Advice for start-ups
- Advice for working with other sectors
- Advice for marketing and branding
- Advice for working internationally
- Advice for start-ups
- Advice for recruiting and keeping a great social enterprise workforce
- The Big Questions
Have a brilliant idea for a new social enterprise? The ambassadors’ top ten tips for start-ups will equip you with first-rate advice to get you going.
1 Be wholehearted
“If you’re going to do something, be prepared to do it really well. If you’re not going to aspire to excellence, you might as well leave it to someone else,” says Martin Kinsella, who runs health and social care enterprise P3.
2 Do your research
“You can never do too much research into your customers, competition and the needs of potential clients,” says Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa, who runs youth media training company Catch 22. “I couldn’t go to the media companies I wanted to work with and say ‘you should back this because it’s a good thing’. I had to find out what they wanted and provide that.”
3 Know your market
Julie Harris, who runs ICT enterprise COSMIC, says: “If we’d have known earlier how much potential there was for social enterprise and for ICT support, we could have developed much more quickly and on a bigger scale. Good market research is so often overlooked in the early days.”
4 Check your figures
“Don’t be romantic and focus on all the good you want to do, the financial side really is more important than the social side. You can’t make much happen without financial resource,” says Tokunbo.
5 Plan everything
“Most of the reasons social enterprises fail is through lack of planning. Lots run out of money before they are sustainable but having a solid strategy, budget, task list and so on, should help you understand the true costs of setting up,” says Kresse Wesling of Elvis & Kresse, an enterprise which upcycles waste. “Also, don’t give up your day job, fit your planning into weekends and evenings,” she adds.
6 Don’t wait for the right time
“Prepare a good plan, get the right people on board, and then just start doing it. Don’t wait and wait for the right time, the right project, the right funding or investment. You have to create opportunities yourself and make them happen,” says Julie.
7 Get supporters, mentors and critics
“Get good quality social enterprise support specialists, but also get support from someone who can provide personal encouragement and be objective. Establish a good mentoring relationship with someone who you can trust and someone who will challenge you,” says Julie.
8 Don’t sell yourself short
“Because of having a lack of money, social enterprise start-ups will take the tiniest bit of cash and try to make miracles with it - sometimes they sell themselves short. Aim to get the full amount required to do a quality job,” says Tokunbo.
9 Become an expert
Think about how you can become an expert in your field. “If you can’t back up everything you’re saying, people will pull you apart,” says Martin, who did an MA in policy, organisation and change, in professional care when he first started his enterprise.
10 Take responsibility
“...for what you’re doing and don’t expect someone else to come and sort things out for you and provide the answers and money. You’ve got to have the resource to carry it through. If you get help that’s a bonus,” says Martin.
For more advice on starting up, check out the video section of the website for lots of ambassadors giving their advice on film. There are also related blogs, such as this one from Daniel Heery.
Later this month, we'll be asking the ambassadors why the UK is a world leader in social enterprise, and the best way to source products from overseas.
For more information and advice on starting-up check out the following websites:
For all other useful websites visit our links page here.
