How to inspire enterprise in others…

Everything you need to know to set up your own social enterprise (ish)!

“As a social entrepreneur myself and having been unemployed I understood the difficulties and challenges our participants may have but was also and excited about getting the chance to support others to become less reliant on benefits and set up their own social enterprise.”

My name is Keith McAllister and I am a social enterprise specialist with Action Hampshire and was a project officer on the Inspiring Enterprise program which ended Dec 2020.

The Inspiring Enterprise program offered free support to unemployed and disadvantaged people across Hampshire to develop ideas, skills and confidence people needed to become self-employed or create their own social enterprise.

How did we do this ?

At the time we were able to run face to face workshops which covered ideas generation, vision and mission, marketing and finance as well as lots of other topics to give our participants as much information as possible to support them on their journey.

We tried to make the workshops a fun, informal and interactive learning space for our participants as well as a space for us to listen to them, their ideas, concerns and what they hope to achieve on completion of the program.

On completion of the workshops the participants were given the chance of 1-2-1 mentoring where we can explore and develop the workshop topics further as well as start to look at other topics like legal structure and funding.

Having initially joined the program as a mentor I enjoyed the opportunity to listen to other peoples ideas and support them so that they can help others – which is what is great about social entrepreneurship, a community of people trying to do good in their own communities.

What happened next ?

Inspiring Enterprise has supported hundreds of people back into training, employment, self-employment including setting up a social enterprise and the impact of the program will continue long after its completion in Dec 2020.

We have seen people go on to successfully gain places at The School of Social Entrepreneurs, set up sustainable social enterprises including Film Crew 4 U and Angels & The Architect as well as lots of others who are no longer benefit dependent.

I loved my time as a project officer on the Inspiring Enterprise program and felt like I was growing with them my own journey as a social entrepreneur and I will miss hearing their (sometimes crazy) ideas but wish them every success in the future!

We found that everyone we spoke to had an idea for a business – WHAT IS YOURS?

Are you looking to make a real difference to the lives of your local community?  Join our information session next week to find out about The Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme – register here

We would love to hear from you – please get in touch here!