Coming from a turbulent past, Charlene Izere was faced with a range of issues when she first entered the entrepreneurial space. Now, as an owner of three successful and thriving businesses, she wishes to guide and support other black women who face similar challenges along their entrepreneurial journey.
Charlene was born in war-torn Rwanda. After fleeing to the US, her family did not have much to live on. Although Charlene is now highly successful and respected amongst her community, her upbringing was far from this. Her family was living off food stamps and they found it hard to make ends meet. As refugees, there was not a lot to go around the table. However, going through all of this only made her stronger and allowed her to gain new and insightful perspectives for her ventures.
The beginning of Charlene’s success can be attributed to her first job in Boston where she started her first job after graduating from university. Living in a city with high living costs without any financial support, it was necessary for her to find ways to supplement her income in order to afford rent, groceries, transportation and other day to day requirements. Charlene ended up working multiple jobs to sustain herself. In order to simply survive, she worked for a non-profit (for little pay), cleaned houses, and worked as a babysitter. However, it was this experience that helped her to gain new and insightful ideas for her future ventures to come.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Charlene was an online fitness coach. Through her stint in this role, she gained all the knowledge required on how to scale a business successfully as a business owner. From there, Charlene dedicated herself to creating businesses with an uncapped income, which had previously been an unattainable dream to her. Her journey though was not all smooth sailing however, as a black woman and a first generation entrepreneur in her family. With no reference, no financial support and no network, she had to build her business from the ground up, day by day and step by step.
From her side gig as an online fitness mentor, Charlene then began to diversify her entrepreneurship goals and ventures. At present, she owns three successful ventures, all of which are intended to help black women create more power and independence in their lives. Melanin and Money is one of her ventures that is committed to building empires led by Black women. This hub was created to help others as she did not want others to face what she faced when they started their own ventures. She is also the owner of Wellness Delivered, a self-care and community-care venture, as well as Soulful Systems, an online business management agency that she was able to scale to multiple 6 figures in less than 6 months.
Follow Charlene on Instagram @charleneizere
