Madam C.J Walker

In this week’s essay I will be writing about an entrepreneur and inventor: Madam C.J Walker or Sarah Breedlove(born December 23rd, 1867, died May 25th, 1919). What I will be getting into in this essay is: the nature of her business, how she got into that kind of work, and what I admire in this entrepreneur.

The Nature of Her Business

The nature of Walker’s business was cosmetics and hair care products for African american women. The hair care products that she sold were hair products that treated and repaired hair loss, dandruff, and other ailments of the hair(a lot of african american woman during that time struggled with their hair health because of a lack of products for them), also she sold a product that helped with hair growth.

How Did She Get Into That Kind of Work

Before becoming an entrepreneur Walker worked as a  laundress in St Louis Missouri, and barely earned any money. She had never really had a formal education until she was older, when she began going to school as much as she could with her daughter, but she was determined to give her daughter a better life(her husband had passed away when she was twenty and her daughter was two), and education. 

Like many african american women around that time she suffered from dandruff, baldness, and other scalp ailments, caused by skin disorders and the exposure of harsh products to clean the hair and clothes that she washed for a living. Because of her hair problems she experimented with both homemade and store bought hair care treatments to improve her hair health. In 1905 she was hired as a commission agent by a successful african american entrepreneur, Annie Turnbo Malone, who sold hair products. She had to move to Denver Colorado because of her new job. While she was working at her new job her husband(she had remarried), helped her create ads for a hair treatment product for African Americans that she was perfecting.

In 1907 she and her husband traveled around the South of the US promoting her products. By 1908 Walker had opened a factory and a beauty school, and her business began to take off. 

What I Admire About Her

The things that I admire about this entrepreneur are: that she got inspired by her bad hair health into creating something that helped other women that were having similar problems, she proved like quite a few other entrepreneurs again that not having a good education cannot limit you if you work hard, and the final thing that I admire about her is the fact that she is self made millionaire and inventor.

Conclusion

In this week’s essay I wrote about a self made millionaire, Madam C.J Walker.