Aisha Taylor Issah recently walked into her Atlanta store, the Sistah Shop, to see an entire display wall empty.
A “flash mob” of shoppers, led by other local business owners, had heeded Taylor Issah’s online pleas to help save her struggling shop, which she was on the brink of losing. A crowd of customers purchased $12,000 worth of merchandise in a single day.
“I didn’t really expect a response, and I certainly didn’t expect a response like this,” she said. “All over the country, folks have seen the viral videos and are shopping with us, donating and rallying behind us to try to keep the store open.”
Her retail store features more than 100 Black women-owned brands from around the country, Taylor Issah said. She carries everything from clothing and beauty products to decor and home goods. She also runs a multicity small business expo for entrepreneurial women of color.
So when other Black entrepreneurs used their social media platforms to uplift the Sistah Shop in her time of need, it brought her purpose full circle.
“I’m trying to figure out how I can help others when I can’t even help myself,” Taylor Issah said. “It was really affirming to have the support of the community where I basically have dedicated my whole life to supporting others.”
David Shands and Nehemiah Davis are two entrepreneurs in Atlanta who seek out ways to support other local businesses. Davis came up with the idea of a shopping “flash mob” when he lived in Philadelphia and wanted to find businesses in Atlanta that need boosting.
“I could give her a check for $1,000 — ‘Here’s $2,000, here’s $5,000′ — but that won’t change her situation,” Davis said. “We were able to get hundreds of people to come to her store, hundreds of people to support online, all because we decided to put this out.”
One video posted online about the Sept. 8 shopping event has garnered nearly 4 million views.
On top of bringing financial support to the shop, Shands offered Taylor Issah coaching and mentoring to help make her business stronger. As a business coach, Shands targets entrepreneurs making less than $200,000 a year. He shares insights he gained after he became a full-time entrepreneur in 2012.
“If you give somebody a fish and they don’t know how to fish, they’ll keep asking you for fish,” Shands said. “But we want to give her an opportunity to learn and grow as an entrepreneur as well.”
Atlanta has a strong Black business community, Shands said. Business growth across metro Atlanta surged after the pandemic, with the largest uptick coming from Black-owned businesses. From 2017 to 2021, the rate of new Black-owned employer firms in the metro Atlanta area grew by 57.3%, the most of any racial group, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported.
But Taylor Issah’s shop, which opened on Juneteenth weekend in 2022 in Midtown’s Atlantic Station, is not alone in facing financial hardship. At a recent gathering of Atlanta’s Black entrepreneurs, many spoke about the difficulties they, too, are dealing with this year. Several Black small businesses are shutting their doors.
While businesses did experience growth after the pandemic and unemployment remains low, higher interest rates and efforts to reduce inflation have slowed the economy. Some have struggled with sales numbers, and it is more difficult to get loans, the AJC has reported.
Davis said he plans to start regularly hosting “flash mobs” to support other Black-owned businesses in Atlanta and has had people in other cities across the nation reach out to learn how they can do the same.
“This one initiative is going to help a lot of other businesses, and it’s going to allow other people to get involved and start giving back to make a difference,” Davis said.
Will the Sistah Shop be saved? Taylor Issah said the store is not out of the woods yet, but she is much more optimistic now.
Whatever happens, she said, they’ll keep serving Black women entrepreneurs.
“It may or may not look like what it looks like now, but either way we’re going to continue to do this work,” she said.
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