Economic Developments

Over the last few months in the UK there has been much discussion about the UK’s exit from the European Union and how this can affect both the UK and the international economy. The UK is in a period of transition around the world and also the world is too to a smaller degree.

In regards to black people in the UK this is a time when we can take advantage and get back to the levels of business ownership before the early 1990’s. There are programmes out there for people in their late teens and early youth. Though, if like me, you are early 30s there are some ways in which you will be able to benefit. If you have experience of professional work or have an interest in a trade then there will be more opportunities to do this.

This is a time when you will need to have an added income, rather than just a job, two or three incomes each is needed since the economy is weakening.

There are other schemes available for you to use you can get these from the businesses resources section of the website

(Some) Further Resources (Books and Podcasts):

Smart Passive Income

$100 Dollar Start Up

4 Hour work Week

Lean Start Up

Entrepreneur Revolution

 

Black Based Food Quarter

In the UK it is that time of year where the sun should be out and the weather is much warmer. This means there are festivals up and down the country and this includes African and Caribbean based ones, like most cultures food is an important aspect, how its prepared and cooked which makes it distinctive from other cultures.

It is good that there are food festivals of African and Caribbean foods, but what would be a great thing would be if there was incentives for the food vendors to create more businesses in particular areas in the UK.

In the studying and working within the regeneration sector, one of the project which spring to mind which I worked on was a food quarter, which was used as a basis for developing an ethnic food quarter in South Wales. This was seen as a way you could get jobs and investement into a local area.

Like many of the blogs I have written previously, I am no expert and I am not just trying to talk about the problem, I would like to add something of value into the discussion which is actionable.

There are areas of cities and towns in the UK which have ethnicities stamps on them, just not the Caribbean and African Stamp. This is demonstrated by the South and South East Asians who have their own areas and towns, with restaurants, food shops and market stalls, like China Town and Pakistani and Indian areas, throughout the UK..

For example each area of the country where there is a sizeable South Asian population you will find a area with their businesses and restaurants.

For South Asians you have:

• Curry Mile – Birmingham
• Brick Lane – London
• Golden Mile – Leicester

For China Towns they are in the following Towns and Cities:

• Birmingham
• London
• Leeds
• Leicester
• Liverpool
• Manchester
• Scotland
• Sheffield
• Wales

These ethnic food quarters have tourist visits as they have a uniqueness to their food and goods. In African and Caribbean areas there are no food businesses which are open to tourism and the restaurants which are open, are usually all the things which are said to be part of a bad customer experience.

Based on the needs of black people in the UK and worldwide a food quarter should be created for various reasons. The main ones are for money to stay with in the community and for investement from outside. You can see this with the China Towns and the Asian area.

Asians (South and South Eastern) will shop within the food quarters for their own foods, goods and other items, but also you will see other races coming into the areas to eat food in the restaurants. If black people do create a food quarter we would need to make our food more neutral and appealing to the greater masses like the Asians do. This will be more economically prosperous for the black based food quarter.

The prices of the food would need to be more affordable, if black food businesses were to say organically create a food quarter in a particular area, the vision would need to be shared in regards to the direction which is taken, this would then make sure that there is a high standard of food and service delivery, something which is not necessarily in place at the moment, but can be worked on outside of the public sphere.

The service and food standards would be guaranteed by the level of training the businesses incorporate. Another would be the suppliers as there would be a need to buy from suppliers who supplied foods which the businesses could sell, which is safe and of a high standard. 

There are some good quality, product and customer service being provided by, black food businesses, but they are either not owned by black people or in places where the price is not affordable. This is fine for these places but then there is a lack of employment of our own people a food quarter would ensure we can create our own businesses but also employ our own people at the same time, with a stamp that we do live in the UK or which ever country we are in around the world (outside of Africa).

Further information

Balti Triangle (Birmingham)

Curry Mile (Birmingham)

Golden Mile (Leicester)

Food Quarter (Bath)

China Towns (Europe)

Birmingham Caribbean Festival

 

Regeneration not gentrification

There has been a lot of talk, road shows on and documentaries on gentrification within black areas, the story does need to be told. Having studied regeneration and worked in a aspect of this (digital inclusion). I know that there is a fine balance between regeneration and gentrification.

