Even at a young age, Brittany Yates knows from experience how to make her entrepreneurship dreams come true, and she is ready and willing to share them with the rest of the world.
Yates, just recently turned 25 and working on her master’s degree, is already a successful entrepreneur and an author on the rise. In 2011 she started her own nonprofit company called Endless Dreams Foundation, while still an undergraduate, to help youth in the community on the right track, regarding college and work. On top of maintaining that business she has also had a consulting company since 2014 that she uses to help other up-and-coming entrepreneurs learn the ropes.
“I help either aspiring entrepreneurs or established entrepreneurs basically set a solid foundation for their business, or … help them get out of that circle that they’ve been going around in,” Yates said about her consulting business, Brittany Love Consulting. “[I] help their business grow, help them become sustainable.”
Currently located in the Washington D.C. area, Yates runs her businesses from there as well as from greater Charlotte, North Carolina, where she attended Johnson C. Smith University and started her first business in entrepreneurship.
In the Washington D.C. area,” Yates said, “everybody’s an entrepreneur.” Luckily though, that serves to help her business. “It’s a lot of competition, [but] also a lot of opportunity for networking” as Yates puts it, so entrepreneurs are all able to get the word out about their individual businesses despite the high number of them that are there.”
Yates had two different experiences getting funding for her various business projects. With the nonprofit company, she had to pay a lot of money out of her own pocket to begin with, because she had to self-produce events most of the time. However, once a business like that grows, there are grants to apply for, and the community and other corporations who are willing to contribute to the cause. With her consulting business, Yates admitted to a lot of overhead costs to produce events and take on clients.
“But I always tell people that you don’t need a ton of money to start a business, it all depends on what type of business you’re starting,” Yates added.
Although she’s a young entrepreneur, Yates says she never felt any pushback because of her age. Having worked with youth when she first began, she felt that they looked up to her because she was a college student. Even the more established entrepreneurs she worked with through her consulting business were motivated by her because she is so young, so it actually ended up being a benefit for her.
Yates also commented on the entrepreneurship experience as a young woman, which luckily also didn’t give her any disadvantage. “It’s the 21st century, there’s women leaders, there are women CEOs … I don’t think that I was treated any different,” Yates said proudly. The history of men having been known to be paid more or put in higher positions may have made or work harder, but did not limit her at all, she added.
Throughout her journey to become this successful entrepreneur at such a young age, Yates kept God with her, and prayed about everything in her life. She discusses this aspect of her life with readers in her book, “The Fundamental Journey of Entrepreneurship Through Prayer.”
Published through Anointed Press Publishing, Yates’s text gives readers, who are likely aspiring entrepreneurs, a look into her experience so that they can learn from her mistakes and decide if they want to take the same path that she chose.
“I don’t think that people have to learn from their own mistakes, I think that people can learn from other people’s mistakes” she expressed.
Yates stresses in her text the constant praying she made throughout her journey and hopes that readers take away from the text the importance of her relationship with God, because it made all the difference in her overall experience.
“When I was younger, I always wanted to do two things: I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I always wanted to be an author,” Yates said. She has accomplished both goals before even being done with school, which just goes to show how far hard work can get a person.
Anyone who would like to follow more of Brittany Yates’s journey can find her on Facebook, follow @_IAmBLove on Twitter or @IAmBrittanyLove on Instagram, or can visit her website, BrittanyLove.com. She can be contacted at info@BrittanyLove.com.
Steph Elizondo is an intern at Lioness. The 21-year-old Western New England University (WNEU) junior is an English-Literature major. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine at WNEU, as well as a staff writer for the school’s newspaper. She enjoys writing stories and poetry creatively, as well as essays and articles professionally. She hopes to become a professional writer and editor.
Awesome article, it was inspiring.