Written by: Melissa Enoch, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In 2020, there were an estimated 140,918 U.S. firms with majority Black or African American ownership, up 14% from 124,004 in 2017, according to the Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey.
What does National Black Business Month have to do with Mental Health and why is a Mental Health clinician writing about Business?
Throughout 2020, working as a contract therapist with several Employee Assistance programs, a lot of the concerns that I heard from employees was the difficulties with continued employment versus small business ownerships. During the pandemic, COVID-19, many of the individuals that I worked with, were able to explore other interests while working from home and had the desire to transition from employee to small business owners. Many would cite symptoms of stress including suffering from high blood pressure, migraines, insomnia, and other physical, mental, emotional and spiritual concerns that they believed would be alleviated from Small Business ownership. Many would express the desire to have time to adjust while continuing to be employed and would often request the completion of documentation that would allow them to balance continuing to work while pursuing their visions.
Oftentimes, while wanting to address the symptoms of Stress, Burnout, Anxiety, Depression and Attention concerns, the bridge between working as an employee and delving into small business ownership was a challenge as the issues that would arise would be questions revolving around Stress Management, Time Management, Decision Making, Problem Solving and Goal Setting.
Some would be receptive to the conversation intersecting business with mental health and others would believe that there were too many steps required to reach the end of their desired outcome. Many would fail to realize that I, too had traversed this same journey into small business ownership while working both full time and part time to support my personal needs while pursuing my professional and entrepreneurial goals.
The journey to entrepreneurship started with observing my grandmother operate a convenience store from the late 1960s into the 1980s after the death of her husband. I observed her command the respect of the community while raising her eight sons and daughters, maintaining balance between small business ownership, raising a family, keeping the family farm, taking care of her home cooking, cleaning and sewing and attending church weekly. I observed my other grandmother, working full time, raising her five daughters and son, maintaining a convenience within the neighborhood, taking care of her home, having a garden and raising hogs and chickens and attending church weekly. I observed my mother work full time, maintain several small businesses including Princess House, and Tupperware, tending to a garden, taking care of her home, taking care of me and my needs and encouraging me and my entrepreneurship dreams.
From an early age, I experienced entrepreneurship from selling cookies to neighborhood kids, to selling class notes to my classmates, to selling floral arrangements to my colleagues to selling bookmarks to fund my non-profit to opening my private practice nearly twenty years ago to my current venture of selling essential oils and wellness products. I have always wanted to be of service to the community in some aspect and have endeavored to produce goods and services but remain cognizant of the need for stability from full time employment while exploring other avenues.
I want to remain transparent with others that the road to entrepreneurship is riddled with uncertainty and stress; requires a tremendous amount of focus and endurance and realistically requires a huge amount of patience and faith. In this month of National Black Business Month, I would like to encourage those who believe small business ownership to consider seeking counsel from therapy, support groups, focus groups, other business owners and any other resources that will be useful to help provide a solid foundation to achieve their goals while maintaining good mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health.
Visit my website for more info!
Melissa Enoch, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Melissa Enoch is Owner/CEO/Director of Trinity Counseling Services LLC, a private substance abuse and mental health facility located in Burlington and Charlotte, where she uses her twenty-eight years of experience to educate individuals about various mental health and substance use disorder topics. Melissa is also the founder of Women of Strength, a non-profit educational organization focused on women's networking and community awareness. In her spare time, Melissa is interested in making jewelry, shooting photography, and mentoring young professionals.
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