Isobelle Ford On Connecting Refugee Social Entrepreneurs With Diverse Consumers

Isobelle is the Community Manager at TERN - The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network, a social enterprise based in London that enables UK refugees to thrive through the power of their own ideas through providing targeted business support.

She is also the co-creator of the Anqa Collective, Europe's first marketplace selling products and services from refugee-led businesses. In December 2021, Anqa hosted its largest pop-up shop over 4 days in central London, showcasing products from 15 refugee-led businesses. Isobelle is also the co-founder and director of Skylight Ventures, a community-led fund providing early-stage finance to refugee entrepreneurs who struggle to access mainstream funding.

She is passionate about social innovation and solutions empowering those affected by forced displacement, and has worked and volunteered in Italy, France and the UK to support migrants and refugees.

Isobelle discusses the growing opportunities for refugees to establish profitable and sustainable businesses and how global marketplaces connect diverse businesses and provide unique value offerings to consumers.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Indio Myles] - Isobelle, to start off, can you please tell us about your background and what led to your interest and work with refugees and social impact?

[Isobelle Ford] - I've been working with refugee founders for just over four years now at TERN, and as a part of my work there I'm also the co-founder of two other initiatives, the Anqa Collective and Skylight Ventures. As for how I got into this, I initially studied languages and went to work in Italy after I graduated, and just started trying to get a lot of experience in small businesses. I worked in a property start-up there in marketing and partnerships. During my time there, I got really interested in the situation of refugees who in that period of 2015 to 2016 were arriving in Europe. In Rome, where I was working, there were a lot of projects that were taking off supporting refugees and migrants looking to build new lives. I started to get my lunch actually from a business in called Hummustown that had been set up by a really amazing Syrian entrepreneur named Khaled. When I moved back to the UK after becoming friends with him, I decided I really wanted to work in a role that had some impact on people affected by forced displacement.

I did not realise at the time this would develop into a full career in social enterprise, but I saw this internship at TERN which had been set up six months earlier, and they were looking to hire their first team. I joined and it was a very small group of us at first, but I immediately loved it. It was very hands-on, I was going out growing our community of entrepreneurs through meeting different community organisations in London, attending women's groups and basically meeting the clients of all the refugee organisations that we wanted to become our partners and talking to them about business support. Interestingly, one of the hardest things is actually getting people to engage with the word ‘entrepreneurship’, especially female founders, because it seemed to be a slightly intimidating prospect and some of the people I met really didn't feel the term applied to the livelihood businesses they wanted to start. A lot of them were looking at starting catering or arts and crafts businesses, and so that was a really interesting introduction into this world. But since then, my role has changed so much. I now mainly focus on finance for refugee founders and market opportunities through Anqa and Skylight.

Could you share with our audience a bit more about the social impact and core mission of TERN and your role there?

TERN's mission is to enable refugees to thrive through the power of their own ideas, and that really translates into us offering business support, which is designed to meet specific needs of refugee founders. We work with entrepreneurs who are at really different stages in their business journey. Some of them are just starting out, they're in the ideation stage and just have a business idea, and some are all the way up at the other end of the spectrum where they're looking to scale an existing business or access investment opportunities.

We have three different business programs we offer these entrepreneurs to support them, from a pre-incubator focusing on prototyping all the way up to a bespoke targeted program that helps people get access marketing support, legal support and finance.

TERN entrepreneurs can also access our general community membership, and this gives them access to drop-in advice sessions, entrepreneur socials, and something that's actually really overlooked in mainstream incubators called resilience support, which is support with other areas of their life that aren't necessarily business related but are affecting their business progress. For many of the entrepreneurs I work with, this includes language learning support, help with employability skills, getting into better work and also support with unstable housing situations and housing bids. Mental health is also a really big one, so a large part of my role has been overseeing that as well as bringing new entrepreneurs into TERN's community. Now we've grown a lot, we have a community of over 300 businesses, and we have hundreds of amazing mentors, advisors, and volunteers who are all part of our community too, and they really are there to give one-on-one advice sessions. A lot of them have specialist industry sectors or business skills that they want to share with a refugee entrepreneur and TERN could not exist without them. We work with so many different businesses in so many different sectors that we really need this expertise that goes beyond just our core team.

Another part of my role has been coordinating the onboarding of these volunteers, making sure they're matched with the right entrepreneur and connecting up the community across all of that. Also, we are growing our champions network, which is another really interesting project that we have because we want to be 51% refugee led by 2025. We now have 30 refugee founders who work with TERN in paid part-time roles, and they really lead workshops, events and reaching out to the community to engage new entrepreneurs who might want to join us. Working to onboard them to their roles is probably one of the most exciting parts of my job actually, seeing them emerge as future leaders is really cool.

