At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Camellia Alise Spa, owned and operated by Lyndsey Brantley, faced an existential threat to its business.
As a Black woman-owned day spa in the heart of Houston, the business was built on close, intimate human interaction—physical touch in the form of massages, pedicures, etc. and face-to-face consultations—the very things discouraged during the pandemic. Globally and locally, death rates mounted, consumer demand evaporated and shutdowns swept across the world.
The impact on Black-owned businesses was particularly devastating. Nationally, roughly 41% of Black-owned small businesses closed during the pandemic, compared to 17% of white-owned businesses, according to research conducted by the University of California at Santa Cruz. In Houston, while a precise closure rate isn’t readily available, many Black entrepreneurs struggled to stay afloat amid steep unemployment and structural inequities.
Yet, today, Camellia Alise Spa is alive and well—not only surviving COVID, but growing and thriving through subsequent challenges.
But how?
Reinvention as rescue
During those critical early days of the pandemic, Brantley pivoted rather than panic.
“As a spa, we have to be able to touch people. Well, we weren’t able to do that, and it was very limited,” said Brantley. “So, we took the things that we already had when we were making skincare products and we started making hand sanitizer and things that people really needed during the pandemic.
“That is what kept our doors open.”
That pivot—leveraging existing expertise and resources—helped keep Camellia Alise’s doors open during the darkest months.
Similarly, Kiley Summers, co-owner (with his wife) of SpenDebt—a startup launched just two years before COVID—was forced to transform.
“Coming out of the pandemic, you heard so many horror stories. A lot of people weren’t working. Debt was on the rise. It was chaotic in terms of individual people’s financial health,” recalled Summers. He was confident that SpenDebt’s micropayment services, which allowed individuals to pay down their debt while making daily purchases (gas, lunch, etc.), could help many if they could expand their market.
In the most basic terms, SpenDebt is an app that helps people pay off debt by taking a small amount of money and directing it toward the debt every time they swipe their debit card or make a banking transaction.
“We were direct-to-consumer only at the time. We asked ourselves, ‘How can we take this and turn it into a business-to-business opportunity?’” said Summers, whose team did just that.
The pivot SpenDebt made during the pandemic is still opening it to new opportunities today.
“We use our micropayment solutions to help companies recover accounts receivable from their customers on a daily basis,” Summers said of the move that has allowed SpenDebt to partner with institutions that had receivables to collect, creating a new revenue channel for Summers’s company that continues to grow.
Faith as foundation
Though most do not consider faith a viable part of a business resiliency plan, Summers begs to differ.
“Hebrews 11:6 says, ‘It’s impossible to please God without faith.’ A gentleman told me this as I was transitioning from corporate America to entrepreneurship, and I never forgot that,” said the St. Louis-born Summers. “I know it sounds cliché. I know it sounds kind of odd, but this whole business was built on faith.”
Summers also credits family.
“My wife (Ty’Lisha) has been my rock. She’s my co-founder, my life partner, my everything,” said Summers. “And just being at home with my family, that was kind of fuel to have the energy to stay positive, to stay forward, to keep taking those steps.
“Even when I personally wanted to give up, it was just seeing them and being around them that kept me going.”
Community support
Additionally, Summers embodied the belief that “faith without works is dead.” Much of Summers’s work involved actively connecting with community resources and living the Kwanzaa principle Ujamaa (cooperative economics).
Summers likewise credits community infrastructure (like the Houston Area Urban League’s Small Business University workshops) with teaching him the ins and outs of entrepreneurship—knowledge he lacked when he entered business just before the pandemic.
Additionally, Summers shares information on pitch competitions and grant opportunities with fellow entrepreneurs, and credits that same spirit of unity and cooperation with his business’s staying power.
For Brantley, access to community resources—including funding and emotional support—was lifesaving.
“I actually lost my mom to COVID. So, during the pandemic, I was dealing with my business as well as personal,” recalled Brantley. “It took the community, it took my family. I was able to get grants, things to help sustain me in that time. I wouldn’t be here without this community and without my family.”
Later, when the dericho (windstorm) and Hurricane Beryl hit Houston in May and July of 2024, respectively, they forced Brantley to relocate and rebuild. Thankfully, those same affiliations enabled Brantley access to funding and logistical support.
Diversification drives durability
Black-owned businesses often face funding inequities and limited growth options—but both Brantley and Summers leveraged diversification to build business resilience.
Enacting the pandemic-born lesson of “reinvention,” SpenDebt, for example, diversified its services. This allowed SpenDebt to expand its client base to include city and county governments, utility companies and other organizations burdened with uncollected debts.
Their model offered a triple win: Institutions recover substantial revenue, customers reduce burdensome debt and SpenDebt gains growth.
Brantley’s product/services diversification extends beyond the move to producing hand sanitizers.
“We have one of two oxygen lounges in the country,” shared Brantley, whose business also provides an important and culturally-specific service. “We specialize in laser hair removal for melanated skin. You cannot let everyone do laser on you. In this industry, people get burned every day.”
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Despite SpenDebt and Camellia Alise’s staying power, Black-owned businesses continue to face systemic underinvestment: They receive less than 1% of venture capital, remain underserved by traditional lending institutions and too often face broken promises—even from corporations pledging post-George Floyd support.
Policy solutions are urgently needed—from local to national levels—including fair and sustained access to capital, grants, technical assistance and consistent corporate commitments. Meanwhile, Brantley and Summers issue the loudest call to action to Black consumers.
“For the things that we purchase, as a house or as an individual, try to find a Black business owner first, and not second or last,” suggested Summers, who also asks Black consumers to extend the same grace they give other-owned businesses to Black-owned businesses.
