Dasha Kennedy
Founder
The Broke Black Girl and The Girlpreneur Expo
St. Louis
Soldan ISHS
Lindenwood University
Tell us about The Broke Black Girl.
The Broke Black Girl provides a digital community and accessible resources to advance financial literacy for over 64,000 women of color. The racial and gender wealth gap impacts African American women at an alarming rate and The Broke Black Girl is collectively working towards dismantling this gap one social media user at a time.
How did finance come into focus as the direction of the work you wanted to pursue?
After working in the finance industry for over 10 years, I noticed that African American women were largely underrepresented and underserved. I wanted to take the knowledge I’ve gained in accounting, personal finance and default counseling plus, personal experience and develop a platform that speaks directly to the financial literacy needs of women who look like me and are impacted by the same systematic and economic issues as me.
As a young entrepreneur, what is the most valuable professional lesson you’ve learned?
The most valuable lesson I’ve learned as a young professional is to never stop learning. Regardless of where your career is currently, I’ve learned to surround myself with teachers and people that have been where I am working towards going. Continuous education stimulates your creativity and your creativity is ultimately what sets you apart from your peers.
What is The Girlpreneur Expo and what are your goals for the event?
I realized that even with the tools to be financially educated, the truth of the matter is many women were not making a livable wage. The Girlpreneur Expo is a platform for minority, female business owners to showcase their brands and business while connecting and building meaningful relationships with their peers all while making a profit through direct sales. To date, I’ve held three Girlpreneur events generating more than $70,000 in sales back into the St. Louis economy. My goal is to empower women to monetize their skills to supplement the loss of income from their current employer.
In the last 10 years, the number of businesses owned by black women has risen sharply. What do you see contributing to that growth?
Women are leading in entrepreneurship and it is a direct result of our hard work, education and the frustration and unfairness we have experienced at the hands of major corporations. We’ve always had the grit and knowledge to problem solve but, due to the lack of available opportunities we’ve had to take matters into our own hands. Although we still struggle with access to capital, women have chosen to collaborate with each other and take advantage of the free and cost effective resources such as networking and social media.
What’s your most-used social media platform and why?
Facebook. It’s easy to navigate and allows you to build actual connections around a shared mission or idea. Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. My business is the result of a free Facebook group that helped me reach over 64,000 women in less than two years; ultimately assisting me with launching a global brand.
