BCBusiness

July/August 2022 - The Top 100

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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F I V E Q U E ST ION S Look for someone else in business, befriend them, and learn as much as possible from them. Because when you're coming up, you want to avoid the mistakes other people made so that you can get to success quicker. Most of us like to share those things. There are no stupid questions. Even if you think it's a stupid question, ask it anyway. My last piece of advice would be, do not give up. If your idea is viable and you're worthy, then you can do it. £ 5. DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS FROM MINORITY AND MARGINALIZED GROUPS? 1 What is BEBC Society, and how does it serve its members? BEBC is a Black-led organization representing just over 1,000 members. We're providing a unified platform for advocating and supporting Black entrepre- neurs in Canada. Our reason for existence is to help Black businesses grow, scale up and become sustainable. 2 What part of your role brings you the most joy? I like seeing people like me getting an opportunity and giving them a hand up. Our mission is to support Black businesses from ideation all the way to sustainability. Seeing that come to life gives me joy every single day. I can just have a meeting with someone and listen to them, and they come out of there feeling energized to go and do the next thing. And when I meet with them the next time, they did the thing they said they were going to do. It's amazing because you get to work with them in their growth. You get to be part of changing the system, the paradigm, the dynamics of the business ecosystem so it can be more diverse. 3 As a business owner yourself, how have you seen the landscape for Black entrepreneurs change over the years? Where have we come from, and what has improved? It's starting to improve, but it hasn't improved yet. I had a meeting this morning with about 13 young Black business owners. They're going through our Black youth program, and they all had the same issues and complaints that I had seven years ago. They're experienc- ing exactly what I experienced in terms of trying to find fund- ing and navigate the ecosystem. So I was giving them ex- amples of how I came up and telling them, You can do it. And because the country has a lens to Black businesses and JACKEE KASANDY The founder of the Black Entrepreneurs and Businesses of Canada (BEBC) Society calls for changes that will help create a more diverse business landscape by Nick Rockel diversification right now, we have a chance to change the landscape a little bit, so that in the next three to five years, anyone else who's coming up doesn't have to face what I faced or what people are facing. 4 What are the biggest obstacles for BIPOC business owners? Their No. 1 issue is funding. How do I go into a bank and ask for a loan and get one? Our non- POC counterparts will go to a bank—they only own a car, and they're a completely new busi- ness—and get $100,000. I can be in business for six years and go to a bank, and they won't give me more than $30,000. There's also being punished twice. As a young entrepre- neur, you're trying to find fund- ing, and you're like, OK, I'm going to go to this bank. And if they say no, I'm going to look at this bank. You're not thinking that every time you go to each individual bank, you're getting penalized. Because each bank does a credit check on you, and whenever they do, you lose 10 points. So if you had a 700-point credit score that can allow you to be lent to, and you went to five banks, now you're under the threshold... A lot of Black businesses don't realize this, so it's a cycle. How can we improve on that system? Can Equifax work with the banks and go, If this person is looking for business financ- ing, don't penalize them? The other part is, you need professional services. You need lawyers, accountants, all of that stuff, and they all cost money... Can we negotiate on behalf of the membership and get a bet- ter deal? Then that means we are bringing those people a lot of business. HOBBIES Cooking, hosting, travel and gardening BOOK RECOMMENDATION Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach FAVOURITE MOVIE/TV SERIES/PODCAST The Lion King/Game of Thrones/Daily Audio Bible MOST MEMORABLE CONCERT Sade in Vancouver, 2011 ONE THING I CAN'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT Lip balm GUILTY PLEASURE Twitter PET PEEVE People who are late ( the informer ) JULY/AUGUST 2022 BCBUSINESS 21 BCBUSINESS.CA

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