Could Social Enterprise Inspire a ‘Mega Engineering’ Project?

The answer to the question is yes it could.

Yesterday, I watched a ‘Discovery Channel‘ programme [Mega Engineering] repeated by ‘The Quest Channel’ which I found interesting and thought it worth a blog, I hope you do too.

‘A Dome Over Houston‘, ambitious to say the least, but never the less one that some scientists and engineers inspired by the Eden Project’s ‘Biomes’ think is achievable. The story:

“Houston, Texas is in peril. The country’s fourth most populous city faces hurricanes, heat, and the growing consequences of global warming. Only a radical solution can save the city, a solution that may lie with a massive dome, 1,500 feet high and a mile in diameter that will rise over the city center”

So what’s this got to do with social enterprise?

The programme featured the Eden Project [founded by Tim Smit] quite significantly, specifically the huge ‘Biomes’ [hexagonal and pentagonal structure [dome] covered with inflatable plastic] that have become the project’s famous landmarks in what was once a disused quarry and is now an international visitor centre and successful social enterprise.

The Biomes, the engineering involved in their construction and the revolutionary light weight durable plastic manufactured in Germany which were first constructed at the Eden Project are what makes Houston think that it can resolve its problem [Sorry]!

My thoughts:

• Interesting idea that could change the landscape of Houston and potentially other cities that follow.
• If it ever happened it raises questions about a number of things, but one that’s bugging me is what the social impact of living ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ the dome might be?
• Engineers and project managers involved in Eden Project’s Biomes could be onto a big earner!
• There may be an emerging market opportunity for social enterprises to manufacture the plastic!
• probably not in my lifetime!

Feel free to comment with your thoughts….

The Social Enterprise Mark – two more Birmingham enterprises make the grade.

Two more Birmingham based social enterprises have been awarded the Social Enterprise Mark this month.

• ‘Saheli is based in Balsall Heath Birmingham, Saheli run the local Adventure Hub gym facility as well as deliver a number of programmes and projects aimed at supporting and encouraging the development of young local women through outdoor activities such as rock climbing, skiing, canoeing, horse riding, biking, quad biking, go-karting and much more.’  Saheli recently added gaining the Social Enterprise Mark to their list of achievements.
• Start Again CIC also celebrates gaining the Social Enterprise Mark this month. Mark Peters Project Leader at Start Again developed the organisation after experiencing difficulties getting his brother appropriate support and felt there had to be a better way. Mark created that better way supporting young people through sport.

The Social Enterprise Mark is now in its second year and is a way of proving that your organisation meets the social enterprise criteria [at least 50% income from earned sources and investing profits back into your social objectives]. So why not get the Mark yourself?

If you would like to see other Mark holders, ‘Social Traders’ have created a useful Mark holders google map.

Have you thought about buying a business and turning it into a Social Enterprise?

Business Acquisition?

Well it’s not on the lips of many VCO’s and Social Enterprise Boards/Trustees, but it’s becoming one that some are seriously considering. iSE held a business acquisition dissemination event this morning to share the learning from its B Birmingham, Innovation Funded project.

The project was set up to identify and understand key issues for the third sector and to see whether business acquisition was a viable option for Social Enterprise growth.

Today’s event shared this learning and had contributions from key experts within the field, including contributions from:

• Karen Anderson – Social Firms Scotland, who shared learning from a Big Lottery funded project to support ten third sector organisations purchase businesses by providing essential consultancy advice and guidance, Karen shared learning from case studies and gave an insight into due diligence and Risk Analysis. Key learning being a need for ‘commercial mindset’. download Karen’s Presentation
• Patricia Robinson – Solicitor at Anthony Collins Solicitors, with over 10 years experience in business acquisition in the private sector shared learning on the legalities and process of acquiring a business. Patricia emphasised Karen’s earlier warning of due diligence and shared useful pointers including ‘warranties’ and ‘indemnities’. Download Patricia’s presentation
• Heidi Harris – Harris and Harris Accountancy CIC, an experienced tax and third sector fiance expert gave an insight into how organisations may go about financing a business acquisition. A key message here being that tax issues my well dictate the type of process route required to close a deal.

Key learning from the day:

• Business acquisition is a long process [9 months or more]
• You need to ensure you have expert advice throughout the process
• There is a host of potential profitable businesses that want to sell
• When buying consider: musts, wants and wishes – essential to negotiation
• The time is right to buy.

Of course these lessons are only my take on the event and the information shared and do not fully tell the story of the mornings event. Readers may well want the information themselves, I’ve therefore attached a link here [iSE] to the presentations from each speaker for you to download.

Daveise

Six Things Employers Need to Know – Employment Law

In times of significant cuts within the sector and change management being a key issue for enterprises throughout 2011, it’s vital that managers understand employer and employees rights and responsibilities.

I am therefore sharing this link to a post [which I found a useful read] from ‘Personnel Today‘ which highlights the changes to legislation which come into effect in 2011. Hope you find it useful too.

‘2011 employment law changes: six things employers need to know’ Every year brings with it a raft of new regulations for the employer to negotiate. Whether it’s retirement, agency workers, bribery or equality legislation, this year presents new legislation relevant to all organisations. And, once again, maternity and paternity rules are to change. This guide is to the six key updates to make sure you are ready for the year ahead.