Speaking about the entrepreneurs themselves, what obstacles uniquely impact refugees and interfere with them in establishing their own enterprises and businesses.

I guess I will speak specifically in the context of the UK, because while some of these projects and issues apply internationally, my experience is really within the UK. The reason TERN exists is because newcomers here face a very hostile environment that limits their potential and holds them back. Receiving refugee status at the end of their asylum claim involves a very destructive asylum process which sees around 50% of applicants waiting over six months for a decision. I can say I've worked with people who've waited over 15 years for a response. Even once that claim has been processed and they receive their status and have the right to work, they also still face economic discrimination. There are much higher unemployment rates amongst UK refugee communities.

The UK average is around 5%, but in the refugee communities I work with that rises to around 24%. In our last cohort for an incubator program, over 60% of people were highly qualified but unemployed or very underemployed.

There's a pool of talent, potential, new ideas and people who really want to be self-reliant, but because of the system that's currently in place, we fail to transform this potential and this community faces higher unemployment and destitution rates than the rest of the country. Starting a business is definitely not the only solution to this, but it can really address some of the barriers I've mentioned. It can help people overcome the unfavourable job market and integrate them into a new society. On the other hand, it also brings new ideas and cultural capital from other places and a new perspective to the UK. It has both economic and social benefits, and it can build really strong commercial and personal connections between local communities and change perceptions and narratives around refugees arriving here.

Personally, I've seen it increase their self-reliance and confidence as well when they feel that they're contributing to their local community, but once they reach the point of developing a business and identifying as an entrepreneur, some barriers are really unique to their situation. One of the most typical ones is that it's difficult for them to access mainstream finance, and they also find it hard to focus on business growth because they might struggle to access technology for example. A lot of our community don't have a laptop or a stable Wi-Fi connection, so they're trying to work on their phone. They may also be in an unstable housing situation, so registering a business is a really common issue we run into. Then there's financial instability as well, which is an ongoing challenge that I've been working on quite a bit over the last few years.

The Anqa collective is Europe's first marketplace selling products from new age refugee businesses. What opportunities does a network like Anqa provide for both consumers and the refugee entrepreneurial community.

Firstly, I want to say that I love how you've positioned that from both perspectives, because I think that's a huge part of what Anqa is trying to do is connect communities. I really like that you brought the consumers into that, because the impact is much clearer for the refugee led businesses. Anqa really aims to connect them directly to customers who want to support and buy from them. But it's also really interesting to look at it from the other way, in terms of purchasing with purpose and consumers who are really looking to buy ethically, which I think is a growing trend at least here in the UK. In terms of Anqa's growth, we currently have 15 founders selling on the site, and that seems like not that many after existing for two years [although we're adding another five entrepreneurs this month], but we really wanted to focus on growing the platform very organically and slowly. We didn't want to add lots of brands and products, we wanted to see what the refugee vendors need from a platform like this connecting them to customers? Is it that they just want to reach as many people as they can, or do they want to work in a very different way to other sales platforms they use like Etsy for example, where they experience a really high commission charge on all their sales and struggle against lots of similar competitors?

We wanted to create something that was a bit more unique that would allow them to stand out, and one of the biggest things it gives the vendors is the opportunity to really test the water for the first time.

Some people who come onto the site have tested their product before, but they've never sold it to a real customer. It's just a very friendly, supportive network of customers that we have. While some of them come across the site and have no idea what Anqa's mission or impact is initially, everyone who decides to shop from it so far has been very invested in the values of the site, and that provides a really safe space and a training tool for first time entrepreneurs to get experience with order fulfillment, managing customer feedback, complaints, product design and managing store processes. For the more experienced vendors, it gives them access to these customers and people who have really already bought in to buying with a social mission or a social impact in mind. It gives them a slight market edge if their brand can stand out. If someone's looking to buy from a brand with a great story behind it that's going to really benefit someone, it's awesome for them. The customers are just more likely to return because they're invested in the vendors, and they're invested in their story. For the customers themselves, Anqa really gives them a chance to have a really positive impact on an individual's life and really buy into that change, because at the moment we don't charge commission to the vendors. If we do in the future, it will only ever be very small. There's still that sense that it's very direct from consumer to vendor and they can communicate directly, and that creates a sense of excitement that you're supporting a business that's just starting out.

On top of that, a lot of the businesses have social missions built into the brands as well, so you are not only buying from a refugee founder and supporting that founder's journey.

