Harriett's Bookshop, Philadelphia, Black Girl Picnic Marks 5th Annual Event With New Black Literacy Campaign To Gift 1000 Books — photo credit: Getty Images

by Ahsan Washington

November 10, 2025

Gain A Money Mindset With These 6 Books On Increasing Wealth

Read financial frameworks with cultural context

The process of building wealth begins with developing the right mindset. Before you even open an investment account, you might want to open up a book. These books by Black authors offer financial frameworks, cultural context, and motivational support to help people move from surviving to thriving financially.

Get into these six books that focus on improving your money mindset and building generational wealth.

Get Good With Money: 10 Simple Steps To Becoming Financially Whole

The Budgetnista Tiffany Aliche presents Get Good with Money as a practical 10-step guide for financial wholeness. The book shares a pathway that includes budgeting, saving, investing, and legacy building. The book was published in 2021 to serve communities that have been traditionally excluded from wealth-building conversations. According to Aliche, wealth starts with habits and mindset before considering large paychecks.

The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets Of Black Millionaires

Dennis Kimbro, a business professor and author, conducted a seven-year study of 1,000 affluent Black Americans to identify the shared beliefs and behaviors behind their success, as detailed in The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires. The book, published in 2013, examines wealth-builders in various industries across the United States. Kimbro seeks to understand the unique thought patterns of Black millionaires and how those habits can be acquired and used by others to overcome financial barriers.

The Black Girl’s Guide To Financial Freedom: Build Wealth, Retire Early, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams

The Black Girl’s Guide to Financial Freedom by Paris Woods empowers Black women through financial independence. The 2021 publication provides Black women with financial strategies to achieve early retirement and long-term financial security while avoiding common money pitfalls. The text teaches that wealth is self-defined and attainable with discipline and purpose.

The Black Tax: The Cost Of Being Black In America

Shawn D. Rochester, an entrepreneur and financial strategist, examines how systemic discrimination creates hidden financial burdens for Black Americans. The 2017 publication of The Black Tax uses U.S. economic data and racial wealth disparities to inform readers about systemic barriers and provide tools to overcome them.

Mud 2 Millions: Ayesha Selden’s 7 Step Wealth Cheat Codes

In her book Mud 2 Millions: Ayesha Selden’s 7 Step Wealth Cheat Codes, real estate investor and financial advisor Ayesha Selden reveals seven wealth strategies that she calls “wealth cheat codes.” A self-made investor, Selden built a seven-figure portfolio from modest beginnings and teaches that mindset, consistency, and calculated risk are essential for creating wealth. The book offers insights from a self-made investor’s perspective, demonstrating that anyone can build wealth by cultivating the right mindset.

We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide To Earning More, Building Wealth, And Gaining Economic Power

Rachel Rodgers established Hello Seven after transitioning from attorney to entrepreneur to help women of color increase their income and wealth potential. In We Should All Be Millionaires, Rodgers presents a motivational and strategic guide for women who want to become millionaires. The book focuses on mindset development, alongside pricing strategies and confidence-building to help women reach financial success. The book was published in 2021, focusing on women of color.

by Jeffrey McKinney

November 10, 2025

Black Hair Accessories Brand Targets $50M Revenue By 2030 With New Products, Market Expansion

The company plans to fund its growth organically through internal cash flow and revenue.

A seasoned Black businesswoman who specializes in hair accessories, Joni Odum was at a crossroads five years ago.

She had to decide whether to let the family business, Firstline Brands, started by her father nearly four decades ago, potentially wither or build on his triumphs by elevating it to a higher level.

She initially joined the Houston-based multicultural hair accessories company in 2002, working in various roles including marketing, sales, distribution, and product development. Odum left an analyst job at healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson to run Firstline Brands. That followed her father, Robert A. Bowser, who passed in 2020.

“Taking over Firstline Brands was both pivotal and deeply healing for me. It’s my way of keeping my father’s legacy alive; bringing his vision into fruition and reaching milestones I know would make him incredibly proud. Every achievement feels like honoring a piece of him.”

In general, family business leaders face many obstacles. They often must maneuver, extending a legacy while adjusting to ever-changing market conditions. Plus, disputes over such issues as strategy and money matters can create internal stress, possibly affecting a firm’s operating model and growth prospects.

Odum’s business acumen has helped Firstline Brands achieve much. While revenue was not disclosed, the company calls itself America’s largest Black-owned manufacturer of hair tools and accessories. Under her watch, the company reported a 44% rise in profits and a 32% jump in employee headcount among metrics.

Since emerging as Firstline Brand’s president and CEO, Odum’s actions have included restructuring product development by centering on convenience-forward innovation and design. She has expanded the brand’s reach by connecting with massive, big-box retailers.

Setting itself apart from rivals

The moves could give her firm a competitive edge, as Odum said many other Black beauty brands are wrestling with less funding, reduced shelf-space, and higher tariff costs.

