Black women entrepreneurs on the rise: these women have carved out niches for themselves in their respective fields, while creating new million dollar enterprises

Black Enterprise, August, 1996 by Lloyd Gite, Dawn M. Baskerville

These women have carved out niches for themselves in their respective fields, while creating new million dollar enterprises

NO LONGER RELEGATED SOLELY TO SUCH traditional business as catering, child care and hair care, women entrepreneurs are now thriving in fields where few women have gone before--from engineering to construction to computer design. Many of these trend setters and trailblazers are doing more than just holding their own in these male-dominated industries: Their businesses are generating millions of dollars in revenues and employing hundreds of people.

In fact, women own more than 30% of the 21 million businesses in the country. Their earnings are rising twice as fast as the rate of all other companies, according to the National Association of Women Business Owners in Silver Spring, Maryland. These women-owned businesses currently employ one-quarter of America's entire workforce.

Despite these newsworthy breakthroughs, black women business owners, with their bold and inspiring success stories, have not been given their due. Even in publications designed to highlight the achievements of women in business, black women are sorely underrepresented.

Against this backdrop, BLACK ENTERPRISE profiles seven women whose enterprising instincts and results simply cannot be overlooked. Their businesses range from floral design to nuclear engineering. Each has been in business for between three and 10 years, and has annual sales of at least $1 million and 10 or more employees. They have all dodged a different set of slings and arrows to establish their unique niche in the marketplace. Sharing that never-say-die entrepreneurial spirit, they aim to reach the top of their field--and are all well on their way.

Margie Lewis: President and CEO, Parallax

As a child, Margie Lewis spent hours reading fantasy and science fiction. So, "it was only natural that I would develop an interest in space and nuclear power," says the 38-year-old nuclear engineer. Lewis has transformed those childhood daydreams into a $13 million enterprise, Parallax Inc., an engineering and environmental management company with offices in Maryland, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Kentucky.

The 160-employee firm inspects nuclear power plants, implements safety procedures and cleans up hazardous and nuclear waste at plants and weapons complexes across the nation. Seventy percent of her business comes from private firms, such as Westinghouse and Lockheed-Martin. The remainder comes from such federal clients as the Department of Energy and the Navy.

Lewis, who holds a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering from Georgia Tech, worked as a safety advisor at nuclear power plants and was an inspector with the Nuclear Regulatory Agency in Washington. After 14 years of working for someone else, Lewis branched out on her own. "I thought I could provide a better service to customers than the larger companies, who were more concerned with just the bottom line," recounts the shrewd entrepreneur who opened Parallax's doors in 1993.

Lewis launched the business out of her home with $10,000 in personal savings. Her first contract was with the Department of Energy. After successfully completing the 18-month, $2 million project, Parallax began to grow by leaps and bounds.

By the end of its inaugural year, the firm had sales of $700,000. A year later, revenues had shot up to $2.2 million. By increasing her product base to include the sale of nuclear management computer software, soliciting customer feedback and making herself easily accessible to clients, Lewis boosted the company's sales to $13 million last year.

She expects '96 revenues to reach $23 million and hit $50 million by next year, explaining that environmental clean-up is a very lucrative industry. To reach that mark, Lewis plans to put a product on the shelf that will handle hazardous waste.

In the near future, companies with waste management needs and limited funds will be able to purchase Parallax's environmental computer software. Lewis also intends to go after huge construction contracts next year.

With the wheels in motion, Lewis says that she will expand internationally. A challenge for sure but par for the course for a woman accustomed to taking nontraditional routes.

Pauline C. Brooks: President and CEO, Management Technology Inc.

Any financier who has ever doubted a female entrepreneur's ability to grow a business on a shoestring budget has never met Pauline C. Brooks. What the 48-year-old president of Management Technology Inc. may have lacked in start-up capital, she compensated for by the sheer force of her faith, vision and determination.

Named by Ernst & Young as the 1995 Entrepreneur of the Year (woman-owned business category) for the Washington, D.C.-area, Brooks has now been officially recognized as a formidable business owner with a record of success. Nearly 10 years ago, Brooks started out with a two-room operation, bankrolled with $1,000 of her personal savings. Today, MTI, based in Clinton, Maryland, has eight branches nationwide, 600 employees and more than $25 million in sales revenues.