INTRODUCING Campaign the

Black Business Magazine are proud to launch this campaign in collaboration with Lloyds Bank, a powerful initiative highlighting the exceptional talent, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit within the Midlands region. This campaign celebrates and supports black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs from the Midlands. Our aim is to shine a spotlight on their incredible achievements, resilience, and creativity. Our mission is to showcase the diverse voices and extraordinary stories of Midlandsbased businesses and entrepreneurs who drive positive change and shape the future of industries. Collectively we aim to spotlight the Midlands as a vibrant hub of creativity, resilience, and opportunity.

Photo credits

Photography Joseph Allen Keys/drp

Creative Direction & Styling Leona Vernon

Senior Make-Up Artist Jessica Williams

Make-Up Artist Lian Baxter

Interviews Editor In Chief

“Together, let us celebrate and support the Midlands’ visionaries who are making a lasting impact and paving the way for a prosperous future. Through powerful storytelling, inspiring visuals, and a commitment to fostering a vibrant community, we hope to create a platform that amplifies their voices and inspires the next generation of black entrepreneurs.

Rebekah Taitt Regional Development Director - Midlands,

At the end of 2020, we broadened the plan to look outside our own organisation and help address challenges faced by Black communities. We established the Black Business Advisory Committee, chaired by Claudine Reid MBE. All 12 committee members bring diverse experience and expertise to help us remove barriers and support growth for the Black business community.

In partnership with the Black Business Network, we have released the Black. British. In Business & Proud report in 2021 and 2022. Our commitment is to understand further the barriers preventing Black entrepreneurs from achieving their ambitions and inform a long-term plan to support lasting change. Last year we welcomed Mac Alonge onto the committee to ensure we were reflecting the voices of the Black business community in the Midlands. Collaborating with the Black Business magazine is central to our plans of being by the side of businesses.

We know that the Midlands is home to the largest population of Black-owned businesses outside of London. Ensuring diverse business owners have access to the right support to help them grow is vital to the economic prosperity and inclusivity of the entrepreneurial ecosystem within the region.

We continue to spotlight our Midlands Entrepreneurs through a range of commitments, whether it be sponsorship such as the Multicultural Business & Community Champion (MBCC) Awards, the Black in Business initiative in partnership with Channel 4, programmes such as the Foundervine Immerse Programme or one to one proactive support to help businesses to scale. We’re committed to doing more, and I’m delighted that we support this magazine to be part of the needed change.

In an era when diversity and inclusivity are more important than ever, few individuals have impacted an entire industry as significantly as Lorraine Copes, the CEO and founder of Be Inclusive Hospitality. With her unwavering commitment to breaking down barriers and fostering equality within the hospitality industry, Copes has emerged as a trailblazer, leading the way towards a more inclusive and welcoming future for all.

Lorraine’s journey began with a vision of a hospitality industry that transcends traditional boundaries and embraces people from all walks of life. For the past two decades, Lorraine has worked within the hospitality sector, on executive leadership boards for brands including Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, Wolslsey Hospitality Group (formerly Corbin & King), and Shake Shack.

Be Inclusive Hospitality was started to ignite conversations surrounding the problem of race equity and then to deliver initiatives to move the dial forward on this problem Lorraine had witnessed. Hospitality is super diverse in all of the lower-paid roles. Still, the more senior you become, that diverse team quickly disappears.

In 2022 Lorraine was named the GQ Food & Drink Innovator of the Year winner. She received a special award in the Code Hospitality 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality list (and had been on the list for the past three years). Other accolades include Entrepreneur of the Year at the Precious Awards, and in 2023 she was named NatWest and Pioneers Post WISE100: Top Women in social enterprise across the UK. Be Inclusive Hospitality was recognised by NatWest’s SE100 last year as one of the UK’s most impressive social enterprises.

with grant funding, mentorship, scholarships, and events. In 2022 they launched their first awards in the UK recognising People of Colour and their cuisines, e.g. African Food and Caribbean Food Awards.