The aim of most local authorities, regional, local councils and municipalities in areas, which are deprived, is to attract investment into the area. This could be from national and multinational companies. To do this a local authority will build office buildings and warehouses which these companies can move into, once they commit to moving their operations into the local area.

There is also an ambition to develop housing and social activities of the residents in that area. This can be through having new housing being built which his largely funded by a supermarket.

Regeneration can benefit all if it is designed and local residents get to access opportunities the same as everyone else. This means you will need information about financial and social capital (something I have talked about before). The problems come when you are not able to get the information or resources to set up businesses or get new housing.

Gentrification occurs when big businesses come to a town or city, which has bid for them to come and set up shop, with the local councils promise of giving tax breaks and skilled workers. If you are not a skilled worker then you might not get a decent paying role and usually big companies bring staff with them so many positions are filled.

If you want to get housing, often you begin to be priced out by the people who have the decent jobs with the new companies who have moved in and are living locally with new shops appearing which are out of your budget.

Regeneration is a fine line, I often explain to people that regeneration is getting investment and developing poor areas to make them more prosperous, though the people who live their now need to prosper with the prosperity, not be or feel left behind.

To get away from the gentrification theme and build on a regeneration theme more people need information and access to regeneration resources and information. If you are interest (if you live in the UK) you can look on the upliftment information community resources page. We have also listed some links below to help you find out more about regeneration and how you can help develop your local area.

Further Information

Upliftment Information Community Resources

Direct Black Investment

Tesco Building 4,000 Homes

Supermarkets building Homes Above Stores

Regeneration – Wembley Regeneration Project

 

Extract: Black Regeneration Strategy

Over a long period of time I have been reviewing how I could use knowledge and information on regeneration to improve the lives of black people (primarily in the UK). There is much media and articles written on gentrification in black neighbourhoods in the US and the UK but there is not a clear definition of regeneration. 

Below I have added an extract of the strategy, the objectives (section):

Objectives

Businesses – Operations improve access

Businesses are often struggling in this economy, with more businesses requiring advertising and growth advise through the provision of training and education. This may be through vocational qualifications or online vocational programmes, which enable these businesses to provide better service and achieve greater customer satisfaction, as well as creating a community bond which has always existed with an absence of professionalism.

Innovation of business growth

There is currently a lack of black businesses which sells technological and practical products and services. Black people invest a lot of time in purchasing and using these products. The question is why do black people got to say south Asians to fix their products, when black people should be able to set up a business after undertaking training in practical (plumbing and electronics) fields and provide services and sell electronic goods which we buy in bulk and spend it in our local areas. The ambitions as a race are connected to what is sold in the media and not enough on how businesses and community organisations can support community activities.

How this can be achieved in the black communities:

• The creation of a community centre or working space

• A working group of engineers and scientists is required

• A strategy to encourage black technology and science professionals to set up or support scientific industries.

• Create a local community project on encouraging school age children to take up more scientific and technological sector apprenticeships and training.

• More cycling and maintenance should be encouraged for black people to take up, as a way of keeping fit.

• More technological technician roles should be encouraged.

The aim is to make black people more self sufficient in providing and developing our own products and services, rather than going to the provider or to a shop where another race is able to sell our goods and items, which we can do our selves.

This will create jobs and more income into the community, which will give black people more economic, social and political power in our communities in the UK. The other important aspect of this is to ensure there is a support mechanism so black people can buy in bulk but also have a forum where information and advice is available from people who look like you.

Crowd – Gifting

There has been much emphasis on crowdfunding though there should be a view point towards people crowd gifting. I will explain further, suppose people were to donate items to persons who are seeking funds to raise for a venture.

This would occur by providing them with items which you do not want and listing through Ebay or a second hand selling site, you would then be able to take the proceeds from the sale after the item has been sold.

This would mean you could donate to a campaign if you did not have the funds by selling an item and pledging the proceeds to the campaign.

My viewpoint came from my experiences of giving to charities in the UK, where I often donate books and DVD etc to charity shops as I just cannot be bothered to sell them online and besides some of the smaller charities do some good work and I am very supportive of local charities who do good community work, I also buy many books and redonate them once I have finished.

There are online services online which can allow you to donate items and they will take the proceeds and pass them on to the charity/thrift organisation you would want the items to go to.

