Sistahs in Business Expo| Philadelphia|2019 Recap👭🏾👭🏿

Last weekend, I attended the 2nd Annual Sistahs in Business Expo here in Philadelphia. The day-long event featured a marketplace to shop from 100 unique vendors, 2 power packed panels of business owners who shared their success stories, and keynote speakers Activist Tamika D. Mallory and serial entrepreneur and reality T.V. star Yandy Smith-Harris.

With black women being the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the country, these events are ever so important for numerous reasons:

1. It places business owners in direct connection with potential consumers. Black people have a spending power that is unmatched. We will spend money on the things that we like.

2. It offers helpful advice to budding entrepreneurs at an affordable cost. Tickets were $15 in advance and $20 at the door for the whole day. Can’t beat it.

3. It offers great networking opportunities. Connections were made that may not have happened otherwise, if not for this event.

Out of all of the great advice that was offered throughout the day, the gems dropped during the fireside chat with Yandy Smith, hosted by NBC10’s Brittney Shipp were particularly impactful. To aspiring entrepreneurs, Yandy advised to, ‘slide into those dm’s’ of celebrities and ask to send them a product.

She recalled a story of a young lady who once sent her a backpack for her son with an illustration of a little black boy who looked just like him. Not only did her son love the backpack, but the young woman’s business had increased greatly from Yandy sharing it on social media. Yandy also spoke openly about her failures as an entrepreneur.

This expo is definitely worth attending. The Sistahs is Business Expo will be headed to Columbia, SC on August 10th and Atlanta, GA on September 7th! If you’re in one of those areas, you don’t want to miss it.

Have you ever been to an event like this? What insight did you take away from it?

– A Black Girl About Town