Creating a legacy: how Black business-owner Erica Herbert is building generational wealth
Written for Daily Hive by Erica Herbert, a Toronto-based entrepreneur, and business and tax expert. Highlights of her professional achievements are a significant portfolio of investment properties, successful tax practice, and being a mother of four.
I have been a part of the business community on Dundas Street West since April 2006. Providing a place for travellers from around the world has been the cornerstone of my existence in Little Portugal. Black-owned businesses in our city must be protected and valued. Today I’m the proud owner of the Ode hostel and operate it with my eldest daughter. We are a proud Black-owned business.
The immigrant story begins the same, familiar lives are left behind for unknown lands seeking better opportunities. My story will travel the same journey. My childhood was spent with my grandparents in Tobago before joining my parents in Canada. The year was 1975, and I was 11 years old when my younger sister and brother started our new life in Canada.
Erica Herbert/Ode Toronto
Living on top of a pizzeria on the Danforth had its benefits. The milk companies left deliveries outside at your doorstep, and unairconditioned apartments had front doors widely ajar, letting in the evening breeze. I enjoyed going to Jones Street library to see muppet shows or listening to readings by authors retelling their stories. My new friends taught me to skate at an ice rink created in the local church’s parking lot. Cricket was replaced with baseball, soccer with football, and hockey was watched from afar. Greeks, Caribbeans, and South Asian immigrants brought so much energy to the Danforth.
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My parents moved us to Scarborough in 1977 into our first home. I attended junior school, high school, and university without leaving Scarborough. Even today, the friendships I have are from my Scarborough bubble. We were a small group of students from the Caribbean who supported each other. My core values were already established before I came to Canada. I knew I wanted to get a good education and establish my own business. I equated financial success, freedom, and security with self-employment. Although racism was very prevalent, I had to adapt several coping mechanisms. My mantras for survival were repeated daily: Be visible for everyone to see; Be proud of your dark skin and accent; Be fearless.
Erica Herbert/Ode Toronto
“Where are you from?” has been asked on many occasions, and the borough of Scarborough was often my polite reply. Assimilating was our goal, and losing our Caribbean roots could not be stopped. Eventually, accents, traditional foods, and idiosyncrasies were forgotten. Many years later, I came to the realization that I was erasing my own identity. Maybe my generation, the generation that has tried to assimilate, is a lost generation. Ancestry research and DNA testing are undoing this issue. I now identify as Canadian with Caribbean roots of Nigerian and Ghanian heritage.
I was a wife and mother of two girls before age 24, and although that might be considered young by today’s standard, in 1988, that was my life. The year 1992 was remembered with fondness where student and family life co-existed for several years. It was the year I received my BA in Commerce from the University of Toronto. It was also the same year that one of my professors introduced me to private schools.
Erica Herbert/Ode Toronto
Most noticeably, the locations of the recommended schools were in neighbourhoods far removed from our Scarborough home. Tuitions were paid before we made groceries to ensure the success of my children. Like all first-generation immigrants, I have worked hard to ensure the next generation has their names on university degrees. Our family now has an in-house lawyer, doctor, computer programmer, and engineer. Improving the socio-economic status of my family in one generation will be my legacy.
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