Guest Blogger: MGF - Future Titan of Industry by BrownSuga

Happy Weekend, MGF Readers! Have a blast and be safe...enjoy the last pro football game of the year (the Pro Bowl IS NOT a real game -- it's an exhibition!)! Tonight's Guest Blogger is an inspiration to me. She's got it all: Confidence, poise, and intelligence. So listen up...she's got a lot to say! - Lily

I felt like I was asked to be a presenter at the Academy Awards when Lily asked me to do a “guest blog” on her site! Talk about feeling important and special and gosh darn happy. Yes, I’m silly and probably a little crazy but you know what, I don’t care. I’m usually happy and I love for people to know that.

"Who is this woman?” you ask. I am the one, the only, the beautiful, the sexy, the funny, the amazing BrownSuga. Is that my real name? Of course not ya fool! Do you want to know my real name? Oh well, too bad. I rarely tell people over the internet my real name. So just get over it. Call me Brown…Miss Suga if ya nasty *winks*

I chose the alter ego “BrownSuga” for several reasons. First, my love for music shows in all I say and do. Remember that fine man D’Angelo (currently has a child with Angie Stone) who is a soulful singer who can melt butter with his voice. He had a song called “Brown Suga.”

“Brown Suga, babe…I gets high off ya love I don’t know how to behave. Let me tell you about this girl, maybe I shouldn’t. I met her in Philly and her name was BrownSuga see we be making love constantly, that’s why my eyes are a shade of blood burgundy…”

Now, if you remember the song and know all the lyrics you might believe he isn’t really talking about a girl. But hey there is an artistic license to make things what they want. I believe there is a listener’s license to hear what we want. And d*mnit he is talking about me!

Either way, I’m as sweet as sugar, my skin is like chocolate, my eyes are mesmerizing, my voice can make a grown man weep, my body can make men and women drool, my intelligence makes people tongue-tied, my humbleness makes you laugh. I am my biggest cheerleader. I believe if I don’t love me then NO ONE will. And yes I think I look good, yes I think I’m smart and yes I think everyone ought to want to be associated with me. Do I care if you agree? Not really. All in all I am a Modern Girl Friday.

I met Lily on a chat site. Our friendship started with the wonderful game of “Name that Tune”. Every day I would put up a new profile and it would always be lyrics to some song and as soon as I would see Lily get online I would tell to check out my profile. So I guess I played my own version of “Stump Lily” but mine was in good fun. Throughout the weeks of chatting, we got to know each other better. And we realized that although we were on opposite sides of the country, from different cultural backgrounds and at different points in our lives, none of that mattered because we connected on another level. Like the Elusive Orchid (also another great online friend hiya J ) said in her guest blog, we’re here to have fun. So have fun life is too short for you to get wrinkles get laugh lines instead!


After Lily asked me if I would do a guest blog for her, I began brainstorming about all the wonderful and hilarious topics I could voice my opinion about. And trust me, I do have an opinion about EVERYTHING. But, I am not a writer. Well not in the sense that I’ve been writing my whole life. In fact in the 25 years I’ve been on this earth I’ve been writing for pleasure for about 6 months J . However, I wanted to write about something because I was asked. And that is a compliment I wanted to earn. So here I am ready to write about…my life as an entrepreneur. And of course as I made this decision, Lily was at the same moment sending me a message suggesting that I should write about me as a business woman. Talk about two peas in a pod. Anyway so here is my rant…

“No one ever said working for yourself would be easy.”

“There is plenty of money out there for young African American women to start a business.”

“SBA is a great resource to help you start a business.”

“Most businesses spend the first few years in the red.”

These are all things I’ve been told since deciding to become an entrepreneur. Are they true? Personally, the first and last comment are true the two in the middle, not so much. Yes, SBA (Small Business Association) is a resource for small business owners. And yes there is money out there to help you start a business. But I’ve found those are only partly true. Please understand that I’m speaking solely on my experiences as a business owner. If you choose to start a business one day, you may find everything I say to not be true for you. However, until that day I guess you’ll just have to listen to me.

I started my business because I was sick of working for other people and one day I wanted to travel when I wanted and where I wanted. I didn’t grow up as a child with dreams of “being the boss” or inventing something fantastic or even of being a millionaire. I did grow up wanting to be happy. And after college I realized I was on a one way road to despair. I disliked just about everything in my life right out of college.

A bit of that unhappiness was depression, but a majority of it was anger. I was angry that my goal of happiness didn’t seem within my reach. At the young age of 22, I felt hatred. I watched friends and family graduate from college move on to jobs, start a family or just do what they wanted to do. They all had smiles on their faces and wonderful things to say about their lives.

If anyone asked me “So how are you doing?” I smiled politely and said “Oh just great.” Talk about lying. I wanted to scream “I HATE THIS. This is NOT where I want to do or what I want to be doing. This SUCKS!” There are only so many times you can hear that in your head before you have to do something about it. My solution? Quit my job, move back to the town I graduated high school from and open a retail store. Everyone thought I wasn’t serious. People thought that this was just another stunt I was pulling and I would eventually return to Atlanta, get a job in the field I graduated in and just work. Little did they know, I was determined to do this.

So I did. I did the research. It was depressing:

85% of business owners are college dropouts
Less than 3% of business owners in my county are minorities
Less than 1% of business owners in my county are African-American females.

I talked to wholesalers and vendors about the product I was looking to sell. Imagine this: You’re at a football stadium. Every seat in there represents a business owner in my chosen industry; women are represented with a red chair, men with a white chair, and people under the age of 50 have a dog sitting in the chair, and minorities (African American, Latino, Asian etc) have a person sitting in the chair with or without the dog. Looking at this stadium you would see, out of approximately 50,000 seats, 10 red chairs, 5 dogs and 2 people. Intimidated didn’t even begin to describe what I felt after calling vendor after vendor attempting to find out more information on the ins and outs of the industry.

People were rude. Many didn’t take me seriously and still don’t. Most probably think I will fail. I won’t. I refuse to. There is a need for my business and I will make it work. You may ask how I plan on doing that. I have no freaking clue! But what I do know is I am going to succeed for my happiness and for all the countries I plan to visit.

People sometimes ask when I want to start a family and have a baby and I always say, “My business is my baby.” Some days I am a proud mother and on others I’m disappointed. But I know if I keep supporting and guiding my business, one day it will stand on its own two feet and soar. Making “mommy” proud and hopefully independently wealthy as well.

If I had to give advice to someone wanting to start a business right now here is what I’d say:

1. Find a need and provide it.

2. Seek wisdom: “…a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Surround yourself with experts in all fields.

3. There will be bad days but remember you wouldn’t know it was bad unless you lived through good ones as well.

4. Having access to large sums of money will probably make the process easier, but trust me hard work, determination, and stubbornness can make you a success as well.

5. Have someone you can cry on, b*tch with, complain to, yell at and celebrate with because you will NEED them.

6. All work and no play make you a very dull person. BE HAPPY!

If I took a raw poll of business owners, I would bet that a large majority of them have jumped out of a perfectly good plane just for fun. To step out on faith and start your own business takes a lot of courage and a certain level of insanity. You have to push your fears aside and just believe. And the moment you jump out of the plane at 14,000 feet you believe you will make it safely to the ground. I did it…twice. Are you ready to jump?