Starting up
Starting a social enterprise brings a unique set of challenges that you may not have encountered before.
Here are some tips from the social enterprise ambassadors.
1. 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 Harris, , who runs ICT enterprise COSMIC.
2. Know your market
Julie 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.”
3. 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 of Catch 22.
4. 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.
5. 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.
Read more tips for starting up from the social enterprise ambassadors
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