Tag Archives: social business

Tell your story everywhere!

Enterprise Start-ups, Marketing, PR, SME Support, , , , , ,
writing Press Release Pic2
Getting to grips with your news…

In desperate economic times it is is important spread your success story as widely as you can. Impact is about perception as much as it is about delivery.

Getting your narrative and pictures together is one thing. Where and to whom should you send it? Below are details of useful tool kits and advice packs that can help you, whether you are a community group just starting down the road to social enterprise, or a fully fledged small business beginning to highlight the important ‘social’ message in your work.

Locality offer a great Press Kit. It explains in simple and accessible language, what makes a good story, How to ‘pitch’ your news to create wide interest. Importantly the information also shows you how to let the press know – what are the mechanics of sending a captivating email, for example.

The tool kit offers guidance about how to put together a formal press release, and lets you access a template to help you get it right. Not everyone is good at talking to reporters, or in making off the cuff comments that best reflect your project. Choose the right spokesperson and plan ahead.

See the Locality Media kit here. Icon for Adobe PDF

And don’t forget social media. You’re reading this article in the SEEM on-line journal, but someone had to create it and populate the pages too. Locality also offer you a short social media tool kit to compliment the more traditional press release.

See the Social Media toolkit from Locality here. Icon for Adobe PDF

 

The Guardian have a nice article on the ten most glaring mistakes you can make in a Press Release for your project or Social Business. Too may CAPS, too short or too personal? The media professionals at The Guardian offer some advice.

The Guardian – writing a good press release web pages here. internetIconMini

 

For the more commercially minded HubSpot, bringing something of a USA focus , offer their take with  The Newsworthy Guide to Inbound Public Relations.

Although you will have to register on the HubSpot website, the download is free and they promise to give you insights in how to revive the Press release for the new media age.

HubSpot – get your free copy of The Newsworthy Guide here. internetIconMini

If you’re currently writing your press release, planning your campaign or just interested in reviving your project face to the world…help is here.

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

 

The SME graduate?

Community Economics, Economic Thought, Enterprise Start-ups, SME Support, , , , ,

Amy Simmons and Emily Ward, two final year undergraduates at Nottingham Business School have just delivered an interesting research paper on …why are so few graduates working in SMEs within the UK?

Having worked in small business in their University placement the researchers had noticed how graduates appeared to be missing from the SME human resource landscape. The SME economic landscape is important. As their research states…

SMEs are the driving force towards the recovery of the economy as they account for 99% of the UK businesses. They also provide 67% of private sector jobs and contribute to 50% of the UK’s GDP.

Their research indicates that SME’s do not understand  and have a lack of knowledge about graduates. What are their qualifications worth? What impact can a graduate have on my business? Graduate skills, even from major corporates clearly focus, their research shows, on ‘traditional’ skill sets. Team working and communication, team players required and a strong can do’ attitude.

A key reference in the Simmons and Ward research is the difficulty of actually connecting SME’s with graduates. Private sector ‘soft development’ of business often takes place outside of normal working hours in the UK.  Key careers fairs and ‘meet and greet’ graduate events are traditionally mainstream day events.

Overall we warmed to their thesis, and find echoes in our worry about Social Business awareness, which we have written about in the past. How to enable graduates to recognise the Social Business sector as positive career progression path? The Simmons and Ward research seems to indicate that the issue is of an even more fundamental nature.

How to make graduates aware of the SME sector opportunities for dynamic personal and professional growth? Leaning towards social or community enterprise is probably the second, more subtle step to take in our raising awareness campaign?

Discover the Nottingham Trent University web article in full here…

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

Is the economy broken?

Community Economics, Economic Thought, SME Support, Social Finance, , , , ,

Although it has been around for a month or two now, we thought it was worth revisiting the Transforming Finance film from the pages of The Finance Innovation Lab.

Even at the start of 2014 we are burdened by news of multi-million pound loss making institutions paying multi-million pound aggregate bonuses. The schism between the ‘real economy’ in communities and the netherworld of internal trades in the financial markets is well illustrated in the film below.

The core message of the film is a critique of the current banking environment. Interestingly the voices heard and the opinions expressed are voiced by significant players in the finance innovation sector – what is not heard is the voice of disorganised fiscal radicalism, rather a careful, reflective and pointed analysis of the current financial situation.

The unstated, yet telling counterpoint, to the argument expressed is a positive acclamation of the Social Finance sector. The notion of financial institutions trading with each other, the making of money out of money, seriously impedes the fiscal health of communities and small business.

The delivery of innovation, profit and community welfare in the broadest economic sense is not impossible. We heard about it in this film.

Discover the Finance Innovation Lab here.

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

The Big Energy Idea

Enterprise Start-ups, Impact Investment, Social Business News, Social Finance, , , , ,

A new fund on the block for 2014, supported by Centrica through their Ignite Social Enterprise, the money available is to support entrepreneurs in the energy sector.

