Industry leaders urge Global Majority entrepreneurs to throw down the ladder, turn their pain into triumph, and study their clients at BUD Leaders’ highly anticipated event
“Double up! Access more!”. These were the four powerful words chanted over and over again at BUD Leaders’ Double Up & Access More event, as animated hosts Tash Pennant and Lere Fisher urged over 175 attendees to engage in a lively call and response. The event was held on 28th February at the NatWest Conference centre in the bustling area of Bishopsgate in central London, a location fitting for such a high-powered conference.
Needless to say, BUD’s latest mantra – “Double Up, Access more!” – was etched into the memory of everyone who sat in the audience, making it difficult to forget BUD Leaders’ ambitious goal to double the revenue of 2030 Global Majority women-led businesses by 2030. ChallengeX2 2030 (CX2), is the name of the mission Georgina Wilson, the founder of BUD Leaders, is determined to accomplish within the next five years, with the aim of bringing a total of £50 million into Black and Global Majority communities by helping women of colour grow and scale their businesses.
To achieve this mission, BUD Leaders has invited entrepreneurs and corporate leaders to sign a pledge to commit to working together to tackle structural inequities faced by female entrepreneurs of colour by increasing their access to mentorship and skill-sharing, sponsorship and investment, and access to global supply chains.
A 2023 report by Extend Ventures, a not-for-profit consultancy that provides research on diverse founders in the UK, revealed that women founders received just 14.5% of venture capital investment between 2013 to 2023, while Global Majority women founders collectively raised only 0.76%, with just 0.14% going to Black women-led businesses.
Events like Double Up & Access More were designed to build an ecosystem that cultivates Global Majority women-led SMEs through inspirational keynote addresses, celebratory awards, riveting panel discussions, informative skill-sharing workshops and networking breaks, attendees left feeling motivated, better informed and well-connected.
It takes a village… and sometimes a ladder
“It takes a village.” Four more words that were imprinted into the minds of attendees, echoing the importance of having a supportive community in the otherwise lonely journey of entrepreneurship. “It takes a village to raise a child,” said Georgina Wilson in her keynote address, before giving a shout out to an array of individuals in the room who have supported her in her journey with BUD.
She continued: “I work hard. But I wouldn’t be here unless people had created spaces for me to double up and access more. And so, the African proverb ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ is really about us being accountable to each other, recognising that we need each other, that we can create safety for one another.”
By creating safe spaces like Double Up & Access More, she said, attendees could “come together and actually support each other instead of having to fight all the time”. Rather, they could simply “C.H.I.L.L” she said, using an acronym (in typical BUD fashion!) which stands for Curious, Humble, Implement, Leadership and Ladder.
Adding to this, Georgina stated: “With leadership comes power. I want to share that power with my community. When we get to certain places, sometimes we pull that ladder up. Let’s make sure that we keep the ladder there so that others can come up with us. That is what this is all about. It’s about creating generational wealth and more equity across this landscape.”
Justice Williams MBE, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Black Business Magazine, emphasised the importance of throwing down the ladder in her powerful keynote address, saying: “We’re all here today because of the brilliant and brave Georgina Wilson, who saw a gap and built access where there was none. True leadership is not about climbing the ladder alone. It’s about holding it steady so that others can climb up. Global Majority women are redefining leadership, because sometimes, we don’t fight for a seat at their table, we build our own. We don’t hoard knowledge, we create access. We don’t gatekeep, we kick down doors.”
She added: “To investors, sponsors, allies in the room: you have the power to change the landscape for women of the global majority. Invest in us, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s smart business. When rooms are closed, bring our names up into conversations, because equity is not charity, it’s a strategy. If you’re serious about innovation, about real leadership, about changing the world, you cannot afford to ignore the women of the global majority.”
Let your setbacks set you up for success and turn your traumas into triumphs
“I could have given up at that point,” Georgina said, recounting an anecdote about reading an eviction notice for the meanwhile space she used for her freelance BUD Leaders work in 2016. “However, I thought, ‘Okay, I’m just going to keep going. I’m going to try and build this organisation. So I shifted it from just being me as a freelancer dipping into different projects, to saying, ‘I want to create more impact. I want to establish BUD Leaders as a stand-alone brand.’”
She continued: “It’s really interesting that sometimes your setbacks are the things that set you up for success. Maybe I could have just kept working in that local area, but [the eviction notice] pushed me to think: ‘Actually, we can do more.’ And so this is where we are now. We’ve worked with over 3,500 leaders in our organisation.”
Ngozi Cadmus, TEDx Speaker and founder of The Black Woman’s Rest Revolution, a social enterprise that helps Black women heal from workplace abuse and racial trauma, voiced a similar message during the panel discussion. When asked what she’d say to her younger self, she stated: “All of the pain and trauma that you’ve experienced will turn into your biggest triumphs.”
She added: “If you’d asked me about 10 years ago, ‘Would you make a million pounds in mental health?’, I would say ‘No’. I didn’t know that my depression and feeling that I wanted to end my life would have led me to help thousands of people – particularly those in the Global Majority – get help for their wellbeing as well. I can’t leave this space, because this is where I’m called to be. I’ve gone through too much to not speak up for the voiceless.”
Understand your client and ask questions
One key practical takeaway from the invigorating conference was the importance of asking questions to better understand your client or customer. While leading a breakout session on measuring strategic sales, Dr Carlton Brown, founder of Aspire Consultancy and the Black Business Entrepreneurs’ Conference, asked attendees: “What is your value proposition compared to your competitors?”
He urged: “Understand your competitor, understand the marketplace. What’s your unique proposition that’s going to align with what they’re looking for? What have you solved for them? What are their challenges? How do we find that out? By asking questions. Often people tell you what their concerns are in conversations. What we offer is what they want. We solve their problems for them. So the key thing about selling is not the telling. It’s about asking great questions,” he said.
Navid Amin, Head of Procurement at WSP Global echoed this in the informative afternoon panel discussion, advising entrepreneurs on how to sell their product or service to corporations. He said: “You really need to understand your clients. You’ve got to know who those people are. Spend time on their website, go to the conferences, stalk them on LinkedIn, quite frankly! You’ve got to find out what these people like. Be cognisant of why you can differentiate your service and your product from others.”