Great Britain's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has recently announced creation of a new Ethnic Minority Business Task Force to help boost business ownership among Great Britain's ethnic minorities and to help existing businesses achieve faster growth rates. As in the US, Britain's minorities face some unique hurdles when trying to start or grow a new business. Recent DTI-sponsored research that British minority business owners are more likely to be rejected for business finance and to be discouraged from applying for outside financing in the first place.
Survey findings include:
- Ethnic minority-owned businesses pay higher bank loan charges than White-owned businesses, on average;
- The gap between the amounts of business finance sought and the amounts agreed is significantly greater for Black African and Pakistani-owned businesses;
- Black African and Black Caribbean-owned businesses are much more likely than Indian, Pakistani and White-owned businesses, to be rejected for loans outright;
- Black African and Black Caribbean owned businesses are significantly more likely to feel discouraged from applying for finance than Indian, Pakistani and White-owned businesses;
Some of these differences may be the result of market forces, but researchers have found that other factors may also be at play. The Task Force's job is to assess the role of these additional factors and to offer recommendations for closing the finance gap.
Learn more about Great Britain's new Ethnic Minority Business Task Force.
The 263 page survey, 'Finance For Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises: Comparisons of Ethnic Minority And White-Owned Businesses' is available here.
Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©
Walter Derzko teaches at the Certificate Program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, which starts in the Fall of 2007
Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "
The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!
To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here
To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together
- ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
- ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
- ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought." --A. Einstein
- ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko"
- .......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead
- ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon
P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page
Comments