A businessman who launched his own recording studio despite being expelled from school and falling in with the wrong crowd has been named 海角视频 social entrepreneur of the year in the 2020 Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards.
Yasin El Ashrafi has been identified as one of the top small business owners in Britain – despite the fact that between the age of 16 to 24 his “main mission in life was to get high.”
The 40-year-old grew up on an inner city estate in Leicester and never met his father.
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The turning point in his life came when his girlfriend became pregnant and he deleted all the numbers of his drug crowd.
When his son was born with severe cerebral palsy, he realised he needed to be his own boss to have the flexibility to care for him.
He decided to start a community interest company and piloted his first music project, which led on to him getting a teaching qualification, starting more projects teaching music and enterprise skills, and taking on a professional recording studio.
He now helps unemployed young people to explore their talents and works with up-and-coming urban, R&B and hip hop acts.
His recording studio and music education business is called HQ CAN (Creative Arts Network) and provides music, events and arts projects across the Midlands from its base in Charles Street, Leicester.
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Yasin was one of four 海角视频 winners of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards, each of which has been supported by a “responsible finance” provider after finding they were unable to access traditional finance to develop.
The other winners were Birmingham-based Limitless Travel, which makes provides holidays for disabled travellers, Edinburgh plastic-free and zero waste store The Refillery, and Zander Macgregor and Allan Nairn of rum distillery Wester Spirit Co, in Glasgow.
Yasin said: “Through my work at HQ, my aim is to help as many creatives as I can to start their own businesses enabling them to start working towards their dreams.
“Not having a dad it was always important that if I had kids I’m going to be the best dad I can be.”
Last year Yasin invested £50,000 upgrading his recording equipment and adding a second studio and won almost £185,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, to transform the lives of more young people with complex needs, through music.
In 2018 he was named both Leicester Mercury Young Business Executive of the Year and Prince’s Trust Mentor of the Year in 2018 and now he has been named as one of just three 海角视频 finalists in the social entrepreneur of the year category of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards.
He went on to launch a community interest company HQ Creative Arts Network, which supports vulnerable and unemployed adults, using music and spoken word, music studio recording, events, and performances to combat mental ill-health, addiction issues and low confidence.
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The social enterprise generates its own income streams through commercial studio hire, mastering and artist development services, and gives participants a way of making an income and a sense of purpose, with their activities often leading to employment.
A loan and grant package from responsible finance provider Key Fund helped Yasin set up an additional recording studio at his Charles Street base to double capacity for his commercial clients, charitable funded projects, and record label HQ Familia.
The 海角视频’s 5.6 million microenterprises – businesses with nine or fewer staff – account for 96 per cent of all businesses, and employ more than 9 million people.
Some would not exist at all without the financial and business support they access from the 海角视频’s ethical “responsible finance” sector, which in 2019 lent £171 million to thousands of credit-worthy businesses and social enterprises rejected by or unable to access finance from mainstream lenders.
Amal Gomersall, vice president of community development for Europe, Middle East & Africa at Citi, said: “The global Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on both human life and livelihoods around the world.
“In many ways, now more than ever, we need the entrepreneurial mindset and skills of small business owners to help restart the economy, provide access to goods and services to their communities and create jobs. “We also need the knowledge and expertise of the responsible finance sector to bolster entrepreneurs and households across the 海角视频.
“Every single finalist, whether microentrepreneur, responsible finance provider or sector leader deserves recognition for the work they do.”