September 14: Sarah E. Goode — When Black Women Turn Ideas Into Ownership

H.O.P. Today in Female Entrepreneur History

Before Shark Tank, startup culture, business coaches and social media told us to protect our ideas, Black women were already creating solutions and finding ways to claim ownership of what they created. For September 14, H.O.P. is highlighting Sarah E. Goode, a Black woman entrepreneur and inventor whose story reminds us that entrepreneurship has always been about more than selling something. Sometimes entrepreneurship starts when you look at an everyday problem and simply say, “I can make this better.”

Sarah E. Goode was born into slavery around 1855 and gained her freedom following the Civil War. She eventually moved to Chicago, where she and her husband became connected to the furniture business. As Chicago grew, many working-class residents lived in small apartments where space was limited. Goode recognized a problem her customers were experiencing and developed an innovative piece of furniture commonly known as the folding cabinet bed. When folded, the piece could function like a cabinet or desk, and when opened, it provided a bed. In 1885, Goode received U.S. Patent No. 322,177, making her one of the earliest known Black women to receive a United States patent.

That part of her story is important because Goode didn't simply have an idea. She took steps to legally protect it.Entrepreneurs love talking about products, branding, marketing and sales, but we don't always talk enough about ownership. Your ideas can have value. Your business name, logo, written material, inventions, original designs, photographs, videos, music, courses and other creations may become intellectual property worth protecting. Creating something and owning what you created are two different conversations. You don't have to become an attorney, but as an entrepreneur, you should understand enough about your business to recognize when you need professional legal guidance.

What makes Goode's story especially relevant today is how practical her invention was. She wasn't trying to create something flashy just so she could call herself an entrepreneur. She was responding to how people actually lived. People had limited space, and she developed furniture that helped solve the problem. That's entrepreneurship. Sometimes we make starting a business harder than it needs to be because we're searching for an idea nobody in human history has ever thought about. Meanwhile, people around us are complaining every day about problems they would gladly pay somebody to solve.

Pay attention to what people complain about. Listen to what takes too long. Watch what frustrates customers. Notice what feels outdated or unnecessarily complicated. Pay attention when somebody repeatedly says, “I wish somebody would…” There might be a business sitting at the end of that sentence. You don't always have to invent an entirely new industry. Sometimes you simply need to make an existing product, service or experience better, easier, faster or more useful.

Goode's story also challenges the idea that Black women's entrepreneurial history begins and ends with beauty. Black women absolutely transformed America's beauty industry, and women such as Annie Turnbo Malone and Madam C.J. Walker deserve their flowers. But Black women were building in other industries too. Black women became inventors, property owners, farmers, educators, dressmakers, restaurateurs, boarding-house operators, financial leaders, merchants and service providers. Many did so while navigating racism, sexism, segregation, racial violence and limited access to banks and traditional sources of capital.

Think about what Sarah E. Goode's story represents within that history. She was born during a period when Black people could legally be treated as someone else's property. Later in life, she became a woman who received legal protection for something created from her own mind. That's a powerful transition. From being treated as property to owning property. From having your labor controlled to controlling your business. From being denied basic legal rights to using the legal system to protect your own invention. Her patent represents much more than furniture. It represents ownership.

There is another entrepreneurial lesson hiding inside Goode's story. Her innovation grew from an industry she already understood. She didn't necessarily have to abandon everything she knew and become someone completely different to create something valuable. She looked deeper into the world already around her. A lot of women may be sitting on potential businesses right now because they think entrepreneurship requires entering some glamorous new industry. Your opportunity might actually be connected to work you've already been doing for years.

Maybe you're a nurse who recognizes a problem in healthcare. Maybe you're a teacher who understands what parents need. Maybe you've worked in restaurants long enough to recognize an inefficient system. Maybe you're a hairstylist whose clients constantly ask for a product that doesn't exist. Maybe you're an administrative professional who developed an organizational system that could help small businesses. Maybe you're a content creator who has learned how to solve a problem other creators struggle with. Before asking yourself, “What completely new thing can I become?” ask, “What do I already know that could become something I own?”

