1 Starting Up
Social Enterprise OVERVIEWSocial enterprises are competitive businesses that trade for a social purpose. They seek to succeed as businesses by establishing a market share and making a profit.
The Social Enterprise Starting Point Guide
This guide is aimed at social entrepreneurs – by which we mean anyone with an idea for making money and using it to benefit others in some way.
Entrepreneurial Competencies
The roles and functions that the entrepreneurs play in relation to the process of economic development and in relation to the enterprise.
Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies
Opportunity Seeking and Initiative Does things before asked or forced to by events Acts to extend the business into new areas, products or services Seizes unusual opportunities.
Legal Forms of Social Enterprises
Refers to the way in which a business is set up and the rules and regulations that govern it i.e. it provides the operating framework for an organisation.
BYOB MASTER Manual
‘Be Your Own Boss’ is a pilot project funded by the Leonardo da Vinci programme, partfunded
Business Model Canvas (BMC)
The BMC is a strategic management template for developing new or documenting existing business models. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. It assists firms in aligning their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs. The Business Model Canvas can be printed out on a large surface so groups of people can jointly start sketching and discussing business model elements with post-it note notes or board markers. It is a hands-on tool that fosters understanding, discussion, creativity, and analysis. The intellectual copyrights of the BMC are covered by Creative Commons. For more info see:
1 Business model canvas book preview
2 Business model canvas poster
3 Value proposition canvas
Developing a social Enterprise
- Are you ready for enterprise?
Social enterprises are businesses that trade in order to achieve a social objective, reinventing their profits in the business & achieving their social mission.
- Producing a business plan
Whether you're just starting out, need funding or want to monitor the health of your business, creating a business plan is your first step on the path to success.
- Creating a marketing strategy and plan
Strengthen your marketing and improve its effectiveness by outlining the key information required to put together a successful marketing strategy, which can then inform a marketing plan.
- Balancing principles and profit
Practical steps that will help your business balance principles and profit.
2 Business Plan
Social enterprise business planning toolkit
Starting and growing a social enterprise is similar to going on an inspiring but challenging journey.
New Business Plan Guide
A bible for anyone wanting to start up a social enterprise.
BL Business Plan Guide
This guide will show you how to prepare a high-quality plan using a number of easy-to-follow steps, and includes a template business plan.
BusinessLink Business Planning
A business plan is essential for your enterprise. Whether your business is starting up or already established, your business plan is your roadmap for future development.
BL Business Plan Template v8.4-1
More information and a template for your business plan.
3 Finance
Financing Social Enterprise
Focuses on the particular issues facing social enterprises in attracting finance and investors.
4 Marketing
Marketing Your Social Enterprise
An overview of what marketing is, why you must consider it as part of your organisational planning and how you can achieve maximum results for modest efforts.
Getting started
A general overview of promotion, its functions, and some broad principles that will help improve the effectiveness of your promotional activities.
Defining your market
A free guide on defining the target market for your business.
Writing press releases
Guidence on how to write effective, clear and appealing press releases - one of the most practical ways to gain publicity.
Creating leaflets and brochures
Whether you’re producing a simple in-house leaflet or commissioning a design agency to create a major new brochure for the organisation, the following tips and suggestions will help you get the most out of whatever you produce.
Producing a newsletter
This section aims to help you plan the production, content and distribution of a regular newsletter to help ensure that it's both engaging and a more effective use of your time.
Creating website content
This section of Promoting Your Enterprise is about maximising the promotional potential of your website. It is aimed at enterprises that already have, or are considering investing in, a website.
5 Impact Assessment
Knowledge card impact assessment
A tool to enable the Government to weigh and present the relevant evidence on the positive and negative effects of such interventions, including by reviewing the impact of policies after they have been implemented.
Social Enterprise Health-check
Running a social enterprise, you need to know how it is doing. Regular checks will help you to make sure that the social enterprise is doing what you want it to do and help you to spot anything inside or outside the social enterprise that affects it.
6 Young Social Enterprise
UNLTD Young Social Enterprise Research
This paper presents the findings of a youth-led research project which explored how young social entrepreneurship is supported and nurtured by formal and informal education.
YoungBusiness.net
Details Youngbusiness.net a social enterprise which takes a holistic, practical and sustainable approach to enterprise development.
