Turnover Magazine

London is ranked in the top five
most multi cultural cities in the
world, with one in five people
being black or of ethnic minority
(BAME). Different ethnicities have migrated
far and wide with the largest minority
groups coming from Pakistani, Indian and
Caribbean decent, creating a melting pot
of culture, diversity and of course delicious
cuisine. However, this diversity is not reflected
in the amount of ethnic minority led
businesses in the UK. Although, 13% of the
UK’s population is BAME, only 5% of businesses
are led by a BAME business owner.
Most people of black or ethnic minority will
be familiar with the saying ‘we have to work
twice as hard to get half of what they have’.
But what exactly is stopping the progression
of BAME businesses? And what challenges
are BAME entrepreneurs facing?
When running your own business, appearance
is everything and first impressions
last. To make a good impression in the
workplace, we can always throw on a suit or
something smart, but what happens when
the colour of your skin affects the way you’re
judged? Faced with stereotypes of how their
race acts in a working environment, BAME
entrepreneurs tend to have to work that little
bit harder to prove themselves to potential
clients. Manager at UK Black Business Show,
Ezekiel Leye says: “As a black man, in any industry
I enter, they will already have preconceived
notions of how I will behave. In some
instances we (black people) are at the bottom
of the totem poll.”
Diversity campaigner and founder of Nu
Bride, Nova Reid says that BAME business
owners, like herself, are often not taken seriously
as entrepreneurs. “People just assume
that you can’t possibly be the owner of your
own company.” She has been repeatedly
mistaken for working in an assistant role
at her own business. But Reid is not alone,
according to a Harvard Business
Review, almost half of black
and Latina women in
STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering
and Mathematics)
professions reported
that they
have been regularly
mistaken for
cleaners. According
to Reid, these
false assumptions
are usually unintentional
and are
mainly due to stereotypes
and a general
lack of representation
of BAME workers
and entrepreneurs. She
believes that micro aggressions
are often to
blame for harmful
stereotyping.
Micro aggressions
are the
casual everyday
slurs and insults
which subtly express
racial biases or discrimination
against
any minority group.
Reid uses the example
of making jokes about
black people always arriving
late or “running on
black people time”. This form
of light-hearted stereotyping
can be particularly damaging because micro
aggressions are generally seen as socially acceptable
which is why they’re often repeated
and become stuck in our memory. This
can result in clients avoiding to work with
BAME entrepreneurs and businesses. CEO
at Croydon BAME Forum, Andrew Brown
“People just
assume that you
can’t possibly be
the owner of your
own company”
explained that although he has never faced
vocal acts of racism in a business environment,
clients can often seem more sceptical
towards him and his company then perhaps
they would towards a white British led business.
“You may have to go over 3 or 4 steps
more then another company.” A general lack
of trust towards an ethnic minority can be
a result of repeated micro aggressions
causing us to start to
believe stereotypes. Reid
says: “Micro aggressions
do even more
harm to people
of colour in the
workplace than
any other acts
of racism.”
Ethnic
minority entrepreneurs,
who are
involved in
advocacy
work, can
be even more
vulnerable
to racism
as their image is constantly
in the public eye. After
working and appearing in
mainstream media outlets
such as the BBC and
Sky News, Reid fell
victim to racist trolling.
Surprisingly, not
only did the trolling
come from the white
British majority but
also from her own community
of black women.
Reid explains that there
is often a lot of competition
in business within her community.
“There’s this fear of scarcity, in
our community people think that if another
black women is elevating then there’s
no room left for them.” This is a problem
which infiltrates into many BAME communities
and minority groups in general. Leye
believes that it is important for BAME entrepreneurs
to stop seeing each other as competition
and start working together as a supportive
community explaining that “working
together is the only way we can change how
the world views (black people) us”.
Many entrepreneurs work hard to create
a strong social media presence and often
create their own business websites to attract
potential clients. However this presents another
issue for ethnic minority entrepreneurs
as they are at risk of being rejected at
first glance of their profile picture because of
the colour of their skin. Reid explains that
her black female mentees are often scared to
put their photograph on their websites fearing
that clients won’t want to work with them
due to their race. A study by Inside Out London
proves that fears of being rejected job
opportunities due to your minority status
are justifiable. During the study two identical
C.V’s were handed out to 100 job applications
but one having a typically British name
(Adam) and the other a typically Muslim
name (Mohamed). Adam was offered twelve
interviews while Mohamed was only offered
four, that’s three times less! The two C.V’s
were then uploaded to four job websites and
Adam was contacted by twice as many job
seekers as Mohamed.
Discrimination and stereotypes are not
the only challenges that BAME entrepreneurs
are facing. Brown works with black
and ethnic minority communities to help develop
their businesses. He explains that the
most common challenge BAME businesses
face is finding substantial sources of funding.
The UK government claim that they are
tackling inequality by helping ensure all entrepreneurs
can access the finance they need
regardless of their background and statistics
prove that one in five government loans go to
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