Advice from Black female founders for Black female founders (and everyone else)

The Black History Month 2023 theme is “Salute Our Sisters” – now and always. That is, to celebrate the achievements of Black women and the impact they create in every part of our society, entrepreneurship included. 

Here we get behind the scenes with two successful Black female social enterprise founders, creating waves of positive change through their brands. They get real about what life as a social entrepreneur is like and how other Black women can join the business-for-good revolution. 

With 11% of our founders being Black (the national average is 6%) and 55% female (38% national average), we’re keen to do our bit in redressing imbalances and a lack of support. We hope advice from our community of founders and initiatives like our Black-owned business category will play a part in this. 

On that note, let’s dive into insights Lauren Le Franc of the Little Coffee Company and Susan Augustin at Here We Flo shared on everything from networking to raising capital…  

 

 

Before investment, invest time in product-market fit

The journey into social entrepreneurship is different for everyone, but one challenge that unites founders is raising capital. This is especially true for ethnic minority female entrepreneurs: the 2022 Rose Review found that 49 percent cited difficulties getting finance as to why they stopped working on their business idea.

With this in mind, Susan warns it can be tempting to give away too much to investors for too little in the early days of your business. She advises investing time into proving your concept with just one or two products before you rush to raise huge sums of money. 

“When we started imagining things, we wanted to have a full product line and all these different things. But now I think we’re really grateful that we started small and continued to build out, first 10 and 20 stores. Then 100 and our first one or two national retailers. At that point, we knew we needed to raise a proper round.”

 

Go for growth capital

So, where can Black and minority founders turn for investment? Lauren recommends the Angel Investing School, headed up by Andy Ayim MBE and Sebuh Mesfin. The School is dedicated to making the world of investing more accessible and inclusive for people of all backgrounds.

If you’re launching a consumer product business, Susan suggests looking at growth capital investments, after she and co-founder Tara experienced challenges with the venture capital route. “I think it is helpful to have more patient capital, so that you can grow your business sustainably, rather than trying to meet crazy targets in a portfolio.”

[Growth capital is typically “more patient”, as Susan describes, because it goes into established companies and allows investors to take a longer-term view of their investment. Meanwhile, venture capital is geared towards early-stage start-ups and comes with an urgency for quick returns.] 

For her and co-founder Tara, meeting investors face to face to thoroughly paint the brand’s vision for them has also been paramount. “Anyone that’s involved in the business really does buy into what we’re building and believes in us as well as our vision.”

 

Back yourself

When growing any business or initiative, it’s essential to have the self-belief to keep backing yourself and your idea, especially during periods where your venture’s viability may be under scrutiny. At these times, your product and market knowledge is your superpower, says Susan. 

“There is no retailer or investor or anyone else who is going to know your customer better than you. You can really take your confidence from the time you’ve spent to understand the problem that you’re solving, who you’re solving it for, what’s on the market that’s similar and how what you’re doing is better.” 

Feedback from happy customers always gives your self-belief a boost according to Lauren. But she’s also keen to point out that self-belief is wavering – no one, entrepreneurs included, feels super confident every day. But what’s important is that you can pick yourself up and keep going after the bad days. For her, breaks abroad for a change of culture are a favourite way to recharge after stressful periods at work. 

On a similar note, the piece of advice she would give to her former self, back at the start of her social entrepreneurship journey, would be not to take things too personally. “When you have a social enterprise, it’s so personal. You’re deeply attached to it. When things would go wrong, I would really get in my own head. 

“But now I’ve learned to let things go because looking back retrospectively, I realise that a lot of the things that didn’t go right, were actually good for me. So now I don’t think I take things so seriously. I just let it go and keep moving.”

 

Build a network of networks

On those days when your confidence is wavering or you’re struggling as a solopreneur trying to figure out everything from product development to marketing, who can you turn to for support? Building a “network of networks”, as Susan calls it, is the way to go, reaching out to contacts and having them link you up with people who can help you.

“That’s worked for us on the fundraising side, as well as advice. Then when other things come up, if they’re doing their rounds for example, you think of which people we’ve met that would be interested in them. And so it just becomes a support network for each other.

“We want to make sure we share knowledge with other people, in the same way people mentored and helped us as we were coming up and continue to do so. It’s really important to pay it forward.”

 

Let your beneficiaries guide you

While Lauren found a structured mentorship programme during her time at City, University of London immensely helpful, she also bigs up seeking guidance from the community you’re serving – in her case, the farmers who produce the Little Coffee Company’s coffee.  

“I took inspiration from hearing their stories, figuring out what their issues were and asking them, do you think this would work? Because sometimes I think with social entrepreneurs, you get so passionate and focused on fixing a problem but you don’t involve the community that you are helping. 

“They were telling me ‘do you know, we’re less concerned about this or that, but access to electricity is a huge issue’. That’s why we partner with SolarAid and donate solar lamps.”

 

Support for Black entrepreneurs in the UK

If Lauren and Susan’s advice has got you fired up to work on your own impact-led venture, here are some places to head next for more support. 

The Black British Business Awards: Celebrating exceptional Black British business leaders and entrepreneurs. They also provide networking opportunities and support.

Black Women in Business Network (BWBN): A community and support network for Black women in business, delivering networking events, mentorship and resources.

UK Black Business Show: An annual event bringing together Black entrepreneurs, professionals, and organisations for networking and learning.

Black Girl Fest: This annual event often includes workshops and discussions relevant to Black women entrepreneurs.

Do It Now Now: Empowering Black people through the provision of access to opportunities for social mobility through financial inclusion, entrepreneurship and employment. 

UnLtd: Offers funding and support for social entrepreneurs. 50% of awards across their funding programmes go to Black, Asian and minority ethnic social entrepreneurs, and/or disabled social entrepreneurs.

Colorintech: If you’re in the tech space, Colorintech supports underrepresented ethnic minorities in the sector. 

 

Find out about more inspiring Black-owned social entrepreneurs in our new Black founder category.