The Yorkshire women who are forging new paths to success in BAME community - Hannah Dean

Among women and those from BAME backgrounds who have started businesses, their unique stories show there are a huge number of different reasons for starting a business. Chasing profits, raising finance and targeting high rates of growth are part of what makes starting a business exciting, but there are many other exciting reasons women cite for going into business too.

In my research, with a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, I spoke to many women in Yorkshire about their businesses, and what led their lives in that direction. For many, the inspiring local heritage – and the possibility of playing a much greater role in their community – were far greater motivators than profit or productivity.

Yorkshire is a source of pride and inspiration for entrepreneurs. The industrial heritage – textiles industries, old mills, textile merchants and centuries-old markets – can be a powerful source of inspiration for new businesses. Their stories show how people use the local heritage to fuel their entrepreneurial energy and imagination.

Today, we associate Yorkshire’s de-industrialised backdrops as much with the Victorian era’s industrialists and philanthropists as with deprivation, social problems, low productivity and high welfare but, against these backdrops, entrepreneurs are still thriving.

One example is Worn Reborn, initially founded by Sara Jackson as a sustainable fashion brand for young people, encouraging teenagers to see, mend, upcycle and remake clothes in contrast to the high consumption of fast fashion items. It has since evolved and now addresses the issue of teen mental health and more holistic work as Reborn Yoga, funding free places for young disadvantaged people to attend private yoga classes.

Yorkshire Dama Cheese is a story of inspirational bravery by a woman who refused to let her circumstances define or constrain her. Created by Razan Alsous, who fled Syria in 2012 to start a new life in the UK, she has shared her inspirational story about finding a new place to call home and new experiences which led to the creation of a British multi-award-winning cheese and dairy company.

Measuring entrepreneurial achievement by financial success is easy, but it is wrong. These extraordinary women show the world that success is much more than that – it is emotive, personal and deeply rooted in the lives of the communities from which they take their inspiration.

There are small business surveys that demonstrate this across the UK. peak b is the national campaign for small businesses, and it found that, along with making a profit, entrepreneurs are fuelled by a huge range of motives.

However society will struggle to address the bias against women in business without understanding and feeding the motivations of all would-be entrepreneurs, and the wide range of circumstances that can often lead to businesses starting up

And hugely capable leaders and talented executives will continue to be deterred from reaching the potential heights of their career without more businesses hiring and promoting people from more diverse backgrounds.

The appointment of Sharon White, the former chief executive of Ofcom a chair of the John Lewis Partnership last week reminds us of the prize for making women and BAME leaders more visible in business; we need more leaders like Ms White, and more entrepreneurs like Sara Jackson and Razan Alsous, to reach their potential in business and in society.

Most entrepreneurs don’t follow such a straightforward route to ‘success’ or seek financial rewards for their own sake.

If we continue to weave the familiar, linear yarn about businesses chasing profit, valuations and high rates of growth, then we’re only acknowledging a small number of entrepreneurs.

For women in Yorkshire, the bottom line is that entrepreneurs are pursuing their passions, inspired by a wealth of industrial heritage and community spirit of small towns, and forcing us to rethink out old-fashioned idea of the entrepreneurial journey with profit at its heart.

Dr Hannah Dean is a Lecturer in the School of Management at the University of St Andrews. Her research into entrepreneurship in Yorkshire will feature at the British Academy’s annual Summer Showcase on June 21-22 in London.