Rafael dos Santos from mi-HUB limited explains why the business should win the Startup of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
mi-HUB is a social enterprise that helps migrants to start and grow their own businesses in the UK. Our vision is to change the lives of one million migrants over the next 10 years.
We offer three services. Our Migrant Business Accelerator was our first pilot project where we selected 10 migrants to develop their businesses. Eight out of the 10 are now in operation and have generated revenue. Our migrant entrepreneurs attended 16 workshops in marketing, finance and operations and received mentoring from successful entrepreneurs to help them with their ideas.
We run events through Migrant Business Show (mi-events.com) a business fair to showcase migrant businesses as well as help them to grow their contact and supplier network as well as gain more clients.
We’re also launching a co-working space where migrants will be able to rent desks at affordable prices. mi-HUB will be an office community where migrants will help each other by sharing knowledge and contacts.
We promote integration between British and migrant entrepreneurs to create more business opportunities. As these small businesses grow, they create new jobs which helps especially young people to get their first jobs. The benefits to society are migrants who are improving their lives by running their own businesses as well as the British economy with more tax being paid and more jobs available to society.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
