wants other black women entrepreneurs to know that it’s OK to be unsure and that it’s OK to try. 

“Just existing, there are a lot of elements like systematic oppression and different things that are literally rooting against you, so I just want to encourage black women to believe in themselves despite all these outside factors,” Covington said. 

She plans to expand her business and to eventually start working in mental health services. She has many business venture ideas, and she said she wants to use the tools she’s learned to educate people and to help them heal. 

In addition to the Covid-19 lockdown, the cultural and political climate in Milwaukee also affected Karissa Gering’s Spellbound Cosmetic Company.

“We’ve had to shut down because of threats of violence to the community and counter protesters due to a local police shooting as well as threats of rioting based on the outcome of the election,” Gering said. 

On Oct. 19, South Milwaukee police officers responded to a report of a suicidal man. After shooting toward police, the 43-year-old man was shot and killed by an officer. 

Gering and others who work inside the building removed most of their belongings from the shop before they closed for the day to prepare for potential vandalism. She says she has anxiety about not knowing what might happen to her business. 

A society cannot move forward and flourish while continuing to be oppressed, and not knowing what will happen next has been difficult.

Karissa Gering

In the future, Gering hopes to expand her business. She said she enjoys training people and eventually wants to have employees whom she can teach and help grow.