Black Scottish Business Fund launched to support BME entrepreneurs

As the founder of Glasgow design agency Too Gallus, which count Slater Menswear and FTSE 100 companies as customers, he has faced challenges that he believes stops a wealth of Scottish talent from breaking into business.

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Mr Reeves, 28, who organised Glasgow's Black Lives Matters protest, told The Herald:"The landscape of being an entrepreneur when you're black is slightly different, the whole tone of entrepreneurialism and business is very whitewashed and it makes for quite an alienating experience.

"We realised there's a real lack of funding and lack of support for minority-owned businesses here. It's a huge thing over in the States and its becoming a huge thing down south but we really lack any kind of real support structure - people tend not to realise that there are black-owned businesses here."

Part of the problem, he argues, is people not seeing what is being achieved and so overlooking a huge pool of untapped talent.

He said: "I don't think it's out of malice, it's just there aren't so many minorities so it's never at the forefront of people's minds. There's a lens of black business ownership that it's African shops and restaurants but that's like saying all Scottish businesses are tartan shops and shortbread bakeries.

"A lack of visibility here has really paralysed people. It's hard to do something if you've never seen anyone else do it."

The fund had almost doubled its initial target of £5000 within hours of launching thanks to large donations from corporate clients, as well as a number of smaller individual donations.

Mr Reeves will mentor some of the beneficiaries, having built his own business up from being a lone freelancer six years ago to leading a fully-staffed agency today, while others are offering their expertise including legal advice, mindfulness and interior design, for free.

While initially launched as a short-term project, pledges for long-term funding have meant that the fund could become a permanent fixture in the Scottish business landscape - with funding looking likely to reach in excess of £20,000 to £30,000.

"I've never seen that kind of funding being handed out to BME businesses in Scotland before so hopefully we'll be able to make a huge impact with that.

"Hope fully what we're doing will be bit more relevant and easier for people to engage with and something they can empower their business with. We'll be looking at businesses individually - we want to make sure they are set up to succeed."

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TJ Sedisa, 26, is one of the first cohort of businesses to be selected for support. The photographer and videographer, along with business partner Daniel Odoom, who make up the Odoom Brothers, a marketing collective, will receive mentorship and funds to expand their operation - which has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: "After lockdown everything just went dead in the water. All of our future client meetings dried up. We still don't know how or when we'll recover."

Being chosen as a recipient of the fund has been a massive boost for Mr Sedisa, who admired, and was inspired by, Mr Reeves work and achievements in business.

He believes that the colour of his skin, as well as his age, has played a part in struggling to establish his business.

"I was the only black guy in college and it was hard to see lecturers overlooking me. At the end of the course I wasn't attending classes because it became very obvious.

"The quality we produce is on par with others but we still struggle to get work. Sometimes we ask ourselves why is that happening when clearly we're able to produce the same standard of work - we do have to work ten times as hard to be recognised.

"The fund is giving people opportunities where there were none before. It's an amazing thing."