This week we highly recommend you take part in a live debate on the Guardian website social enterprise network its called - What do you want to talk about? its on Thursday 8 December from 1-3pm and its your chance to have your say about what you’ve achieved in social enterprise in 2011, and what you’ll have another crack at in 2012. What’s impressed – or depressed – you most in the last twelve months?
Last week Trudy Thompson took part in another Guardian Social Enterprise Network Live Q &A session which was about ‘How social enterprises can use the media’ the debate was very interesting and useful, worth having a read to see what was talked about, the panel were industry experts who understand social enterprise and the media – check it out here
Chris Smith from Swarm Communications was on the panel and he very kindly offered to share his presentation which clearly sets out the how and why of PR for social enterprises, a useful resource that you can download by clicking here – PR for Social Enterprise
If you haven’t seen the Guardian Social Enterprise Network it is a great source of news and hot topics within the sector. Trudy Thompson has been on the panel of several live Q & A debates this year, they have always provided some valuable insights and opinions from leaders in the social enterprise world, these are the sessions that Trudy took part in as a panelist;
Social value and the public services bill
In this live Q&A, we look at what the amended bill might achieve, how it might change as it completes its journey through Parliament – and how social enterprises and charities can prepare to benefit from it.
Expert panel;
Chris White – Warwick and Leamington MP – Chris White was elected as the Conservative MP for Warwick and Leamington at the 2010 General Election. He introduced the Public Services (Social Value) Bill into Parliament.
Olof Jonsdottir – Policy and public affairs manager, Social Enterprise UK - Olof specialises in public sector and youth policy, as well as co-ordinating the organisation’s political activities.
Sam Dowling – Policy manager, Social Investment Business - Sam is responsible for strategic policy and stakeholder management across all funds. Sam has worked on government funding and communications policy in the Cabinet Office, Home Office and other departments, and has previously been a Parliamentary speech-writer and a political journalist for both the BBC and ITN in the US and the UK. Twitter: @Saminus / @TheSocialInvest
Richard Patey – Director, Social Value - Social Value is a social impact consultancy and part of the Profit Is Good Ltd group which supports social enterprises and charities to scale their social impact through profitable business models and great design.
Trudy Thompson – Founder & CEO, Bricks and Bread - Brick and Bread Sustainable Living Centre is a social enterprise operating premises as hubs for sustainable business & education. twitter: @bricksandbread
Jenni Inglis – MD Vie for Life, Director The SROI Network - Jenni Inglis works with the public sector on maximising value throughout the commissioning cycle. She is also a director of the SROI Network, the worldwide membership body for those who support the seven principles of accounting for value.
Paul Conroy – Partner and Head of Social Enterprise, Addleshaw Goddard LLP - Paul heads the Social Enterprise Unit at Addleshaw Goddard, a leading UK law firm. He advises on the establishment, funding and operation of social enterprises. Twitter: @AGinsight
Optimizing your revenue streams
Focusing your enterprise to ensure profitable growth and learning how to package and price the services you offer are two core ways to ensure your enterprise will be among the ones which will survive, as concluded in the recent quarterly RSA’s Social Entrepreneurs Network event titled Survive before you Thrive.
This Q & A considers
• How to understand what brings you money
• Focusing your revenue stream
• How to package and price your products & services
• The criteria and metrics to make decisions
Expert panel was;
Alasdair Inglis – Manager director Grow - Alasdair is an expert in small business marketing. Grow have worked with over 75 SMEs, helping them to harness the power of great marketing to transform their businesses. Alasdair feels passionately that the long term success of a social enterprises lies in their ability to use good marketing to sell what they do and generate ongoing income. Twitter: @wearegrow
Nicola Holbrook – Founder, u-do - Nicola is the Managing Director and Founder of u-do, a Social Enterprise built for people. The purpose of u-do is to build sustainable communities where people can generate their own funding for community projects, re-development etc in the hope that communities can become self-reliant and not dependent on hand-outs.