As stated above there are other ways in which you can ensure your funds go to another party, this could be through arranging with the individual or group recieving the funds that you will pledge the value of the item if it is sold.

There are things which can be looked at to see how and if it can work, at least it is something to think about.

Considerations:

• Whether or not an agreement can be made to accept donations in this manner.
• The items donated for sale may not sell.
• To get the funds will require much effort as going to a charity/thrift shop as you will need to post and package the item to the sellar.
• Unknown value of the item until sold.
• Difficult to get a standard price of all items as most venutres will be for business, rather than charitable.

The Benefit:

• More donations as many people will have items to sell.
• Very Accessible to those with little funds but many items
• Pledges do not have to be made until the item is sold and the value from that item gained.
• More access to others who might have a passing interest rather than a full interest.
• Takes dedication and interest in the campaign and the projects of the person/group asking for the donation.
• This could be a way of asking businesses and organisations if they have any old stock which they can donate to sell for the cause/project you have.

Further information:

Selling for Charity (Ebay)

Ratings Economy

As a technical person, who works on electronic devices and provides advise on technology, which a person should purchase based on their usage. I have utilised device ratings and customer reviews when looking for appropriate devices.

As a people we should look to purchase products and provide reviews, rather than just liking or to favourite a product or a service. The effect of just liking or to favourite, based on reading about or just seeing a post which looks good has no benefits for the business owner in the long term.

There are ways in which providing a rating and review can help with the prosperity and improving your experience with that business, which can include

• More people will be aware of other people who have the a product.
• A community of users can be built who can have a say in how the product is developed to meet your specific needs.
• There may be giveaways or rewards for more loyal custom and genuine product feedback.

In this increasing internet purchasing age we are now using more and more customer reviews to purchase, this should be the same with black businesses if you have used the service then you should comment or leave a favourite, rather than if you have not.

As a consumer you will know the importance of a customer review. If people just like or favourite a product it does not say much. A comment about a past experience will help otherwise it is pointless as a company cannot provide the same great service/product to more customers due to your actions.

Films And Distribution Online

Recently, I have been watching some films online, via a rental service. This was a documentary to do with black people and our history. This was a rental hire online where the film was available for rent.

The films are not usually advertised (not to say they are not available) for rental on the persons website who is promoting the visual content. Providing an option of renting the film online would be an option for those who do not want to commit to purchasing a copy of the film.

If you are making a film you may consider, making your film available for rental and purchase streaming. The early adopters may watch the film, provide comments, blogs and videos reviewing the final product which would allow (if good) for you to make some income, before the film is made available to DVD for further sales.

There are different services which can facilitate you in digitally distributing your film, below is a list of some distributors but not exhaustive:

YouTube – Monetize and self advertise.
Createspace – Rental and Purchase from downloads, gain royalties.
Distrify – More for filmsharing and creating a community.
Indiereign – 70% + Paypal fee (3%) A market place where you can put your video content for sale or rent.
Pivotshare – 70% of the final fee Will assist you in selling your video content.
Reelhouse – 94% you can distribute your content to your audience.
VHX – 90% can distribute the film directly to your audience.
Vimeo on Demand – 83 – 96 % can cover your delivery and distribution costs.
Fetch APP – 100% but you would need to be part of a plan which ranges from $5 – $500 Per month. This can be downloaded videos which can be integrated with WordPress, Shopify, and others.
Gum Road – Can provide you with a platform to sell your content on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Soundcloud or a Newsletter.
Intelivideo – 90% cut with the monthly charge of $4.99, £24.99 and $99.00.

This list above shows that you are able to use a online provider to distribute your work digitally and you can on most of them set up a rental and a purchase scheme for a percentage of the sales fee or for a monthly sign up.

There are other sites, and ways in which you are able to distribute the film this could be through selling the content from your website

Making your content available online for rent and as another option to buying the stream or physical DVD can be the difference between no sale and a smaller scale.

Black People And Social Media

Social media has been important for black people to communicate with the breaking of news and sharing of information.

The thing, which we should consider is productivity, if you are productive then you will be on social media less and less.

Productivity in this blog is considering the use of skills or knowledge to create something beneficial for your people. I only see people posting old information re sharing news items and complaining about new things.

