Supporting your business to grow and become more competitive  

More than fifty Black and Minority business owners/managers and more than 10 agencies attended the event organised by Minority Enterprises East Midland (MEEM) in partnership with Business Link Derbyshire and Derby Diversity in Business on 1^st November 2006 at the Spot, Derby. 

The event, “supporting your business to grow and become more competitive”, was lively, informative and well attended.  

Among the agencies showcased their services included Business Link Derbyshire, Derbyloan, Princess Trust, First Enterprise Business Agency (FEBA), Cassin Monnet Schuman, HM Revenue & Customs, Mentoring Escalator Programme, Derby Diversity in Business, LIoyds TSB, Leafgreen Management Consultant, Solid Sytems Computer Services and Maple Accountancy.    

The key objective of the event was raising the awareness of BME business community in Derby about the business support infrastructure in Derbyshire. Among the speakers included Salinder Sumra, the Chair of Derby Diversity in Business (DDB), Paul Stuart, Head of Derby and Derbyshire Business Venture, Toney Langland, Mentoring Escalator Programme, Andrew Baker of derbyloan, Caroline Everett of FEBA, John Rhys-Burgess of Casin Monnet Schuman. They all gave an overview of the services available in their agencies and how BME business can become competitive by taking advantage of the services available in their agencies. There were two case studies presented by Salinder Sumra of Leafgrean Management and Paul Lalli of Solid Systems who talked about what it takes to become competitive in today’s overcrowded markets. At the end there was a cultural programme and fashion show presented by RMUNIQUE.       

Nizam Chowdhary, MEEM’s Regional Director said “Derby is a home for more than 1000 BME businesses that have a diverse business support needs, and at the moment there are no agencies that are focusing on BME businesses”. Nizam continued saying that “There is already number of business support agencies with extensive knowledge and experience, but due to lack of awareness from the BME side and lack of engagement form the agencies side, the BME communities are missed out in the middle”. 

Salinder Sumra, Chair of Derby Diversity in Business, a newly set up ethnic minority business support agency said “DDB aims to ignite opportunities, offer support and give members of Derbyshire BME community the confidence to move beyond perceived limitations by participating events like this one”.