If that founder was Maria for example [who's an amazing fashion entrepreneur who sells on the site] you're not just supporting her, because she also gives a percentage of her profits to a period charity in her local area who work with refugee women who can't access period products. The impact is amplified, and that's one thing I'm really fond of with Anqa, that it gives consumers an opportunity to really buy authentic impact where it's affecting not just an individual, but also the cause that individual cares about, and that's something that's really important.

What broader measures do you believe could be implemented globally to provide a more equitable opportunity for disadvantaged communities to create their own business ideas?

I think there is already a lot of support out there, and initially we really need to improve the coordination of that. For example, TERN is already part of the global network of organisations that specifically support refugee founders, and we found that it can work really well internationally when we openly communicate, share best practices, our tools and support and train each other in what we specialise in and let ourselves be trained by others in what they specialise in.

Every organisation that's looking to support a disadvantaged community through entrepreneurship has a local context, and you can really learn a lot from those.

There's an amazing partner in this network called the African Entrepreneur Collective, and we've learned so much from watching how they've helped their entrepreneurs access certain types of support, and you can take influences from each other and utilise those. I think that's incredibly important, but by far the most important thing for me is finance. I believe we really need to build a global funding ecosystem that starts to meet the needs of these communities of founders properly, because while they do need mentoring and support, they also more concretely need money. This is all across the spectrum, it starts from really early-stage funding. For example, finding better solutions for founders from disadvantaged backgrounds who are looking to access small loans like small amounts of debt finance is crucial. [But] it goes all the way up to supporting founders from these backgrounds to access venture capital for their businesses. There are several options for how we do this. There are new pathways we could create for these businesses getting start-up capital. We could lean more on disruptive financial models like crowdfunding. We could also look to establish more funds that are actually led by people from these backgrounds, people with lived experience in these communities.

Once funds like that are created for these founders, it will place more pressure on traditional banks and VCs to prioritise diversity inclusion and businesses from these groups of founders.

I really think we have to see changes within the panels that make these funding decisions, so they need to be less homogenous. We need to have better representation, and for me personally I think that includes refugee founders. They need to be welcomed into funding spaces and there's just so much work that still needs to be done around that internationally being linked up. I see very small pockets of it, and it's exciting to see that network grow, but there's a long way to go.

What are some organisations that you believe are creating a strong social impact?

It's a really hard question because there are hundreds that I work with every day! It feels almost unfair to shine a spotlight on a couple, but there are some I think in the UK context that stand out for me, and they’re grassroots organisations who often get overlooked. There's one here in London called Breadwinners, and they're just a really brilliant social enterprise who employ refugees and give asylum seekers in their first work experience to sell bread on market stalls. Then, in the backend of their operations, they have an online food business as well, which is selling bread and pastries. It's just a very simple model, but they run it in such a friendly, welcoming and open way that I'm always so happy to refer people to them for work experience, because they're just brilliant local people. I would say internationally there's a really brilliant network called Startups Without Borders, and they are a great partner to work with.

They host international conferences and are really trying to connect up refugee founders from countries all over the world. They're based across Italy and Egypt at the moment, but they're just a great connector.

If you're looking for information about the sector or these businesses, that's a really great place to start. There are a couple of organisations as well who are specifically supporting refugee women from disadvantaged communities who I really try and give a shout out to. One specifically is Give Your Best, and they're a charity who've created an online catalogue of donated clothes, and refugee women who for example might be going to a pitch evening or a job interview can go online and shop their catalogue of clothing for free. This is also great to donate to if you have work clothing that you're not using anymore! Then finally, Luminary Bakery, who again are UK based, run cafes and employability courses for women who have faced multiple disadvantages who want to get into hospitality or catering. They train and support them, and also, they just make incredible cakes. I always recommend people looking for birthday and wedding cakes to go straight there.

To finish off now, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

Definitely in terms of a lived experience author, I would recommend The Lightless Sky. It's written by a man called Gulwali Passarlay, and he's a long-time friend of TERN. It tells a story of his journey to the UK and his time here since then. He's achieved some amazing things, but I won't ruin it for you.

That's one book that you should definitely read for yourself and just be amazed at his beautiful writing, but also just the humanity he brings to that experience.

I also recently read a really interesting book by Sue Lloyd Roberts called The War On Women, and she was a brilliant video journalist who basically travelled around the world. During her travels, she documented all her interactions with women in very different and difficult situations. They were facing up to war, persecution, other atrocities, and she has a chapter on FGM, and she meets a different person in each country through her work and writes a chapter with them. It's really about their stories of fighting back, standing up and the impact they can make in their communities. That was a book that really impacted me and my life, so I definitely recommend that for a read.