A new report from the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship commissioned in collaboration with NatWest has unveiled that additional support for ethnic minority businesses (EMBs) could grow the British economy by £75bn.
We talked with Marla Ubhi of QU, a business consultancy organisation for minority and female founded businesses. Established by Marla Ubhi and Quentin Crowe, QU aims to dismantle the hurdles faced by EMBs. Both co-founders have spent years in business, and they use their experience to help provide information and access to funding for ethnic minority entrepreneurs to transform their businesses.
Discussing the challenges faced by ethnic minority entrepreneurs, Marla noted that there are a myriad of factors that are holding EMBs back. She noted that one of the largest impacts was a lack of access to information to help them finance their ideas.
She said: “they don’t realise that they can acquire a small business, and use what’s already been done… Or to go to banks, and the right banks, and present a business plan. (Sometimes) they don’t even know how to write a business plan. And there’s no one out there providing that information.”
To accompany a lack of access to information, she noted that another issue was a lack of confidence, or a perception of being unwelcome in spaces which historically didn’t accommodate for ethnic minorities.
Marla added: “part of the problem is that you have this impression that no one’s going to give you anything, there’s a lack of confidence. People feel that if they go and ask a bank, or they hustle really hard, they are still not going to be viewed in the same way as people from other ethnic backgrounds, especially white people.”
This issue was exemplified in a 2013 study by the department for communities and local government which found that among ethnic minorities seeking access to finance there was a culture of “low confidence stemming from a perception that mainstream support services lack cultural sensitivity and knowledge of traditional ethnic minority sectors and markets.”
When asked if perceptions had changed in business over the years, Marla answered: “I had a very succinct answer to that, which is no… I don’t think a lot has changed. A lot has changed in trying to address the problem. Not a lot of thought has gone into actually understanding the underlying causes of the problem… Diversity and Inclusion means nothing if you don’t belong.”
With government policy only being able to do so much to reform issues of inclusivity and diversity it seems that resolution will only come with shifts in public opinion and perception.
Marla believes governments, financial institutions and NGOs can help aid EMB’s: “By not seeing them as colour. I think that’s the biggest thing… That kind of explains how people feel, that they still think of themselves as a colour first. And I think until the world stops seeing them as Asian first or black first, it’s not going to change, because that comes up first.
“I think when we stop, when all of us stop seeing colour, then that’s when we start being real governments and NGOs. So that helps the businesses because then you start looking at what really matters, like what markets these people are addressing. Because if you don’t know the black market, how can you say what will work or not?
“If it’s a market, you don’t understand, get the help, find someone else to explain it to you. Learn! If they’re learning how to get financed, you learn about their culture, and learn why it is they think it’s going to be successful.
“There’s a guy called Carrie, who started a radio station for Nigerian music. And he didn’t get any (bank) funding at all. He got it all from the black businesses… But he didn’t get (bank) funding because they believed that there was no market for it. He has something like 51 million listeners. Yet, they didn’t know what he was talking about, because they didn’t try and understand the market. So we need that.”
With this in mind, many business owners need help today, especially during a period of inflation. There are many EMB-focused organisations which exist with the aim of supporting entrepreneurs from minority backgrounds. As well as these, many leading banks have funds aimed at aiding EMBs.
However, Marla added that these organisations and funds are often “oversubscribed, really seriously oversubscribed, and they offer you finance. But unless you’re willing to pay for it, or unless you’ve had an education, there isn’t anybody willing to sit there and hold your hand and ask, ‘so you know, you always have a bad patch in December. So what do you do? what are you doing?’”
Consequently, it seems that financial aid can only go so far without the correct financial knowledge. For EMB business to really thrive, more schemes and financial bodies need to provide both funding and knowledge in unison. QU has attempted to fill this vacuum for struggling EMBs, ensuring that entrepreneurs have access to potential investors as well as Marla and Quentins knowledge.
By Mark Adair, Correspondent, Bdaily
