Introduce yourself and the organisation – explain that the plan is to move from a mainly policy, infrastructure into a delivery role working with social enterprise – including those emerging from the new agendas and with different scale and complexities than has been the ‘norm’ for social enterprise in SW Emphasise the level of invovlement which RISE has had over the years in a number of development projects with public services e.g. housing and health Invite people to leave their contact details if they would like to sign up for the RISE newsletter or are interested in becoming members
Introduce the concept of the wider ‘civil’ or third sector – how wide and diverse it is and how it sits between private and public sector. Point out the dynamics between the sectors and current directions of change – and the pace of change which has come about since the change of government last year. Make point that social enterprises have traditionally existed in the ‘third’ sector space but many have acted more like private sector businesses, whilst others are much more closely aligned with public sector style and services.
Primarily social enterprises will set themselves apart from the wider third sector through their focus on trading activities and the need to generate their own income i.e. not reliant on government funding or donation or trust funding.
Emphasis again on the issue that strong social enterprises understand that they are businesses – and that in order to achieve positive social change they need to derive profits from their activities – explain the use of ‘not for profit’ and other terms which imply that social enterprise might exist without a drive for profit – inaccurate and misleading?
There are social enterprises working across all sectors of the economy, from healthcare to hospitality, retail to recycling. Some of the most high profile include Fifteen (pictured), Divine Chocolate, The Big Issue and more locally Eden Project If you want to change the world and make a profit while you’re at it, then social enterprise is the smart choice.
More broadly speaking there are some key descriptiors which could be applied to most successful social enterprises and which help to understand why they are different from ‘normal businesses’ - the value-based approach to business and the way in which they interact with stakeholders and their communities is key to these values.
There are many legal forms which can apply to social enterprises – these are the most common – but an important issue in the early development of strong social enterprise is to ensure that the function of the new business is fully developed and then the correct legal form is applied to that business plan – many times over organisations have been led to apply a specific legal form without considering the requirements of the business fully and this has the risk of limiting the business in future in ways which have not been anticipated.
Lucy will be presenting later - National programme 400 holders (and growing) – project started here in SW in 2007
There are many ambitions for social enterprise identified and named in government white papers etc, and there will be lots of developments in the coming years which ‘test’ the suitability of social enterprises working in these services to the full – and there will be failures to manage effectively. Often missing from a lot of discussion about these developments is the place for social enterprise development in the supply chains for these new structures – and these could prove to be equally important in terms of providing new jobs, securing local procurement, and engaging effectively with local communities and their economic success
These are the most often cited reasons why people chose to start-up or become involved in social enterprise – and can be used as a test for motivations in new social enterprise developments too – and you could develop your own set of motivations to add to this starter list ….
Shekinah trading part of shekinah mission in Plymouth christian faith based Refurnish Devon formerly Devon furniture forum
Finish with pointers to RISE contacts and encourage them again to use the website to sign up for newsletter and contact details.
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