Do you have a sustainable energy idea, the delivery of which can change and sustain communities? Whether you just have an idea, or are already seeking capital investment for your product or service, the Ignite fund is worth a look.

Centrica are providing funding of £10 million over the next ten years. The fund is seeking to make investments of between £50,000 and £2 million.

Your project must have clearly identifiable social aims, with clear outputs and goals and be energy sector facing. Your engagement with the Ignite fund may be as equity or as debt.

Ignite…driving innovation at every point of the energy chain – from sourcing and generation through to supply, service and saving energy. And by investing in social enterprises we’re making a positive impact on employment, income, housing and local communities.

To find out more about the fund you can visit the How to Apply section of their website here,  All the eligibility criteria for the fund are available and you can apply on-line from the fund web site.

If successful in a bid, the top three applicants will also be able to join the Wayra Academy in London, for ongoing support and project development, You can read the Wayra press release from the fund launch here.

Applications for this round of the Big Energy Idea close at the end of February 2014.

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

Expanding social finance?

Economic Thought, Social Business News, Social Finance, , , ,
Social investment funds image
Growing the social investment sector…

The Social Investment Business have indicated they may be getting ready to launch funds that serve social businesses outside the charity and traditional social enterprise sector.

Jonathan Jenkins of the The Social Investment Business, the UK’s largest social business lender, indicated at a recent speech, at a Somerset House Big Society Network event, stated that his organisation was looking at securing funding for businesses that have with-profit profiles, that could benefit from finance streams that are different from SIB’s core government funds.

This is an interesting development in the sector, with a major player in social finance now looking to support a wider category of socially minded businesses that value their social bottom line, as well as generate shareholder value.

In a sophisticated social business support landscape, this is a timely indication that the sector is moving towards a wider recognition of enterprises with ‘community sensibility’, but who can still perform and deliver within a more traditional business matrix.

To endorse this view Big Society Capital, at the same Somerset House event, opined that perhaps eight new funds of substance, based on these wider application criteria, might appear in the marketplace in 2014.

internetIconMini You can discover more about the Social investment Business on-line here…

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

 

Season’s Greeetings

Uncategorized,
Merry Christmas from Mining the SEEM image
Season’s Greetings from the SEEM team…

A cup full of Festive Cheer to all our colleagues and friends.

Thank you to all our readers, members and friends who have accessed our news journal in 2013.

Looking forward to keeping you informed again in 2014.

 

 

The Mining the SEEM team.

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

Community Enterprise funding

Community Economics, Enterprise Start-ups, Social Business News, , , , , ,

‘Power to Change is a new initiative which will invest up to £150 million to support the development of sustainable community-led enterprises across England. It will be delivered by an independent Trust established next year’…The Big Lottery

A new Trust will be formed to deliver the Power to Change programme, which should become active in the Autumn of 2014.

This new fund represents a refreshed recognition that it is community enterprise which can play a key role in the regeneration of localities.

Whether you and your community are looking to develop pop-up shops, reclaim that closed library or to re-energise a community centre this new fund could be for you.

The new fund is an injection into the community business sector, much to be welcomed. As always, Oh that the pot was even bigger!

You can see examples of community enterprise to help define your vision here on the Big Lottery web site.

You can see the original Power to Change briefing document, including information on a range of existing funders for the sector as a pdf file here.

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

The money illusion – explanations

Community Economics, Economic Thought, Explanations, Social Finance, , , , ,
Illusion image
Thinking about money and society

Put simply money illusion is the propensity to respond to changes in money magnitudes as if you were were responding to changes in real magnitudes.

For example, if we increased your income by 100% from now, but also increased the cost of all the goods and services you used or purchased by 100%, and you were already buying the optimum goods or services for your needs, then you could go on acquiring these at previous rates of consumption. (Any goods or services that you previously couldn’t buy, you still could not afford).

However, the money illusion, in essence, is when your income rises and you ‘feel’ richer, consequently you purchase more luxury or non-standard goods or services because of that feeling and purchase less of the staples you previously bought.

Individuals fail to grasp that their real income has not risen. (Your real income is measured by dividing your money income by an appropriate and consistent index of prices…see below…).

You can see therefore in mainstream economic practice that the banks ability to quite literally print money, to increase it’s own money magnitude at will – remote from real lives and economic behaviour, or for an individual to regularly value and revalue their property portfolio on a rising market, can lead to financial disaster for the individual.

The economist Irving Fisher deliberated long and hard about the high value of stocks immediately before the 1929 Wall Street crash, ands produced many of the indices of value that we still use to measure, or second guess, market ‘fluctuations’ today. This thinking has not prevented economic juddering in recent decades either.

We would wish to argue that a rational social economy, based on business outputs that are focused on social outcome, not individual wealth or shareholder value as a predominant driver, are one way to counterbalance the money illusion.

Taking out the thirst for dis-proportionate personal wealth and dedicate outputs to a wider social good – replacing the feeling of ‘riches’ for the feeling of ‘community’ – is a perfect way to achieve a new economic equilibrium.

