Thread by @ShontaviaJEsq

Black women in academia, it’s time for you to see yourself as an entrepreneur.

Here’s why and how:

You are an expert—you know a ton about your field. You’ve beat crazy odds. You’re starting ahead of the curve in terms of knowledge level

Professors have a ton of opportunities to make money outside of the university. Speaking, consulting, writing, content creation, etc are low hanging fruit.

Most tenure-track and tenured roles at universities allow you so many hours per week or month for outside activities, no matter what your department chair says. Now, if you’re untenured, you’ll have to decide whether and how to approach that.

All university politics is local, to quote/paraphrase something @AuntieFeminist told me years ago. Some colleagues will hate on you no matter what you do with your non-university time. My approach has always been to ignore the naysayers. BUT, a few recommendations:

Set clear expectations with your dean/department chair. IMO, the two best times to set these are when you take a new job and when you first get tenure

Stop doing your university’s grunt work. This is one reason you “don’t have time” right now to do other things. All of that invisible labor ain’t translating into tenure and promotion, Sis. theatlantic.com/education/arch…

Universities are incapable of providing you economic independence. Even the highest paid women professors in America on this (somewhat/dated list) aren’t making FREEDOM money. thebestschools.org/magazine/highe…

I’m not saying throw away your tenured position at all. I’m just saying you’re already the expert, so build a business and brand around yourself that multiplies your revenue streams and your options. You’ve earned it.

So here’s how you can get started: check out your university’s conflicts of interest policy. Know exactly what it allows and doesn’t allow. Also know what you have to disclose

Know your university’s intellectual property policy. Don’t go out build something that your university can claim ownership to, if you’re building it as your side hustle for yourself. Get independent counsel if you need to—your university’s lawyers have ONE client; the university.

Create a business organizational structure for your activities (LLC, corporation, nonprofit, etc). IDC if you’re just traveling around speaking about your topic for $500 honoraria (charge more Sis).

Don’t get caught up in the LLC Twitter nonsense—YOU PROBABLY NEED ONE. A DBA doesn’t cut it.

@carlissc & I had a dope convo about this years ago. She is a tenured biz law professor & former biz/startup lawyer with tons of experience on this space:

Get a separate tax EIN attached it to your business. When you get those agreements & W-9 forms from universities who invite you to speak, they’re probably asking you to share you SSN.

Do you really want to email/fax that back and forth?

Open a separate bank account for your new activity and put all the honorarium checks in there. Also, hire an accountant to help you create a system for tracking all of this. It feels more intimidating than it actually is.

At this point, I should also say that academia is really good at making you feel like money is a dirty word and that research and scholarship are most pure when disconnected from getting paid. I won’t cuss, but....nah. It’s just that they don’t want to pay YOU.

Many of us feel early on that our scholarship is bigger than publication placements. I felt like this eeeeearly on and got an incredible amount of negativity from academics because of it. I felt like I didn’t belong because of it.

Don’t be detracted if you want more for yourself & your career. That school you’re at isn’t the only one on the planet. Apply for another position. If you move, negotiate for exactly what you want. If you stay, use your offer as leverage. Universities negotiate so. many. things.

In your position, do everything you need to get and keep tenure. But as an entrepreneur, treat em like strangers. Use your own laptop. Get a separate email address. Add a google voice line to your cell so people aren’t calling your office phone.

Buy your own domain name—it would be great if it’s for your personal name AND your business name if you have one. To quote @IPProfEvans, be the CEO of Me, first, last and always.

This is not disloyal to your institution. The activity could be considered scholarship AND service too. I’m in a working group studying how to incorporate innovation & entrepreneurship into tenure and promotion: ptie.org

Black women academics often undercharge. You MUST have a partner who can help navigate money Qs & pricing. @tressiemcphd has given 🔥 advice about this on @HearToSlay.

Having worked with 1000s of women @ this point, most of us are underpriced.🤷🏾‍♀️

luminarypodcasts.com/listen/roxane-…

Some words about charging. First of all, if you don’t read another word about charging for speaking, read @TaraJFrank’s thread:

https://twitter.com/tarajfrank/status/1340342014840369154

Second, people pay for messages and work with messengers they understand. I’m not saying *dumb down* your work, but I do believe academics have to learn how to make their research accessible.

If you’ve never written public scholarship (meaning articles, blog posts, or other writings), try it. Consider reading and pitching @ConversationUS. Their expertise and guidance was invaluable to me when I started doing this work.

Create a public-facing message that a smart 10th grader would understand. That’s no shade to the public, it’s just that no one wants your $10 words. 🤷🏾‍♀️. Check out Michigan State’s academic toolkit for some excellent resources:

comms.msu.edu/resources/acad…

Since entering higher ed (in 2008), I’ve always felt a bit like a fish out of water. Thankfully, I had a number of supportive colleagues at my first TT institution (@DrakeLawSchool). When I left 3 years ago, I had full tenure, an endowed chair and a directorship

Today, I have an administrative position at an R1 university and tenure. I also have the space and autonomy to run my business and brand the way I choose. It’s not a bad set up.

Gotta say this - it helps to have a group you can trust up & down the academic hierarchy. People who know when to retweet you AND when to stay silent.

People who know when to stay out of your videos, dancin...when they need to.

There's levels to this...we need a🚪 convo TBH.

Finally, let me note that I'm not one of those "everybody needs to be a full-time entrepreneur" types. Everybody isn't built for it and that's fine. BUT, I do think we owe it to ourselves to be entrepreneurIAL.

These same tips will help you be more intrepreneurial @ work too. I'm amazed at how many of the best internal institutional opportunities are never posted, attached to an application or the result of a RFP.

Sometimes it's just who knows you.

I want to see us win. Look at the data. We make up such a small percentage of academia & continue to make a way out of no way.

It's time to stop nickel-and-diming our way through. No, it's not JUST about money, but having more of it definitely helps. 🤷🏾‍♀️

nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/disp…