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ince 2019, the quarterly marketplace and social event, When Queens Link Up, has been growing and prospering across Pensacola. When Queens Link Up (WQLU) not only boasts everything from artisan goods, organic and natural beauty products to clothing, spiritual items, crystals and jewelry, but it is also dedicated to uplifting and empowering Black women entrepreneurs. Event curator, Tuesday Night, is a mother, teacher, author and poet, owner of the boutique PR firm PUSH Publicity Inc. and owner of Waist Me Knot, a handmade African waist bead company.
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Queens Link Up
EMPOWERING BLACK WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS By Dakota Parks
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Knight gained her entrepreneurial spirit from her mother, who raised her as a single parent while managing and spearheading her own commercial and residential cleaning business in Pensacola. Inspired by her mother, Knight first founded the Queen Up Foundation as a summer camp in Tallahassee to empower young Black women before expanding from her nonprofit to help eliminate resource gaps and barriers to entrepreneurship in her hometown. “I was mentoring young girls, and I knew I had to reach the mothers too,” Knight explained. “I saw this problem in our community. There were a bunch of women circling around looking for business resources that were right in front of their faces. I wanted to get them in a room together where they would be able to bounce off each other, spread information they knew, and then, I could help them fill in what was missing.”
The quarterly event features live music and entertainment, a marketplace with more than 20 vendors, where the public can shop locallymade goods, and business workshops to help the small businesses grow. These workshops include promotion, social media, Google business and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) basics as well as a quarterly challenge like exploring a partnership, launching a new product or editing business websites to keep the companies progressing. According to American Express, Black women are the largest group of minority entrepreneurs in the country and they are opening businesses faster than any other race in America. For Knight, these workshops and challenges are fundamental to curbing disparities in minority entrepreneurship in obtaining credit, mentorship and a lack of education in financial literacy. “While we are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, we
