On Saturday, we held our first Roundtable. Centred around the theme of “Reboot & Refresh” for the New Year, an incredible group of entrepreneurs came together to meet, learn and share stories of success, failure and lessons learned.
Setting up this Roundtable was important to me because the very nature of Jamii has allowed me to speak to a lot of interesting & inspiring people, but I’ve realised that generally Black British entrepreneurs are isolated. Far from there being an easily-accessible entrepreneurial community, there are pools of Black British excellence built off the back of who you know and what events you attend. At most, we tend to exist in silos – even when we have entrepreneurial friends, they are often from similar industries.
Knowing people from different backgrounds, with different experiences and perspectives is crucial for growth. It’s important that we seek diversity in our networks and the value of cross-learnings cannot be underestimated.
At this Roundtable, we spoke loosely around two distinct topics: building communities and sales & marketing. I was inspired by everyone’s willingness to be honest and share their journeys. Here are our biggest take-aways!
Building communities
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Be authentic.
People buy into people, which means you have to be yourself and own it. Bigger brands often try to build their own communities and it fails because it’s not genuine and we know it. There needs to be a trust in you and your intentions.
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Once you’ve built a community, it’s your duty to protect it.
The members trust you, and sometimes that will mean turning down opportunities and being selection about who you work with and how.
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Invest in the people who invest in you.
Spend time interacting with those who show interest in you; learn about the people who support you and buy into your mission. Show them the same love that they show you and you will create super-fans.
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Show gratitude.
Linked to the point above, be grateful and freely show support to others who align with your mission.
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When it comes to partnerships, there’s “some that you do to feel good and some that you do to keep the lights on”.
Create that balance. Not everything that you do needs to be shown, but you must ensure that the narrative is correct – people will find out.
Additional pointers
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Don’t feel like you need to re-invent the wheel – the wheel is already there!
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You have the most to gain from rejection.
There’s going to be a lot of it, so make sure you take away a lesson. But persevere through.
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The good thing about struggle is that you build contacts and experiences, and no one can take that away from you.
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Create a Business Emergency Fund to insulate you from unforeseen costs.
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Invest in yourself.
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Pay for quality.
Resources
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Canva – online design tools
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Later – social media scheduling
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Prince’s Trust – a charity that offers funding and loans to young entrepreneurs
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“Profit First” – book by Mike Michalowizc
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“How I Built This” – podcast by Guy Raz
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Moo – for printing hoodies & merchandise
- Awesome Merchandise – for printing merchandise
- Equity-free funding
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The next Roundtable is currently being planned – subscribe here to be the first to know when we announce it!
Thank you to Lekki Suga for sponsoring the event – the Oreo Puff Puff was delicious!