In the three years since its inception in 2020, the social enterprise has delivered educational workshops to over 1,000 hospitality leaders throughout the UK on race, inclusion and language and launched the Inside Hospitality Report in 2020, the only survey of its kind to examine the experiences of POC in hospitality. This year the survey captured the views and experiences of over 3,000 hospitality people.

Tell us about your childhood/ teenage years and any experiences shaping your entrepreneurial journey.

Fast forward to today, and two of the key pillars of my business are community and confronting inequalities, using both qualitative and quantitative data to use insights to inform action. I work exclusively within the hospitality, food and drink sectors, but the problems we are trying to address, are unfortunately mirrored in all parts of the country and sectors. However, my first encounter was with the school system.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced running your own business?

With a digital community of over 10,000, they have 500 members, including partners, mentors, and ambassadors. The organisation has delivered initiatives to support 2500 POC employees and founders

I grew up in Ladywood and attended Lee Bank (Highgate) and Quinton. This massively shaped my outlook on life. At school, the teachers encouraged Black children into sports instead of academia (even when they were highly academic). My peers were suspended from school for having lines in their hair because it was a Black style, yet my white peers could come to school with purple hair, which was acceptable.

Even though I witnessed things like this all the time, thankfully, I was in a highly diverse school, so we had each other, a community with shared experiences and a support network.

Starting a business amidst a global pandemic was tough, but it continues to be challenging. The economic climate is really harmful to the country and extremely tough for my industry. Scaling a business during a time when companies are growing in reluctance to spend money will always be a challenge we face. That’s business, though, and the creativity of business is what I love. So yes, some companies cannot invest as they typically would - how else can we add value, deliver our mission and drive change? The question I am forever asking myself is why despite these challenges, we are continuing to grow year after year.

What have been the highlights of your entrepreneurial journey so far?

There have been many highlights. One is being incredibly proud of the community I have built, which comprises individuals and businesses who care about race equity and are willing to take action to drive change. Our community is more than 500 people, including members, partners, ambassadors, partners and mentors. It is nice to be recognised for awards. Still, my why and my motivation is to change the industry for people of colour within the industry, so seeing the fruits bared from the work that we do, is a constant highlight. In five years, we will be a global brand, delivering social impact initiatives throughout the hospitality industry across the UK, Europe, America, the Caribbean and Africa.

If you could start all over again, what would you do differently?

No, I wouldn’t do it differently. I view every experience, good or bad, as a lesson. So with more lessons under my belt, I feel more equipped today than I did one day ago, one month ago, or one year ago to run and scale this business successfully.

The Importance of Mentoring

I have a few mentors in both official and unofficial capacities. I continue to benefit from having mentors and advisors, including knowledge transfer, accountability, objectivity, advice, cheerleading, and problemsolving. I firmly believe that no one is an island, so in all areas of my life, I am always trying to build a circle of people who can help me be at my best - and equally, I play it forward and do the same for others.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone who wants to scale their business beyond six figures, what would it be?

Have a clear mission, vision and plan.

Advice to Start-Ups

Fail to plan, plan to fail.

My Favourite Holiday Destination

Zanzibar

Black-Owned Business I Love Chishuru - Favourite restaurant in London owned by a beautiful and talented woman named Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare. It will open a permanent restaurant in central London in July - imagine the first Black-female-owned restaurant in central London!!!

I have eaten at her restaurant (formerly Brixton) more than a dozen times, and the food is phenomenal.

Favourite Thing to Do for Self-Care

Exercise regularly, and never sacrifice sleep. I am that person who is in bed from 8:30 pm-9 pm.

What are you currently reading/listening to or watching?

I am currently listening to ‘Rest is Resistance’ by Tricia Hersey.

bihospitality.co.uk

Meet Mac Alonge, the visionary CEO of The Equal Group, a groundbreaking company dedicated to promoting equality and diversity in the corporate world. Since its inception in 2018, The Equal Group has been at the forefront of driving positive change, challenging the status quo, and empowering organisations to build inclusive cultures. Headquartered in Birmingham, the company has a national presence with consultants nationwide. Under Mac’s leadership, the team of