Small businesses go under for a multitude of reasons – lack of funding, poor timing, inability to meet demand, poor economic structure, etc. For a solopreneur wearing multiple hats, the pressure to succeed can be weighty, and burnout can feel like an inevitable result. This month is Mental Wellness Awareness Month; I’d like to help you avoid burnout. We already face a deficit as a Black female solopreneur: being Black and being female. Being business owners on top of that creates an intersection that is rife with overwhelm, stress-inducing health issues, and an imbalance between life and work.

I’ve heard so many women say they don’t like “selling themselves” online, at expos, or conferences. When it comes to getting to talking about yourself, does it feel like standing on a virtual street corner? It can feel that way to many women. There’s a difference between selling yourself and selling your brand. YOU are the person–the story behind the brand that makes it what it is. Using your story to engage others with your work is brand storytelling. When you use that storied brand to convert your audience into clients . . . that’s marketing.

Every good recipe can be tweaked and improved. But remove any ingredient, and you’ll have a completely different dish. Take chocolate cake, for instance. Use baking soda instead of baking powder, and you’ll get brownies. Sure, it’s still delicious, but not what you aimed to create. The same can be said for what you put into your business. Remove or change one part of your process, and the result could look quite different. If you can’t pay for the sitter this week, it might mean you’re working from home with a screaming toddler and five days of client meetings shuffle into next week. What if we take away your trade magazine subscription? Now you’re no longer up to date on the latest trends in your field, leaving you and your clients lagging behind the competition.

Growing up, how much did we learn about finance? Children are rarely let in on the inner workings of the family fiscal foundation that is running a household. Unless a family member was a business owner, you were probably never exposed to the financial hurdles of running an empire of your own. So, where do we find information about getting, growing, and guarding our money?

As a Black woman, finding my tribe became a rite of passage. After spending time in Corporate America as an only or (at best) as one of few, I realized that having a community around me that looks like me was paramount to my success. This may not be for everyone, as we each have our own core values. Your tribe could be people who think like you, dress like you, eat like you, pray like you. Whatever the makeup of your tribe, I know from experience that, unless you’re a soror in a well-organized chapter, you don’t likely have a built-in group of like-minded individuals just sitting around waiting to pour into you and your endeavors.

Being slapped in the face with your gender and race is exhausting. Being devalued due to the same is demoralizing, degrading, and devastating. Unfortunately, that is what it means to be a Black woman in Corporate America. We make 37% less than our white male peers and 20% less than white women. The average woman would have to work until March 15th of the following year (approximately 75 more days) to earn the annual salary of the average man. A Black woman would have to work until August 3rd (215 more days) to reach the pay of her white male counterpart. According to the American Association of University Women, Black women won’t achieve wage equity until 2369. This staggering reality has led many Black women to leave Corporate America to venture into entrepreneurship.