Celebrating the power of entrepreneurship in the community

Success was the word of the day at our Community Business Support Event held at Barton Hill Settlement this month, and organised jointly with the West of England Growth Hub. The event was a day-long gathering of community business leaders, refugee, migrant and entrepreneurs from the wider community and the organisations offering business advice and support. The aim was to connect entrepreneurs with support, advice and finance opportunities to help them to grow their businesses. Lydia Samuel, ACH’s Entrepreneurship Facilitator summed up the event perfectly when she said it was all about creating an environment where entrepreneurs have support, advice and opportunities.

The Entrepreneurial Outreach Project

The event was also a chance to reflect on ACH’s joint research on the Entrepreneurial Outreach Project. ACH has been partnering with The West of England Combined Authority (WECA), The West of England Growth Hub, Engine Shed, University of Bristol and Barton Hill Settlement to research how to provide effective entrepreneurial outreach to refugee and migrant businesses based in the community.

Bristol as a city is well-known for its innovation and enterprise. It is not short of networking events, business opportunities and entrepreneurial support. But it is not always easy for refugee and migrant entrepreneurs to access these networks or know where to go for business support and advice.

This event aimed to create a space for both business support networks and entrepreneurs to break open these doors and establish meaningful and lasting connections that benefit the whole business ecosystem in Bristol.

'The future is about everybody in this room’

After arriving at Barton Hill Settlement in for a 10 am start, the entrepreneurs were welcomed by Regional Mayor Tim Bowles.

Tim spoke passionately about the potential and innovation of Bristol and the South West region, saying ‘I am immensely proud of the talent we have in our region...the future is about everybody in this room’

Mayor Tim Bowles outlined a future for community entrepreneurship that makes a break with traditional business networks and spheres of influence, and instead acts to ‘think beyond the typical and rigid ways we can make differences.’

Thinking beyond the traditional is, for Tim Bowles and WECA, acting to bring people and communities together and brokering connections between established businesses and community entrepreneurs.

Fuad Mahamed, ACH’s CEO, also looked towards the future of refugee entrepreneurship, asking ‘How can we open up businesses to the wider business ecosystem in Bristol?’. Both entrepreneurs and mainstream business in Bristol have so much to offer each other but can often struggle to hear one another.

‘The power of refugee entrepreneurship’

At the core of the event was the potential and power of refugee entrepreneurs to create positive social and economic change. As Lydia Samuel summed it up, entrepreneurs have the potential to ‘change their community, change the world’.

Nothing can illustrate this more than our two fantastic guest speakers who run businesses based in the community. Both Muna Abdi and Adriene Layne personify entrepreneurial spirit and the positive impact of refugee and migrant businesses.

Muna Abdi, Director of Primeway Care, set up her care service business in 2014 and now employs 81 people and is expanding to London. Muna spoke passionately about how mainstream business services and opportunities need to ‘open the doors’ to community businesses and recognize the unique contribution refugee and migrant entrepreneurs can make to society.

Adriene ‘Trini’ Layne, community activist and founder of YelloButterfly communications, saw a problem and decided to make a change. After watching people close to her struggle with reading and writing due illiteracy and illness, she decided to create a solution. Her ‘Voice Letter’ allows you to record a voice message and communicate without needing to write and works to combat social isolation and create educational opportunities.

For Trini ‘my aim is always to inspire people to get over their hurdles, to live their best lives...my work is about making a change’.

‘Inclusion is a forever journey’

We then heard from two business incubators and two banks about the opportunities they can offer aspiring entrepreneurs.

For Paul Forster from SetSquared, ‘Inclusion is a forever journey’.

Set Squared is an enterprise partnership and collaboration between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. Set Squared runs programmes to support technology research and business ventures. They aim to help entrepreneurs develop business ideas and are interested in the barriers to access and support and are working to open-up by offering bursaries for BAME entrepreneurs.

Peter Gifford from Emmaus Business Incubator spoke about the three pillars of a successful business: business support, networks and finance. He pointed the entrepreneurs towards the opportunities for finance and business loans through the Community Innovation Fund.

Rachel, from Lloyds Digital Academy, talked to us about how Lloyds Bank are journeying towards inclusion by offering free digital skills training through their Digital Skills Academy. They will be running free courses through October 2019 on essential digital skills for running a business.

Charley Patrick, Entrepreneur Development Manager at Natwest, discussed The Natwest Entrepreneur Accelerator and the courses they are offering, with an emphasis on entrepreneurial leadership and networking events. They are currently partnering with BSWN to deliver a Pre-Accelerator course for BAME entrepreneurs, which will cover the fundamentals skills and knowledge needed to start a business.

‘It’s all about trust’

Nick Sturge, founder of Engine Shed, was the last speaker.

Nick talked about the Entrepreneurial Outreach Project undertaken with ACH and partners - ‘It’s all about partnerships, particularly Barton Hill Settlement and ACH as those trusted community partners...being able to spend time in a community Is critical’

It is the idea of trust that is so critical within this partnership. To unlock the economic potential of refugee entrepreneurs, we need to establish relationships of trust across the business ecosystem in Bristol.

Nick summed up the point of the Community Business Support event: to bring people together. Making business connections and networks is critical, but this is not always easy and sometimes the doors need to be opened.

At ACH we hope that our role can continue to open doors and enabling everyone in society to access opportunities through research, community events and building trust in communities.