I am often
asked to give advice to other people that want to start a social enterprise. I
have done this in a formal sense through workshops, talks and seminars and
through more informal means when someone just asks to come and have a look
round and a chat. The most common question I am asked is what legal format
should we take but the most common question I ask back is “What is your profit
making idea that will sustain your social impact?” A lot of people find this
question hard to answer, usually because they have come to social enterprise
through necessity rather than desire. This appears to be increasing as more and
more public sector staff are made redundant and want to set up social
enterprises as a means of continuing the work they were doing before in the
community. I have also seen an increase in requests since many charities and
local authorities realised they needed to fund services differently. Our social
enterprise has always worked slightly differently because the reason we set it
up was to ensure true autonomy from funders. We always wanted to run a business
that would support local people, local businesses and local needs but that wouldn’t
focus on a person’s reasons for needing our help. All of our businesses are
either running without any grant at all or are working towards that position in
the next 6 months. We have a series of customer facing businesses that all
trade in different ways but all lead to the same result – disabled and
disadvantaged people turning their lives around and getting back into work and
education.
I can
understand why it is hard to move from a position of project grant funding to
that of profitable business management but never has this been more essential
than in the current economic climate. How many charities will close their doors
in the coming months because they can no longer receive grants to run their
much needed support services?
The landscape
for social enterprises is fast paced and ever changing and to run a successful
social business you have to be fleet of foot. Our social enterprises have
changed immeasurably since we first opened our doors in 2008. I cannot tell you
how many times people come to ask for advice on setting up a new social
enterprise and then tell me that they won’t be making profit. Profit is not a
dirty word – it is an essential word if you intend to stick around long enough
to change our society for the better.
