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UK BLACK BUSINESS GUIDE 2020-21
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hen I started my entrepreneurial journey 8 plus years ago, it was a long, dark and tough road as I had no idea what I was doing and did not have the support system I craved. It was just me and my business ideas. As a result, I ended up dropping those ideas and focused on my degree and career path, thinking I could not do it and possibly being an entrepreneur was not for me. Until I met my first business mentor and everything changed! This was when I realised I could do this. From that day forward, I vowed to help individuals looking to start their own side hustle or business because I understand first-hand how stressful, overwhelming and lonely it can be trying to start a business alone with no support. My vision is to help as many individuals who are ready to take that step forward as possible. My name is Mary Fashanu and I help individuals and professionals start, scale and sustain their businesses successfully using tried and tested strategies. My core message encourages individuals to not be afraid to step out, embrace opportunity, cherish relationships, live courageously and excel. n
Natalie Joseph disrupts the lingerie market, with a collection for women with a large bust and a small frame.
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fter 5 weeks of crowdfunding Natalie Joseph Lingerie generated over £12,500 to get her first lingerie collection off the ground, and NatWest backed her business with £5,000. Founder Natalie Joseph of South London used the Crowdfunder platform with NatWest to raise capital for the development and production of her first collection. Natalie surpassed the original target of £10,000 and set her goal even higher, with a stretch target of £20,000. The NatWest Back Her Business Fund supports female founders to start businesses and match fund up to 50 per cent of the initial crowdfunding target, up to a maximum of £5,000. You can join the mailing list and pre-order your lingerie and bra ac-
cessories kits on https://nataliejosephlingerie.com Natalie Joseph Lingerie brand grew out of Natalie’s frustration of adapting her own bras to work with her outfits. Natalie at size 34K decided she could design a better and more comfortable bra and after two years of extensive research of her target market she trained to become qualified bra
fitter, undertaking business, marketing and lingerie contouring courses to keep abreast of the lingerie industry whilst consistently networking. 50% of UK women are a 36 DD cup size or larger. 80% of UK women wear the wrong bra size. Of those women, 70% wore bras that were too small whilst 10% wore bras that were too big. 77% of UK plus size women say that it is difficult to find well-fitting, quality bra because they don’t fit the ‘standard or regular size bracket. During the last century the UK woman’s body has evolved dramatically, particularly from diet and hormones, and has become more ethnically diverse. Consequently, many have become inherently curvier and heavier. Many curvy women tend to have larger volume to the bottom and may
carry a lot of weight in the buttocks as well as in the abdomen so they will benefit from different fit specifications more suited to their particular lower body shape proportions and pelvic shape. Natalie believes that the clothing and intimate apparel industry has failed to recognise the importance of ethnic body shapes and its commercial significance. Natalie points out “If these industries continue to use dimensions and shapes of the Western standard or the ideal figure, they will continue to fail to dissatisfy different female consumer populations”. Continued on page 58 u
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