Set to provide £4k funding plus mentoring and workshops on managing businesses
London is one of the world’s most diverse cities and this also reflects the business landscape where 14% of 5.1 million small businesses are owned by migrants as well as 30% of the tech startups in the capital, reports The Centre for Entrepreneurs.
One migrant shaking things up in the small business world with his social enterprise is Rafael dos Santos, a Brazilian entrepreneur living in London for 14 years. Rafael says, “Migrants have great skills that are being underutilized and we want to help them to make the best use of these skills and turn them into entrepreneurs”.
The Migrant Business Accelerator was created to help migrants improve their lives by starting a business and we will provide £4000 to kick start their idea as well as mentoring during 16 weeks, where workshops in finance, marketing, operations, HR and business skills such as pitching and negotiation will be taught by successful migrant entrepreneurs.
Kingston Smith, one of UK’s top 20 accountancy firms, will be hosting the accelerator at their office in the City. “We support the accelerator because we believe it’s great for the economy. These small businesses of today are the large big of tomorrow and the more guidance and help they have now the more chances they have to succeed,” says Darren Jordan, a partner of the firm.
Natasha Maw, a leadership trainer from the BBC, and Darshana Ubl, an Indian entrepreneur who broke the Guinness World Record of ‘biggest speed networking event in the world’ in 2014 are some of the mentors in the programme.
“Migrants have great qualities. They have moved countries and now are starting a business which shows amazing resilience. Business owners are also leaders and I want to help them to flourish in their leadership roles,” comments Natasha.
Application to take part of the programme are open and can be completed online: www.thisforeignercan.com
