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Social Enterprise

When people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I am a Social Enterprise adviser, they look at me in a bemused way and ask – what’s Social Enterprise? My standard reply is always “It is a way of using the business model to make money which is then used to benefit your community”. They nod and say OK, but I have a feeling that they really have no idea of what I am going on about.

Having had many debates with colleagues over exactly what a Social Enterprise is – it is becoming more and more evident that Social Enterprise is a term that is used to broadly describe any money making activity within the voluntary or business sector that is then used for community based projects.

This month, Chris and I spent 1 1/2 hours driving to see one of our clients in Shropshire, which gave us time to discuss the subject – in between Chris’s arguments with artic lorries!

We both agreed that for us, the term Social Enterprise means, running a successful enterprise using standard business practices. It means doing business to make a profit and not going ‘cap in hand’ for funding. It means allowing a social entrepreneur to build a business; creating an income and paying costs and overheads, including wages, and then instead of splitting the profits between directors or shareholders, using them to benefit the community.

At Midwest Rural Enterprise we are using the profits that we made last year to fund a DVD and manual that will help people to set up their own Social Enterprise, these will be available later this year and will feature some of our clients who are running successful Social Enterprises.

Clare Foster, Midwest Rural Enterprise CIC

Posted on 12/05/2009 by Roy Walford

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