BHM Founders Features: Cole Banks, Founder of Sisters Traveling Solo
Monica Motivates was created by founder Monica McCoy to help women, Black and Latinx, and underrepresented founders gain critical access to capital and successfully launch their dreams.
Throughout February, in honor of the spirit of Black History Month, we’ve featured founders who are making incredible strides in their businesses.
In the final installment of this month’s series, we’ve featured Cole Banks, founder of Sisters Traveling Solo. A company created to empower Sisters to travel solo and to travel in general with a mission to connect, empower, inspire, and support Sisters.
Recently, Monica Motivates had the opportunity to ask Banks to share more about her journey as a founder.
In a few sentences tell us a little about your business — the clients you serve and the services you provide.
Our company was founded to inspire women of color to travel solo and to travel in general. We offer group trips to different parts of the world. From traditional trips to places like Paris, to our cultural trips to places like Ghana, which allow you to immerse yourself in another culture. Our company meets the needs of both the beginner and the most experienced traveler.
Describe the moment you decided to start your business. What was the inspiration behind it?
I started our travel community after reading a comment online that said “black women shouldn’t travel solo”. Being a black woman who travels solo I knew that wasn’t true. So I started a community for other black women who traveled solo. Within two years that community grew to 50,000 women organically. A year after starting the Facebook group, I started Sisters Traveling Solo company.
All great businesses, at their core, are providing solutions to life’s challenges. What challenges does your business aim to solve for your customers/clients?
Our service allows our customers to show up in a different country knowing that their trip has been fully planned. They don’t have to worry about lodging, tours, or transportation; our company plans all that for them. They get to just show up and have the experience of their life.
What does being a founder/entrepreneur mean to you?
Being an entrepreneur, to me, means that I’m executing the vision that was given to me. That I wasn’t afraid, and I didn’t make any excuses.
We know that founders of color face a number of challenges in not only creating but successfully operating their own businesses. As efforts are made nationally and globally to create racial equity across industries, what role do you believe founders of color can have?
I said during my panel session with Travel and Leisure magazine that when you are in a position of power that you have to speak up and call out the inequalities you see. In the travel space, as I’m sure your readers can see when they look at magazines, images at the airport, or on a hotel’s website that diversity is lacking in the travel space. We don’t get a fair share.
Now that my company has become a multimillion-dollar travel brand. We did so before reaching this status, but now our voice is just much louder. And it has more of an impact.
Is there a founder of color, historically or present day, who inspires you? And why?
I’m inspired by any woman of color who ventures out and does her own thing knowing all the challenges we face. That takes courage!
What’s your one piece of advice to someone who dreams of becoming a founder/entrepreneur?
Do the thing you love, and not the thing people have convinced you to do because they think you’ll be good at it.
Learn more about Sisters Traveling Solo:www.sisterstravelingsolo.com
In a few sentences tell us a little about your business — the clients you serve and the services you provide.
Our company was founded to inspire women of color to travel solo and to travel in general. We offer group trips to different parts of the world. From traditional trips to places like Paris, to our cultural trips to places like Ghana, which allow you to immerse yourself in another culture. Our company meets the needs of both the beginner and the most experienced traveler.
Describe the moment you decided to start your business. What was the inspiration behind it?
I started our travel community after reading a comment online that said “black women shouldn’t travel solo”. Being a black woman who travels solo I knew that wasn’t true. So I started a community for other black women who traveled solo. Within two years that community grew to 50,000 women organically. A year after starting the Facebook group, I started Sisters Traveling Solo company.
All great businesses, at their core, are providing solutions to life’s challenges. What challenges does your business aim to solve for your customers/clients?
Our service allows our customers to show up in a different country knowing that their trip has been fully planned. They don’t have to worry about lodging, tours, or transportation; our company plans all that for them. They get to just show up and have the experience of their life.
What does being a founder/entrepreneur mean to you?
Being an entrepreneur, to me, means that I’m executing the vision that was given to me. That I wasn’t afraid, and I didn’t make any excuses.
We know that founders of color face a number of challenges in not only creating but successfully operating their own businesses. As efforts are made nationally and globally to create racial equity across industries, what role do you believe founders of color can have?
I said during my panel session with Travel and Leisure magazine that when you are in a position of power that you have to speak up and call out the inequalities you see. In the travel space, as I’m sure your readers can see when they look at magazines, images at the airport, or on a hotel’s website that diversity is lacking in the travel space. We don’t get a fair share.
Now that my company has become a multimillion-dollar travel brand. We did so before reaching this status, but now our voice is just much louder. And it has more of an impact.
Is there a founder of color, historically or present day, who inspires you? And why?
I’m inspired by any woman of color who ventures out and does her own thing knowing all the challenges we face. That takes courage!
What’s your one piece of advice to someone who dreams of becoming a founder/entrepreneur?
Do the thing you love, and not the thing people have convinced you to do because they think you’ll be good at it.
Learn more about Sisters Traveling Solo:www.sisterstravelingsolo.com