Graduation Entreprenurs and Activists course!

Wednesday – the last day of the four day long Entrepreneurs and Activists course I have been teaching, for the third year, on behalf of the Friends Centre. The Friends is a local adult education provider from the third sector, offering a wide range of low cost and free courses and has its origins in the Quaker faith practice. This is the first course that I have had people not complete and I felt a bit odd about that. Those whose achievements we celebrated included: a community events and festivals organiser, a choirmaster and a Swedish handicrafts importer. I love this course. We take up to 18 people from concept to business plan over 4 days. Of 85 completers, we’ve had 20 odd new businesses over the last three years. And the course is free to attend. This year we piloted charging for it. It didn’t work. Those who most need it often can’t afford it. So we ended up giving everyone a free place.



Weds Eve – toddle off to London to hang out with Venture Lectures, Unltd, School for Social entrepreneurs and Cambridge and Oxfords Entrepreneurs Society. The topic for discussion – does a social enterprise have to choose between ownership and impact? Do you go down the investment route, to achieve speedy growth or do you grow organically, retaining ownership, but perhaps developing at a slower pace But for me, this was not the primary question. The primary question is deciding on and clarifying which on the many options you can choose in terms of revenue is the right one. See, because of the nature of the work social enterprises do e.g. associated with health, education, the environment, social disadvantage, they tend to be either:
a. funded by grants or
b. earning money by delivering services to the public sector or
c. operating as a normal business and using the profits to provide a social benefit.
d. A combination of a, b and c.



See my article on The Trouble With Social Enterprise for more if you want to geek out on this.


Anyway, the delightful and capable Lily from MyBnk was there. MyBnk offer financial education to young people and enable them to set up their own FSA approved banks. Amazing. We didn’t get to catch up then, but soon!