7 Knowledge Cards
Knowledge card impact assessment
This resource outlines some of the main social impact measurement tools and provides case studies of how these have been used by social enterprises.
Knowledge card knowledge management
Learning from what we know by effectively sharing information and best practice.
Knowledge card networks
Groups of organisations or individuals who are actively interconnected for a common purpose.
Knowledge card scaling up
Once up and running social enterprises will often look to scale up their business in order to grow and to maximise their social impact.
Other
GD Almanack 2009 spreads (aka Good Deals Almanack 2009)
The team at Social Enterprise started working on this Almanack after the first UK social investment conference, Good Deals 2008.
Growing social enterprise report
Since the launch of the National Childcare Strategy in May 1998 we have seen increased Government spending on childcare which has begun to address the immense childcare gap in the UK. Many families, however, continue to fac significant barriers in accessing quality, affordable childcare.
Bame publication June 2008
The fantastic work of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) social enterprises and those working in this area.
Care-sector-A-framework-for-Social-Enterprise
Social Enterprise London is the regional agency tasked with the job of promoting social enterprise in London and increasing the scale of the social economy. Our work is divided into three broad areas: improving understanding of social enterprise, improving business support and ensuring access to finance.
Consortium Models for Childcare Social Enterprises
One of the greatest barriers to parents returning to work, accessing training, other opportunities or simply taking part, as thinking adults, in their local and wider community is the lack of affordable, accessible and high quality childcare.
Developing Diverse Sustainable Approaches to Childcare
Since the launch of the National Childcare Strategy in May 1998 we have seen increased Government spending on childcare which has begun to address the immense childcare gap in the UK. Many families, however, continue to face significant barriers in accessing quality, affordable childcare.
Guide2Childcare
The continued economic growth of the UK, not to mention the financial wellbeing of many families, depends on more adults taking jobs. One of the factors necessary to achieve this is the widespread provision of affordable childcare.
Social Enterprise Guide to Health for the Elderly
This booklet aims to describe and support the development of social enterprises working with and for older people to provide social care and health services, or meet social care needs.
Social Enterprise Guide to Housing
This manual is one of a series published by Social Enterprise London, supported by the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, to assist in the creation and development of social enterprises. Readers may find companion manuals – on childcare, care for the elderly and environmental services – relevant to their specific business proposals.
Social Enterprise Guide to Recycling
We are in the midst of a waste management revolution. In New Zealand, 45% of local authorities have adopted a target of zero waste to landfill1. In Europe, with Germany, Switzerland and Austria all recycling over 50% of their household waste, efficient resource use is becoming a reality.
Social franchising manual
This how-to guide provides a general introduction to social franchising, and practical advice on how to franchise a social enterprise. It is primarily aimed at those thinking of franchising their organisational model (potential franchisors) but will be of use and relevance to a broader audience.
SEL SPINOUT 17 Nov_2
In October 2010, SEL, working in partnership with London Councils and Capital Ambition, published Transitions, the first comprehensive guide to establishing a social enterprise out of the public sector.
SEUK franchisees guide
This how-to guide provides a general introduction to social franchising from the perspective of the franchisee, and gives practical advice on how to decided if franchising is the right choice, selecting a franchise and building a successful franchise relationship.
GEM UK 2006 Social Entrepreneurship Monitor
This report focuses on the social entrepreneurs who may grow the social enterprises of the future.
Disclaimer
The reports, guides, information, knowledge cards and any other information has come from various Social Enterprise organisations in the UK. Here we have listed the main organisations where these materials come from in case you want to find out more, visit their websites directly, or get in touch with them:
Social Enterprise London (SEL): www.sel.org.uk
SEL Resources: www.sel.org.uk/publications
Social Enterprise UK (SEUK): www.socialenterprise.org.uk
SEUK Resources: www.socialenterprise.org.uk/advice-support/resources
UnLtd: www.unltd.org.uk
UnLtd Resources: www.unltd.org.uk/tools.php
Be Your Own Boss: www.beyourownboss.co.uk
Birmingham & Solihull Social Economy Consortium (BSSEC): http://www.bssec.org.uk/about_BSSEC.html
References
www.entrepreneur.com
wiki.answers.com/
www.businesslink.gov.uk
www.smarta.com
