From Income to Inheritance:
Building Your Legacy
We often talk about the hustle, but at what point does that hard work transform into something lasting?
A recent report highlights that bank lending to British businesses has dropped, making it harder for our communities to secure traditional support. This is not just about banking, it is about the power to build assets that outlast our daily efforts.
Banks are retreating because SME lending is harder, riskier and less profitable to administer than other lending. Where they do lend, they increasingly favour businesses with hard physical assets to repossess. Buildings, vehicles, equipment over knowledge-based and service businesses. That single shift in criteria is where the story stops being neutral.
Breaking the cycle of working purely for income is a challenge we face together. We believe that by understanding these systemic shifts, we can better position ourselves to create inheritance, not just survival.
Why This Matters
The lending gap for ethnic minority-led businesses (EMBs) in the UK is not a hunch, it is heavily documented. Research for the Lending Standards Board found UK ethnic minority-led businesses are three times less likely than White British-led businesses to have their lending applications accepted for the full amount, with just 19% of EMBs getting full approval compared to 58% of White British-led SMEs. EMBs also report far more frequent challenges applying for finance (90% versus 69%) and are more than twice as likely to complain about being unfairly declined.
Wealth building is an act of empowerment. As women of colour, our stories are unique and our financial strategies must be too. The NBWN are here to support you in shifting your focus from current income to future-proof assets.
For NBWN's community, this is the conversation that matters most. Enterprise has always been one of the few routes to wealth that does not depend on inheriting it first. When that route narrows, it narrows fastest for the families who needed it most.
Take Action Today
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