Women & Minority Entrepreneurs

Are women and minorities pursuing the entrepreneurial dream because they perceive diminished opportunities elsewhere or simply because they want to control their own destinies?

"For those people who are entrepreneurs in spirit, it's something they've carried with them for a long time," says George Johnson, 47, co-owner with David Moore (left) of Quality Croutons Inc., a $6.5 million company in Chicago. "Perhaps it starts as nothing but a small kernel inside them, but as they grow older and learn more, the desire eventually becomes all-consuming."

"Historically, there's been a much lower proportion of the black population in entrepreneurship" relative to their numbers in the population, says Timothy Bates, professor of urban and labor affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit. "Today, [there is] tremendous growth in [black] self-employment." Apparently Johnson, who jumped off the corporate fast track to start his firm, is part of a growing trend.

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This article was originally published in the January 1996 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Women & Minority Entrepreneurs.