Jenkins moved to Arizona about three years ago, after leaving the Bay Area, where she grew up, in search of more affordable housing. “I knew nothing about Arizona, but just knew [that] what I wanted, I wouldn’t be able to get in California, so I packed up my stuff and moved,” she said.

She’s worked in restaurants, the office of an acupuncture clinic, the Maricopa County School District, and as a nanny. “It’s been a lot of different jobs,” she said.
While we waited for customers to start arriving, Jenkins talked about her reasons for trying to create a business of her own.

Years into her career, she’s still trying to find her place in the economy.

“Every Black woman that I know, their struggle with the workforce is exhausting,” she said. “If someone is in a disagreement with you or someone else that you say something that someone doesn’t like, is you will be called aggressive or you will be made out to be an aggressor… So you literally go about the world in such a different way.”
Black business ownership is growing faster than it has in 30 years. According to the Small Business Administration, the share of Black households owning a business more than doubled between 2019 and 2022.

But entrepreneurship is hard — government data shows that roughly one in five new businesses do not survive their first year.

Jenkins is still just getting started. She’s spent about $1,500 and countless hours trying to get this boutique off the ground, sourcing inventory, setting up a website, and coordinating photo shoots.

VIEW LARGER Part of the decor at Changing Rivers Ranch, a micro wedding venue in north Phoenix.

Maria Hollenhorst/Marketplace