The barriers faced and competitive advantages of ethnic minority-led SMEs

At Be the Business we recognise that to ensure the future is not only more productive, but that the social benefits are felt by everyone regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, age, or other marginalised characteristic or identity, we must become more diverse and inclusive, and support the businesses we serve to do the same.

We wanted to better understand how the business support landscape, policy changes and our own programmes can better support business leaders from an ethnic minority background. We conducted a literature review into minority owned businesses in December 2020 to inform our strategy.

To build on the findings from this literature review, and to add an extra level of insight, we commissioned the independent research consultancy Community Research to conduct qualitative research focusing on some of the key areas highlighted where there are key themes and potential gaps coming out in the literature.

The research objectives for this piece of work were to:

• Explore the competitive advantages of ethnic minority-led businesses

• Understand the barriers faced by business leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds

• Explore the use of, and attitudes towards, business information and support, including formal and informal networks