Black women uplifting other Black women during this time is beyond admirable.

Sierra Gates, reality star of VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta” and owner of The Glam Shop in Atlanta, has been known to show her support for other women entrepreneurs. Now she wants to use her platform to spotlight rising Black women entrepreneurs.

Her motivation for this initiative is her desire to inspire others who have encountered their own obstacles to level up.

Gates herself has dealt with homelessness, teenage pregnancy, amongst other odds stacked against her, but she was able to use her business mindset to rise above it and she wants to encourage other women to do the same.

In light of COVID-19, Gates has been using her beauty business expertise to usher Black women into entrepreneurship by teaching them micro-blading beauty practices, offering access to vendors as they purchase products to sell online, as well as a variety of courses, Black Enterprise reports.

According to Gates, she’s been in contact with women who have been seeking her help for the last two months, which inspired her to start her own vendor’s list and webinars.

“Over 500 women have started their companies outside of micro-blading during the pandemic,” she said to Black Enterprise. “My mind has been blown away by how God is moving in the midst of this whole situation.”

She added “Some women are making $5,000 and $6,000 a day. I hired over 100 customer service reps in China to communicate with women to help them understand the vendor’s list. So not only with the vendor list, I’m giving out the plugs. They don’t really know how to connect and talk to these vendors and understand how it works.”

Gates never saw entrepreneurship as a competition, but a chance to build on sisterhood.

“I always say the girl next to me is not my competition,” she told Black Enterprise. “She is my sister. I came from nothing. The projects. And now, all of those girls look up to me. So, me having a voice and pulling my sisters up is encouraging to them. If I can do it, and I have a 10th-grade education, you can do it.”

Being a Black woman entrepreneur is a challenge in itself, but Gates found a way to maintain her business and status as a businesswoman.

“Just by being consistent. Every time I see someone, I always tell them to be consistent and that you have to believe in yourself. A lot of people you know don’t succeed in the beauty industry because they don’t have any faith.”

Gates encourages all businesswomen to fight through their hardships and see their ventures through.

To learn more about Gates and her business, visit https://www.theglamshopatl.com/.

sierra gates

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