Boost the social business market, starve the illusion!

Explanations is an occasional Mining the SEEM piece to explain economic and financial thinking in a clear and understandable way. If you have a term to be explained, or even to tell us when we haven’t been clear, then contact the Editor at Mining the SEEM and let us know.

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

Nottingham, a city of making

Economic Forecasts, Economic Thought, Enterprise Start-ups, SME Support, Social Business News, , , ,
Academic underpinning of development - Nottingham has two universities...
Academic underpinning of development – Nottingham has two universities…

We featured the early results for GDP from the Office of National Statistics for Quarter 2 in 2013 recently. These are now firm and the results are detailed below. The slight air of optimism about UK Ltd continues to be felt, we would argue.

UK gross domestic product (GDP) in volume terms was estimated to have increased by 0.7% between Q1 2013 and Q2 2013, unrevised from the Second Estimate of GDP published 23 August 2013. Between Q4 2012 and Q1 2013, GDP in volume terms increased by 0.4%, revised up from the previously estimated 0.3% increase.

We were also delighted to read a recent article in the national press, where Nottingham, our home city, was cited by the Governor of the Bank of England as a ‘bell-weather’ for the UK economy. With data showing that nine out of ten jobs in the city are currently in the service sector, a move back to ‘creative manufacturing’, in all it’s diversity, is a great echo to the high Victorian energy of the city.

Katie Allen, writing in The Guardian, described Mark Carney’s view of Nottingham as a city where growth was rising, but that the quality of that growth and innovation was also significant. Gone are bicycles and cigarettes, but they are replaced by significant entities in bio-science, engineering and the arts/creative sector.

Examples in our city include the creation of new Creative Quarter Community Interest Company, as well as the delivery of a new BioCity development to foster the city’s lead in the sciences.

With the development of the Creative Quarter, it is great to see social business as a key plank in the city’s developing enterprise structure.

If, as a social business looking to make an inward investment, or to explore the context of Nottingham a start-up or social business development setting – you can find the city’s Growth Plan online here.

The team at SEEM, with our expertise in social business start-up and skills in delivering social finance would be happy to help you shape your project too. Contact us here…

Interesting web resources:

Mapping the Moment – a map based examination of the ‘cultural industries’ in Nottingham between 1857 – 1867

Knitting Together – an examination of the East Midlands knitting industry, 1600 to 1970. (Much changes in the economic landscape for our city and its hinterland, but much remains the same. New technologies, mergers, enterprise rise and fall…)

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…

Social Business – the larger market

Events, Impact Investment, Social Business News, Social Finance, , , , ,
What are we not discussing?
What are we not discussing?

Social Business – the larger market for social finance and social impact

Next month I’ll be making my annual homage south to the ‘Good Deals’ conference in London to immerse myself in all things ‘Social Finance’ (www.good-dealsuk.com ) No doubt there will be a host of new investment vehicles to discover, angel investors to meet and a plethora of organisations looking for exciting investible propositions.

And when I arrive in the throbbing metropolis that is the epicentre for this rapidly developing industry, I’ll be asking one question; ‘When are you going to deal with the elephant in the room and redefine the market for social finance?

The brave new world of Social Finance shouldn’t be confined to expanding social enterprises or transforming charities; the market it simply isn’t big enough. It has to be about a much broader Social Business marketplace defined by an organisations’ ability to make a difference in society and not their legal persuasion.

Organisations and individuals looking to ‘Invest for Impact’ in the Social Business marketplace need to understand that there’s much to be done in terms of helping to shape, develop and widen access to social finance. We need better routes to market through Universities, LEPS and players such as the Chambers and the Federation of Small Businesses. We need well developed brokerage facilities, better physical access arrangements and much wider appreciation that at time when banks are loathe to part with their money, social finance can be conduit to growth, jobs and social impact.
Some would argue that it’s’ easier to socialise the private sector than it is to commercialise the third sector.

Whether you believe that or not, the two markets are not mutually exclusive and social finance needs to expand its horizons and seize the moment. Seldom can there have been a better time to provide finance to businesses that are willing to embed social and/or environmental impact in their operations. We simply need to provide a much greater awareness of the opportunity and the means to help investees articulate the difference they can make in people’s lives.

Celebrating the Good Deals Conference

Good Deals Logo pictureTo celebrate the Good Deals Conference, SEEM are offering a FREE tailored support opportunity for any organisation or individual that is intent on delivering social and/or environmental impact and want to access Social Finance to gear up their operations. To understand more about social finance and how to access it call telephoneIconMini0115 900 3299 before 31st October.

Roger H. Moors

Roger Moors is CEO of SEEM (Supporting Social Business) based in Nottingham. With a background in banking, Roger and SEEM broker social finance across the East Midlands and currently hold contracts with a number of intermediaries and funders including the Key Fund and Social Incubator North.

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…