We all use social media to keep up with information and things in our interest areas. Using social media to keep up with black social, economic and political news can be one dimensional. There seems to be a pattern present a idea, debate then repeat the process again.

There seems to be very few who get up and go especially those who have a following. They can be responsible for a rise in followers and videos which are posted. Some even have podcasts but they do not have anything which points towards them doing action.

The thing to consider is how can you use social media effectively without living a social media reality and the real world is neglected.

How many of these people who do videos, plug other black businesses products, provide you with economic empowerment. There are some of these persons who provide events, or workshops though they are few and far between considering they make videos.

There was a video I saw with a guy saying Mexicans worked together on a derelict house in his area. Within 24 hours it was a different house as several people chipped in to work round the clock on the house.

This is an example of working together, black people will in a room say they will work together as the idea sounds good but when you turn up 85% of them wont have bothered or will be interested in something else.

The original and continuing aim of upliftment information is to provide information and resources where possible to improve the lives of black people to some degree.

The content is not the best or the greatest but the perspective it is written from hopes to provide you with a different insight which others dont provide.

The use of social media should be for sign posting and information gaining rather than extended debate. The energy for debates should be expressed in working as a group or team on more practical activities to support the forward movement of the things we debate and discuss.

Local Community Sponsorship and Business Growth

Recently, I have been working with a black local community organisation and they are sponsored by a black themed business which is not owned by black people.

Initially I thought this was a bad idea but it made me realise that there are very few businesses in the UK, which have established themselves to a point where they can provide a great amount of funding to such a prevalent cause which affects black people in the UK.

It is a case of black people in the UK looking at themselves especially those who have run or are running businesses. I myself will look to be accountable to this also. If we build a business we should be able to generate income over a number of years to be able to expand into a chain which this business is and make it applicable to different audiences.

Even in the case of black companies making a great amount, very few will likely put their tax breaks or donate some finances to causes such as this one as they are worried of being too black or too affiliated with a cause that affects their own people. Some black businesses may not be interested in funding a community cause unless it is a international or universal cause.

In the UK black people have been here anything between 70 and 40 years and we should be looking at having chains of shops and services, rather than having small businesses which cannot support community needs.

If we are to develop stronger businesses amongst our smaller communities in the UK, we can look at different creating networks of businesses and liaise with community groups and organisations on how they can work together in a partnership where both parties get something out of the agreement.

This will mean organisations like the one I am currently working with will be self-sufficient and will be able to remain exclusively black rather than relying totally on public funding and can do what they set out to do with businesses having a similar ideology supporting and providing resources to make this happen.

Black People and Sports

For years there has been much discussion about black people and playing sports. This has been something I am interested in, as a kid I wished I could go to university to play sport, then do a profession at the same time.

This was in line with playing football (soccer), but I went to university in the UK (twice – Undergraduate and postgraduate). Now I would not encourage black young people to go to university unless they were going to become a lawyer or a medical professional.

Recently the person who protested was brave and honourable but as many have said if it wasn’t for the football players getting involved then he probably would have been left to starve or given up as there would have been little support.

This demonstrates there is much economic weight behind the people who fund sports in the west. Black people are exploited in going to play college sport and academy sport in the UK. The question I have is whether or not they are encouraged to look at alternative careers.

I remember as a young man always thinking if I became a sports person I would get some education as I heard too many stories of people knowing only sports and when they were dropped out of the sport they went into drugs and crime.

The way I see it is people should look at playing sports like Tennis or Cricket where they can get a qualification and they have to work during the off season if they are not the best to keep an income coming on, it keeps you honest. For men you can pick up a trade – Electrician, plumber or carpentry, even set up your own business. For women it could be health and well being or just setting up a business which allows you flexibility between playing your sport.

Many of times I see sports trying to take you away from real life when you play for them yet when they have finished with you they will drop you like a hot coal.

These sports people in america (and the west) should be looking towards setting examples like with the hunger strike but setting up or working with black support groups who can provide counselling and advise in relation to what alternative/back up careers you can look at if things do not work out.

Much of the time the institutions are only interested in what you can give them at that time and any external ideas or approaches are seen as a threat to them, rather than thinking only 1 in a 100 will make it through so lets prepare them for life after this sport. We must do it ourselves with organisation, planning and preparation.