Rachel Holmes
Founder & director
Rachel is an 20 year old aspiring businesswoman based in the Bay Area. Working towards her goals as a future business exec, Rachel noticed how few black women she saw in this career path. She decided to create Black Girls Mean Business to give girls like her the confidence and skills to be successful in the corporate workforce.
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In addition to managing BGMB, Rachel spent her time in high school as a competitive artistic swimmer where she uses her platform as a high level African American swimmer to advocate for diversity within the sport. She was an activist in her community, organizing BLM events with her Black Student Union, for which she was an officer. Rachel is also an artist and an excellent student.
She is currently attending UC Berkeley and majoring in Media Studies with a concentration in Global Cultural Studies & minoring in Theater & Performance Studies. She hopes to pursue a career at the intersection of business, media, and entertainment while continuing to grow BGMB. At UC Berkeley, Rachel started a competitive Artistic Swimming Team and is heavily involved in the UC Rally Committee. She also works for the university's department of Student Affairs as a Social Media & Writing Team Liaison/Content Creator.
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Connect with Rachel for interviews or partnerships:
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Black Girls Mean Business Beginnings
Officially founded June 2021
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Black Girls Mean Business originally started as an idea in 2019 called Funds4Females. Rachel and a classmate came up with the idea for a district wide business plan competition which they won first place for. It was supposed to be a nonprofit that gives grants to female entrepreneurs and start-ups.
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Later that year Rachel started working on her Girl Scout Gold Award. The Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve. It is an 80+ hour project that must leave a lasting positive impact on your community. Rachel was inspired by Futures4Females, but wanted to make it more specific to black women, who she felt were the most marginalized in the business world. Black Girls Mean Business was initially going to be a website where black girls could connect with business mentors and chat virtually. But Rachel expanded the program to include workshops and face-to-face connections.
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The program was initially supposed to take place in-person in the Bay Area, using local schools and businesses as meeting places. However, with the progression of Covid-19 it quickly became clear that wouldn't be possible. So Rachel transitioned her program to be completely virtual, which ended up being beneficial because it opened the program to all black girls in the U.S. and made the workshops much more accessible. She developed the program with the help of her Girl Scout mentor, family, and friends who offered her advice and connections.
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At 17 years old, Rachel officially launched Black Girls Mean Business in June of 2021 with 4 workshops and independently connected mentoring. The program received a lot of praise in its first year for the professionalism of the workshops and the quality of the speakers. However, it needed a lot of improvements, so Rachel adapted the program to be 6 workshops with mentoring included at these events and changed the way she approached marketing.
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Since it is still in its early years, the program is not perfect, but Rachel continues to adapt and expand. This year she brought in a team of youth volunteers to help with the workload, published a website, and is working on financials for the program like setting up a bank account. The program can run without an income, however the money would allow for a more professional media presence, broader marketing reach, grants for the participants, and field trips to colleges. She hopes to have the program open to receive donations by the end of the year. For now, you can support Black Girls Mean Business by following our Instagram, sharing the program with family and friends, and continuing to follow our journey.
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