Twitter: @udotweet
Dominic Llewellyn, Big Society Network - Dominic is setting up a social investment innovation lab, leads a programme of social enterprise trade missions with United Kingdom Trade & Investment and the Big Society Network. He blogs at AchieveGood.com
Trudy Thompson, Breaks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre – Brick and Bread Sustainable Living Centre is a social enterprise operating premises as hubs for sustainable business & education twitter: @bricksandbread
Dan Snell, Arrival Education – Daniel Snell is the founder of Arrival Education, an award-winning Social Enterprise. Success for life© is Arrival Education’s ground-breaking central talent & development programme, that intelligently develops and enriches leading business professionals. Before setting up Arrival Education Daniel worked in the corporate space in editorial and sales.
Sarah Tucker – Networks manager, RSA – Sarah is a Networks Manager at the RSA and supports the Social Entrepreneurs network, one of many Fellow-led networks at the RSA. The network holds quarterly events and monthly breakfasts designed to allow those in the industry to share challenges and successes. They are currently case studying 8 Fellow social entrepreneurs over the course of a year. This initiative is called Social Enterprise Spotlight.
Phil Conway, Cool2Care - Cool2care is a new, innovative social enterprise, supporting families with disabled children or young adults. Founded in August 2007 by the father of a disabled child, it offers unique free training to all its care-workers, and flexible, affordable care for families.
Getting the most from your advisory board
Advisory boards can ensure that your social enterprise is well-run and meets good governance standards – you don’t need to navigate unfamiliar waters alone.
In this Q&A, we look at what an advisory board is, how you can set one up, and the benefits it can bring. We’ll be looking at questions like:
• What are the legal implications of setting up an Advisory Board?
• How can an advisory board help your social enterprise?
• Who should be on your advisory board?
• How you persuade people to serve on your Advisory Board?
• Who can help you to set up an advisory board?
Expert Panel
Hermione Taylor founding director The DoNation - Hermione set up The DoNation in 2010 after cycling to Morocco – the ride which gave birth to the novel sponsorship concept. Whilst she had strong environmental expertise, she had very little business experience and had never even heard of the term ‘social enterprise’. Determined not to let this hinder the potential of The DoNation, Hermione spent most of 2010 building her support network, learning about all aspects of social enterprise, online business, and general business administration from a growing group of invaluable advisors.
Twitter: @The_DoNation
Robert Barnard-Weston founder YES Network - Robert has been a social justice and environmental consultant, writer, speaker, entrepreneur and facilitator for over twenty years. He has a wide range of clients including high-profile corporations, NGOs, national governments and supra-governmental organisations. He teaches sustainable enterprise and co-launched the UK farmers markets movement, Bath’s first eco-hotel, an eco-bakery company, a CSR consultancy, a peoplecare and planetcare charity, and an industrial-scale composting company.
Twitter: @robweston
Paul Harrod chief executive Bristol Together CIC – Paul is the founder of Bristol Together CIC – a new social enterprise creating full-time employment for ex-offenders through the repair and refurbishment of empty properties. Paul was also the co-founder of Aspire, a social enterprise that creates employment opportunities for ex-homeless people and other long-term unemployed people. He is currently a non-executive director of the Restore Trust and the Bristol Enterprise Development Fund.
Tom Pakenham founder greentomatoenergy - Tom left the law profession to set up greentomatocars, London’s green minicab company. Once that was successfully up and running, he launched the not-so-well-received greentomatokits, a green starter kit for the home. Continuing on his mission to build greentomato into a recognised environmental brand, he now runs greentomatoenergy, a low energy building and solar pv business. He is on the advisory board for The DoNation, as well as having an active involvement in the prison reform charity, The Longford Trust.
Twitter: @greentomatonrg
Ben Matthews founder Bright One - Ben is a digital PR consultant specialising in technology, media
and charity sectors. He is the founder of Bright One, a volunteer-run communications agency for the Third Sector, a board member of CharityComms and the founding member of Twestival, a series of fundraising events using the social network Twitter.
Trudy Thompson chief executive founder Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centres CIC - Trudy is the founder of Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre, a multi-faceted social enterprise business hub. The enterprise operates on the principle of sharing knowledge that experts have acquired to help improve the community, economy and environment through sustainable living. The board is made up purely of 12-19 year olds, because their minds are not constrained with negative, tired ‘we can’t do that’ attitudes.
Twitter: @bricksandbread
