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This Foreigner CAN succeed at starting a business!

London based social enterprise ’This Foreigner Can’ launches new initiative to help migrants to succeed in setting up a business in the UK through a Dragons’ Den style process.

According to the Centre for Entrepreneurs Think Tank, 1 in 7 businesses in the UK are set up by migrants [1], and as a result they have become an intrinsic and invaluable element of the UK business market.

Award-winning Brazilian entrepreneur, Rafael Dos Santos who moved from Brazil to London in 2001 to learn English has learnt first hand the challenges migrants face when they arrive in the country. His mission is to improve the lives of migrants by training them to become successful entrepreneurs.

To help achieve this, Rafael has created This Foreigner Can Ltd, the organisation behind an exciting new Migrant Business Accelerator programme. It will provide budding-entrepreneurs with mentorship, business workshops and funding opportunities to help them to start their small businesses in London.

Thanks to Rafael’s continued work and expertise in the field of succeeding abroad, The Migrant Business Accelerator programme has already attracted the support of Google Campus, Kingston Smith Accountants, Ravensbourne Incubator, British Library IP Centre, Hibou and Aspect Plus Translation and Foreign Language Assistance.

The Migrant Business Accelerator programme is open to all migrants who are based in London. Participants must submit a business plan and from this, ten lucky applicants will be offered a place on the 16-week course. They will also receive £4,000 worth of start up funding.

Successful students will also gain access to the support through a series of notable mentors including Mirela Sula, Editor in Chief at Global Women.co Magazine and Ghilaine Chan, Chief Initiator and Curator at Exponential Member Network.

Rafael recently sold his successful property business and also launched a new social network called Room in the Moon’. The author of ‘Moving Abroad One Step at a Time’ (£9.99 Panoma Press) explains:

“I have first-hand experience of the obstacles a migrant has to go through in order to set up a business in the UK and I wanted to use my knowledge to help others get their feet on the ground. This Foreigner Can guides the students through the processes of setting up a business and offers a guiding hand and funding to help them make the initial leap and our students are fully supported throughout the process.”

Romeo Effs, Chief Executive Officer at Aspyre Group and one of the mentors at This Foreigner Can said:

“I think it’s very important to support new business ventures especially for migrants who are just getting their feet on the ground. They have some fantastic ideas and just need to be guided in the right direction to help them to develop their business plan. This Foreigner Can is a fantastic venture and one which I am excited to be part of.”

To register interest in the programme, please follow the link: http://thisforeignercan.com/migrant-business-accelerator/ and then submit your business proposal: http://thisforeignercan.com/how-to-create-a-simple-business-plan/.

SOURCES:

[1] Centre for Entrepreneurs: http://www.centreforentrepreneurs.org/news/14-media-coverage/536-london-live-1-in-7-uk-companies-is-founded-by-a-migrant-entrepreneur-because-the-uk-has-always-welcomed-the-best-brightest

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