Maybe you have been furloughed for a few weeks and have been using your time to volunteer as part of the COVID-19 response. Or maybe you’re working from home, or have recently been made redundant as part of the economic fallout of the pandemic.

It’s given you an insight to your local community more – albeit from a socially distant perspective. Perhaps you don’t fancy going back to the commute routine. Or that role that didn’t give you job satisfaction. Or you are not sure what employment opportunities you can access post-redundancy.

You want to do something that provides you an income but at the same time has a social purpose that benefits the community you now feel more part of, setting up a social enterprise might be for you.

Characteristics of a social enterprise

The characteristics of a social enterprise, as described in Social Enterprise UK’s guide, includes generating the majority of your income through trade and reinvesting the majority of profits rather than being primarily set up for owner or shareholder value. A social enterprises is accountable and transparent by having a board of directors that is legally accountable for the organisation’s social mission as well as its financial performance.

Key to success

The key to success of a social enterprise is that you have a product or service that someone is willing to pay for. Be that a private individual or a public service organisation that procures a service through a commissioning process.

You will need to create a social enterprise business model – one that combines social impact and profit creation. The Dragonfly Collective has carried out some research with Cass Business School to produce a toolkit, which offers 17 business model types and a seven-step process to business model design.

Once you have the model in place, then you can select a legal structure to run your social enterprise such as a community interest company or a community benefit society.

You might need to access some social investment along the way to provide income for capital purchases or working capital. Good Finance has a diagnostic tool which helps you decide whether social investment is right for your organisation.

Now you are ready to promote and sell your service or product. Facebook Blueprint is a partnership with MediaTrust and Facebook to help the VCSE sector by providing an e-learning pathway covering the fundamentals of advertising with Facebook and Instagram.

If your social investment idea will aim to provide support to the communities of Leicester City and Leicestershire then you can access free support from VAL to help you with the steps to key to success described above. Just send us a message. If using our online contact form use support for your organisation in the reason for contact drop down box.

Get support from VAL

If you are a charity or community group and you need additional support to deliver services during the pandemic, VAL is here to help.

We can offer advice on issues that affect charities, from fundraising to proper governance and managing volunteers.

You get can in touch via:

helpline@valonline.org.uk
0116 257 5050

The social enterprise trading model as outlined in the Social Enterprise Mark, is based on the principle of aiming to earn 50% or more of your income from trading within 3 years of setting up. At the same time there is a commitment to spending at least 51% of any profits on achieving social or environmental purposes, in contrast to commercial organisations who principally trade to maximise benefits for shareholders and owners.

Save Our Social Enterprises

A collaborative campaign called Save Our Social Enterprises by organisations such as Social Enterprise UK highlights the gap in current government support measures for our sector, and they have written to the Chancellor asking for such things as existing business grants being extended to include social enterprises. They highlight how social enterprises employ those furthest from the labour market, stating that many of of these workers will struggle to find employment if the social enterprises they work for close.

Following the Charity Commission guidance, many charities also lawfully trade as part of their mix of income. This is sometimes within their existing structure or with a trading subsidiary such as a charity shop or café, most of which have had to temporarily close due to the lockdown.

Therefore we recommend that the local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector gets behind the campaign and adds their influence to it.

Entrepreneurial spirit

The people involved in social enterprises have the mindset and entrepreneurial spirit to adapt to change, which for many means they won’t let the pandemic stop their aspirations to making a difference to their communities.

For example, Warwick Bridge Corn Mill have put on hold their implementation plan to open a bakery and instead responded to COVID-19 by starting flour production.

VAL is seeing that spirit first hand and is promoting the support services during COVID-19 that are being delivered by local charities and social enterprises.

Embracing innovation and continuous improvement

A key part of entrepreneurial spirit is to embrace innovation and continuous improvement. We have come up with some suggestions to help you along the way.

Switching to an online service: Digital Socent has produced a virtual workbook which covers adapting and funding this change of approach to service delivery.

Refreshing your social enterprise business model: The Dragonfly Collective has carried out some research with Cass Business School to produce a social enterprise business model toolkit. It tips and tools include how to combine social impact and profit creation.

Raising new capital for a new trading idea: Stir to action, has a webinar on 24 June covering the topic Community Shares: Raising the Right Type of Finance For Your Community Venture.

Have some capital to tide you over: Social Investment Business has a Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund for social enterprises and charities who are experiencing disruption to their normal business model as a result of COVID-19.

Keep communicating: It’s important to continue to communicate as a board of directors or a trustee board. Our virtual trustee meeting blog might give you some ideas on how to do this.

Finally make sure you are signed up to our Voluntary Sector Support newsletter. We aim to keep you updated with new ideas and solutions. Send us a message if you would like help with your social enterprise trading model. Use the support for your voluntary organisation option in the reason for contact dropdown box.

Get support from VAL

If you are a charity or community group and you need additional support to deliver services during the pandemic, VAL is here to help.

We can offer advice on issues that affect charities, from fundraising to proper governance and managing volunteers.

You get can in touch via:

helpline@valonline.org.uk
0116 257 5050