Black businesses play a critical role in the make-up of the British economy and the fabric of our society, according to the Black Business guide 2020-21, and with the spending power of Britain’s Black community worth an estimated £300bn, it is an important area of activity.

R Consultancy, Owner Rena Kydd Williams

Her business idea came about because she had eczema and natural remedies were not offered in the UK. Typically, Rena would be prescribed steroids, which would create a dependency, with extraordinarily little advice on healthy options.

As a child she was taken to Grenada, her parents’ birthplace in the Caribbean. There she had access to various homemade remedies administered by her Grandmother. She would use sea salt, sulphur and cocoa butter on Rena which made a major difference compared to the steroid medication she received in the UK.

Rena identified a gap in the UK market but was not able to tap into it until she was made redundant from her job as a university lecturer. She used her redundancy payment to undertake a business course. With her website set up, she went back to Grenada and invested in a lot of cocoa butter products and brought them back to the UK.

Rena promotes her products via various social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram.

To meet her potential customers in person, she also attends markets and large trade shows. Rena also takes advantage of small bespoke markets in various locations. WhatsApp is also an effective method to market her business.

Scale Your Sales, Owner Janice B Gordon

Janice has been self employed for over 25 years and during that time has had several different businesses. Her current enterprise, registered 12 years ago, is The Problem Solver trading as Scale Your Sales.

Her expertise includes Visiting Fellow of Cranfield School of Management, training,international speaker and author (Business Evolution, Creating Growth in a Rapidly Changing World).

Janice used to trade under the registered name The Problem Solver until a mentor advised her that having “problem” as part of her business name could be considered negative.

Despite the pandemic, Janice has had a busy year! She recently had a home office built at the back of her garden which has made working more effective.

Janice is a customer growth expert otherwise known as a customer champion. She helps her clients to improve on the customer experience to increase sales, using training and consultancy as the medium to effect change.

Traditionally, sales were focused on the salesperson rather than the customer. Based on her experiences in different environments, Janice turns that on its head.

She trains sales teams to provide the customer with what they want which then motivates them to buy.

Janice has won recognition including:

Top 50 Global Thought Leader and Influencer in Customer Experience 2020;
150 women b2b and thought leaders to follow in 2021;
LinkedIn 15 Sales innovator to follow.

She has been disappointed with the support offered to businesses in Newham. Newham Voices contacted the Council but they had not responded by the time of publication.

Chenari Catering, Owner Amanda Edwards

Amanda Edwards is a mum of two who founded a Caribbean catering business in July 2018 as a leap of faith after being made redundant from her job in housing in 2016. She took the opportunity to regroup, spend time with her children and develop her business skills so she could start her catering business.

She accessed business support and a mentor from the New Enterprise Business Mentoring Programme via the Job Centre. The scheme offered support for unemployed people who wanted to start their own business.

Amanda was very clear that she wanted to run a professional business, rather than be a hobbyist.

Her mentor supported her to develop her business plan and to create a cashflow/survival budget. This grounding helped her with her fledgling business which she launched before completing the mentoring support.

Chenari Catering offers a professional local catering service, with bespoke catering and takeaway. Amanda specialises in Caribbean food with a deli twist. For example, in addition to the typical Caribbean menu, she also offers baguettes with Caribbean inspired fillings.

In May 2019, Amanda was given the opportunity to open a Pop-Up Kitchen in the Silver Building, Silvertown, after initially providing food for a festival at the same venue in the month prior.

Typical customers were workers on industrial sites surrounding the venue. Her food was extremely popular, increasing the footfall for the events business where the kitchen was located.

Amanda had a pleasant experience working in the Pop Up in Silvertown but she noticed as she became more popular the event company loaning the space began to make overtures declaring they were the face of her business.

Unfortunately, Amanda believes this is typically what happens to black businesses that are small without the financial means to expand. They become easy pickings for larger businesses with bigger balances. Amanda preferred to stay small if it meant she would retain ownership of her business.

Since the pandemic, she promotes her business on Black Pound Day which happens once a month on the first Saturday. People order via a free monthly subscription on her website. They can pre-order via Instagram or WhatsApp. The food is collected or delivered. This has enabled her to bring her business back to life after lockdown.

Black Pound Day has made it easier for people who want to support black businesses by buying their goods and services.

Amanda loves living in Newham because of the diversity with a strong African-Caribbean presence and it is easy to buy Caribbean food, which is crucial for her business.

To find out about more black businesses in Newham, from food, beauty, mechanics, and education, go to the black business directory on Instagram.

FACT FILE

The most recent statistics for London were from the Mayor’s 2001 report :

More than 10,000 black-owned businesses represented 4 per cent of all London businesses;

Twenty-five per cent of black business owners were women (compared to 21 per cent for White and 17 per cent of Asian business owners);

Black-owned businesses were underrepresented. Black-owned businesses comprised 4 per cent of all businesses but 12 per cent of London’s population was black;

Most black-owned businesses are small (61 per cent have one to four employees, compared to 49 per cent for white-owned firms and 47 per cent for London as a whole;

Black-owned businesses in London had a total turnover of £4.5bn.

Black-owned businesses provide around 70,000 jobs (3 per cent of total London employee jobs).

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