Experience is capital too.

We also need to rethink what innovation looks like. Today, when people hear the word innovation, they often imagine artificial intelligence, apps, software companies or billion-dollar technology startups. But innovation can be much simpler. Innovation means finding a way to improve something. A better service can be innovative. A better customer experience can be innovative. A more efficient process can be innovative. A new way of packaging an existing service can be innovative. Goode looked at furniture and asked how it could function better for people living with limited space. More than a century later, entrepreneurs are still making money solving that same type of problem.

You don't have to reinvent the world. Sometimes you just need to improve somebody's corner of it.

Sarah E. Goode also belongs in the larger story of American business because Black female entrepreneurship isn't a special-interest sidebar to business history. It is American business history. The same timeline that celebrates America's industrialists, inventors, bankers and corporate leaders should include women such as Sarah E. Goode, Maggie Lena Walker, Annie Turnbo Malone, Madam C.J. Walker, Mae Reeves and Clara Brown. Their industries were different and their circumstances were different, but each woman demonstrated creativity, ownership, financial independence, problem-solving or community impact. Those are the same qualities we celebrate in entrepreneurs today.

The difference is that many Black women had to demonstrate those qualities while doors were deliberately being closed in their faces. That history should make today's entrepreneur think differently about the opportunities we have now. We have access to technology, social media, online banking, e-commerce, digital marketing, business education and audiences women from previous generations couldn't have imagined. The question is: What are we going to do with that access?

The H.O.P. Takeaway

Sarah E. Goode's story gives today's female entrepreneur a simple blueprint: Pay attention. Find the problem. Create the solution. Understand the business. Protect what you create. Don't assume your idea is too small because it doesn't sound revolutionary. Don't dismiss your experience because you've been doing something for years. And don't automatically give away your knowledge because you haven't realized how valuable it may be.

Somebody else's inconvenience could become your company. Something you learned at your job could become your service. A solution you created for yourself could become your product. An idea sitting inside your head could become intellectual property. But eventually, you have to move it from idea to action and from action to ownership.

Today's H.O.P. Question

What everyday problem have you noticed that you could potentially turn into a product, service or business?And here's the deeper question: If you created something valuable tomorrow, would you know how to protect your ownership of it?

Follow @hopempoweringwomen for more H.O.P. Today in Female Entrepreneur History, H.O.P. the Series and entrepreneurial conversations designed to help women move from simply dreaming about entrepreneurship to understanding what ownership really looks like.

House of Peach Inc.

Learn the history. Build on the history. Make some history of your own.

Sources

United States Patent and Trademark Office — Sarah E. Goode, “Cabinet-Bed,” U.S. Patent No. 322,177. Granted July 14, 1885. The original patent documents Goode's cabinet-bed design and identifies her as an inventor residing in Chicago, Illinois. View Sarah E. Goode's patent record

National Archives — “Sarah E. Goode's Folding Beds.” National Archives educational materials provide historical context surrounding Goode's furniture business, her invention and her place in the history of Black women inventors. Explore the National Archives Sarah E. Goode materials

Smithsonian Magazine — “These Four Black Women Inventors Reimagined the Technology of the Home.”Provides broader historical context about Goode and other Black women whose inventions and patents contributed to American innovation despite racial and gender barriers. Read the Smithsonian feature

University of Chicago Library — “Women Who Made Legal History: Sarah E. Goode.” Provides additional historical and legal context surrounding Goode's patent and her legacy as a Black female inventor. Read the University of Chicago Library feature

Hagley Museum and Library — Sarah Elisabeth Goode. Provides biographical and entrepreneurial context about Goode, including her connection to Chicago's furniture business and the need for space-saving furniture in growing urban communities. Explore the Hagley Museum history

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Historical Note: Sarah E. Goode's cabinet-bed patent was granted on July 14, 1885, not September 14. Her exact birth date is not firmly documented. H.O.P.'s September 14 edition therefore features Goode as the day's female entrepreneurial history spotlight rather than claiming September 14 as a documented milestone in her life.