NEW HAVEN — When Sheena Postell noticed that everything turned virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she took advantage of the opportunity by starting a social media company at the beginning of this year.

Even though Postell was hesitant to quit her full-time job to pursue entrepreneurship, she said the pandemic pushed everyone against the wall to the point that people started to trust their own dreams. Her startup is called Bilonn’s Vision.

“At the end of the day, failure is just added experience to my resume — so if it fails, it fails, but if it goes, it goes,” Postell said. “I would never know unless I try.”

With about a half-a-year since Postell put around $1,200-2,500 into her business, she said she has seen a great turnaround, and it was “the best decision I’ve ever made.”

“I definitely see us at the table,” Postell said of the future she envisions for Black entrepreneurs. “I definitely see Black women and men of entrepreneurship really making a huge, bigger statement in this country and more so that corporations can really open the door for us and make more seats at the table.”

As Black Business Month is coming to an end, local owners reflected on challenges they faced starting a business and going through the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting community support and networking as the keys to success.

Eyewear company Positivelee started in 2020 when owner Daleesha Bethea was laid off from her 9-to-5 job. Bethea said she loves sunglasses, so she turned it into a business. The process was relatively easy, she said, given the state of social media.

“I get it from my dad,” Bethea said. “I’m such a hustler, a go-getter. When I have a thought, an idea, I’d go for it. So it wasn’t hard at all. I just pushed myself.”

However, the sisters said their business has been growing ever since, in part due to networking and community events. Melissa Murphy said there are more resources out there in terms of capital and support for Black entrepreneurs than she thought there would be.

“Sometimes, it can be a little limited, but the more you network, the more you do events like this, it opens a lot more resources for all of us,” Melissa Murphy said, noting that all soon-to-be entrepreneurs need to do is to reach out.

The book she showcased aims to uplift Black children, sending a message that they can be anything they want to be. She said she wrote this book since her son, who now is in high school, was in kindergarten.

When Person decided to put aside her fear of failing and started to think about publishing, it was easy for her to look for inexpensive illustrators and support through Black entrepreneurs events.

“Once you get into the right circles or you wake up with the right people, those opportunities kind of sometimes just fall in your lap,” Person said.

She started her business because she wanted to portray a whimsical, magical representation of BIPOC community members — something society looked over at the time.

The pandemic hit Ladson hard, as the main way she sold, besides from online, was to attend pop-up events, all of which were canceled for almost two years. Now that everything is back, Ladson said the future of Black-owned businesses is bright.

“I think there’s going to be a lot more folks that are out here doing their things,” Ladson said. “People are so talented, Black women in particular, so talented, multifaceted.”

Supporting local businesses, especially Black-owned, also translates to support for generational wealth and employment for their communities, Melissa Murphy said.

“They’ll all go back to the community,” she said. “Your community is where you came from. That’s where you started. So if you want to get out of the community, you gotta support the community to show that anybody can make it.”

Person said New Haven’s business owners can benefit from each other, as well as the community, and that events like Black Wall Street would help portray the city to outsiders that New Haven is something else.

“There’s more to New Haven than what you see on the news, there’s more than just the shootings,” she said. “It’s more than just where Yale is. There’s a lot of great things happening in New Haven.”