As such, the ambitious entrepreneur is now hoping to capitalize by expanding and pursuing a larger share of the nation’s estimated $23 billion-plus hair accessories market. That business is expected to double in size by 2033.

Presently, Firstline Brands sells over 200 items, including hairbrushes, combs, and maintenance essentials, across a portfolio that includes Evolve, WavEnforcer, and Camryn’s BFF, mainly for textured hair. Its products are customized for many people, including men, women, kids, and frugal shoppers.

Yet Odum has loftier plans that include expanding offerings for women and men over the next few quarters as her firm approaches its 40th anniversary in 2026.

Its new grooming items include a retractable 3-in-1 tool with an edge brush, bristles, and teeth for detangling, smoothing, and edge styling. Another novel product they offer is an oversized, masculine cap for protecting waves, curls, locs, braids, and textured styles. Altogether, the firm is offering at least seven fresh tools; with the items ranging around $5–$13.

Odum credits much of her success to her values, education, and strong work ethic. Her greatest inspiration: Sitting under the tutelage of her father as a child, learning from his leadership, and benefiting from an entrepreneurial spirit he instilled in her. Thus, her guidance as the firm’s leader has been crucial to its resolute growth and product expansion.

Handling challenges while scaling up

Still, the quest was not a cinch. Upon becoming CEO, she said the firm was navigating an unprecedented global pandemic while also dealing with her father’s death. Another big challenge for the firm was pivoting to direct-to-consumer marketing virtually overnight.

“We have always focused on innovating by listening, learning, and responding to their needs. However, we’d never developed a direct connection with our consumer, to ensure they understood who we are and what we stand for as a brand.”

Sizing up current hurdles, Odum said one of the largest is meeting the customer wherever they are on their journey. “As a Black-owned, woman-led business, our mission is rooted in innovation, inclusion, and community. We consider it our responsibility to advocate for their needs and to be present, relevant, and authentic across every touchpoint. We know this customer, because we are this customer.”

Furthermore, the firm has the resources to finance its expansion. “We’re funding our growth organically through internal cash flow and revenue, keeping control of our destiny while we scale,” Odum said.

Looking ahead to future growth prospects

Firstline Brands is targeting $50 million in revenue within the next five years. Odum said the firm has seen 30% revenue growth since she took over leadership.

The gain is projected to come from “aggressive market expansion in both new and existing channels, strategic partnerships with major retailer partners like Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Sally Beauty, and others, and diversifying into new product categories. It’s ambitious, but absolutely achievable.”

Black Entrepreneur , SBA Small Business Person Of The Year, Mississippi, National Small Business Week — (Photo: RDNE Stock project/via Pexels)

by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman

November 10, 2025

Virginia Minority Business Consortium Launches To Boost Local Entrepreneurs

The Minority Business Consortium plans to help diverse entrepreneurs not feel unsupported when launching a new venture.

A new nonprofit is amplifying the efforts and existence of minority businesses in one Virginia county.

Diverse business owners in Martinsville-Henry County have a new pillar of support as they try to scale their ventures. The Minority Business Consortium officially launched Nov. 6, holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the New College Institute in Martinsville, Virginia. Their mission lies in championing these businesses to add to the diverse entrepreneurial fabric in the area and statewide.

The Minority Business Consortium came to life from an idea sparked in 2019 by a group of residents. They noticed how there were limited resources for minority businesses to seek help or guidance from. Now, they seek to become that difference.

The consortium not only hopes to helpkóóThey want to encourage others to move here and launch their business idea. The MBC’s inaugural executive director, Christy Harper, expressed how they want to curb the amount of business failure by addressing issues from the ground up.

“Our goal is to … decrease the amount of businesses that are closing,” Harper said to the Cardinal News. “We want to increase sustainability for our businesses.”

The Minority Business Consortium works by providing grants, showcasing program information, and educating new owners on proper strategies for customer outreach and retention. Focused on community building, the MBC also plans to host networking events for its vibrant cohort of established and emerging business owners.

While still a predominantly white area, Black people account for 27% of the Martinsville-Henry County population. The area’s Economic Development Corporation also confirmed that Hispanic and Latino residents account for 7.5%.

However, Black-owned businesses still make up only a small amount of revenue from all U.S. companies. As of 2022, they only made up 1% of these profits. According to the Pew Research Center, despite continued growth in Black-owned businesses, they still only owned 3% of all companies. As for minority-owned businesses in general, they accounted for 22.7% of U.S. employer firms in that year, per Census data.

Given how the lack of capital amnd support can stifle these entrepreneurs, the Consortium offers a locally funded pipeline for these businesses to find their way. It has already helped over 100 businesses in the area during its years in the making.

Founded by business owners themselves who remember having to do it all alone, they want the next generation of business leaders to avoid such struggles.

“We actually prepare them for funding opportunities on the back end,” added Harper. “Any businesses that may come upon challenges as life hits them, we want to make them prepared for that.”