Two business support vacancies at SUSTAiN

I’ve just received information from Charles at SUSTAiN, a VCO and enterprise support organisation serving Solihull.

There are two jobs being recruited to now:

Funding Officer vacancy at SUSTAiN – click here

Development Worker vacancy at SUSTAiN – click here

Good Luck!

Now what is happening to busisness support in 2011?

 

The Government [Mark Prisk MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise] released details of what is going to change in terms of support for business start-up and growth during 2011.

The changes include:

IT portal for business advice which will see over 150 websites migrated in to one main site www.businesslink.gov.uk.

Recruitment of 40,000 volunteer mentors.

A new enterprise allowance scheme to assist new start-ups – target 40,000 new businesses.

See the full report here

 

A quick list of timescales see below:

1. By end January 2011 – The New Enterprise Allowance scheme will have been rolled out to Phase 1 areas
2. By April 2011 – Businesslink.gov will have completed the migration of content from over 170 publicly funded business facing websites making Businesslink.gov.uk the single government website for business. A refreshed Solutions for Business portfolio will be in place.
3. By June 2011 – there will be new on-line training capabilities that will allow us to host externally developed training modules. The Mentoring Gateway will go live.
4. By September 2011 – We will begin to host content developed by private sector suppliers making better use of the support they offer and lowering the cost to government of developing new services. We will also launch the National Call Centre.
5. By November 2011 – We will have launched a new Start Up Hub making it easier for anyone thinking of starting a business to complete all the necessary steps to get their ideas off the ground. The Regional Business Link advisory service will close.
6. By January 2012 – We will have rolled out the New Enterprise Allowance to all target areas. Business Coaching for Growth will be launched.
7. By June 2012 – We will have migrated the on-line tools that customers found useful from the regional sites to the national site.
8. By March 2013 – Following the platform re-fresh, we will have introduced new global standards of compatibility enabling us to host more externally developed content and other websites which host our content will be updated automatically as we update our own. This means that businesses will be able to rely on higher quality information in more places.

Don’t look back in anger – look forward with purpose.

Well, at last my first ‘proper’ blog. It’s the start of a new year so Oasis and the current spending cuts inspired the title for this post.

It is undoubtedly a time for change within the sector, perhaps change that many of us haven’t witnessed during our working career. Large VCO’s and social enterprises are cutting staff. Some small VCO’s and enterprises have closed already due to drastic funding cuts.

Many others will [if they haven't already] be issuing 90 day notices within their first week back after the Christmas break. Restructure and re-design of services will be at the forefront of Board and CEO’s minds during the next few months and none of us can predict what further cuts might be announced, or what effect these might have. So what do we do?

We could sit back or ‘look back’ as the title of this post suggest and lay blame on the banks or the politicians or some other group of people we consider contributed to the problems we face. We could remain angry and continue to allow the anger to consume us, but will this really achieve anything or will it just keep us occupied and not enable us to find a solution?

The other option is of course to look forward and make the difference we all set out to do in the first place. Yes, sure the goal posts have been moved, but that’s nothing new really is it?

So I thought I’d just highlight a few enterprises [small and large] I’ve been working with over the past few months who are not looking back, but striding forward and opening up their new enterprises to do good business, despite [or in spite] of the cuts we see around us. I hope the examples give all of us a boost and help us start to look forward rather than back at what could or should have been. [I'll provide website links once they're established].

Castle Vale will soon see the opening of a new youth-led cafe [operating as a CIC]  and meeting space called ‘UR CAFE’ [that's You're Cafe for those of you who are as old as me]. The enterprise is led by a young entrepreneur and will employ and train local young people who cannot find work. The enterprise will be self-sustaining within one year and already has its start-up investment.

Staying in Castle Vale we will see another CIC enterprise launched [Cycle Vans] early in the new year which provides many valuable jobs and training opportunities for the local people.

Those of you who know Castle Vale will know that there are very few local job opportunities and therefore enterprises like these are vital.

Moving across to Solihull we will see the opening of a new ‘recovery cafe’ which will provide a valuable stepping stone for alcohol and drug users who are in recovery. Again this is an ambitious business that has secured significant start-up finance and will become self-sustaining within the first two years

Moving away from a physical space, MissMacaroon will launch and provide training opportunities and work for young people leaving care. [link click here]

Within the City centre [B.ham] we will see a complimentary therapies enterprise open too. Another business that supports those in recovery with training and gaining work, which is essential to the recovery journey.

There are many more people I’m working with who have plans to develop new services and products the list is almost too long for a quick post, but hopefully the examples above show that many entrepreneurs are not spending their energy on what the cuts might or could do. But instead they are spending their energy on making sure the cuts do not affect their enterprises and social mission by building sound sustainable enterprises.

I take inspiration from the people I’m working with, as they are true entrepreneurs who just needed a little support from me to understand the systems and process of setting up. I’ll return to these businesses in a few months time to let you know how they’re getting on.

So don’t look back in anger! Remember some famous person once said ‘the past we cannot change, but the future is ours for the making’ [or something like that]!