Social Enterprise The Business Perspective. A community interest company Strategic communications...

Social EnterpriseThe Business Perspective

A community interest companyA community interest company

Strategic communications and creative services to promote brands, behaviours and buy-in Social & Local is a Community Interest Company. We share our profits and our knowledge to encourage entrepreneurship.


We’re passionate about combining commercial return on investment with a genuine social return

A community interest company

So far, so good

Social Fund Value£25,000

How did this come about?


October 2010

MDGlobal Communications Agency Earning £130K per annumDelivering £1million gross income from Government clients


January 2011

“the new government has made it clear that there will be a 50% cut in advertising spending which is expected to continue into the future”

Services no longer required

Earning £0K per annum

£30K redundancy payment

“Now, how can I use 36 years experience and

talent to good effect in this new world”


Developing a compelling brand proposition.

Operating profit at marketing services shops more than halved to 5.4 per centduring the first half of 2011, according to the Marketing Agencies Association.

On a more positive note, there was ample evidence of a dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit

that bodes well for the industry's future.

The underlying picture is that the transparency created by the internet is pushing major brands towards social responsibility, as demand by their customers and staff. The challenge for social entrepreneurs is to come up with social benefit models that make a social impact and at the same time create an inspirational connection with the brands and their key audiences

Children's charities hardest hit by austerity measuresThe future is bleak for 64,000 charities that work with children and young people in England and depended on state grants

The CIC office was opened in July 2005 to create a legal structure for businesses designed to benefit communities. CICs are not 'not-for-profit' organisations like charities. Like any other business, CICs aim to make a profit and pay all their employees salaries, but unlike ordinary businesses, the profits won't automatically go to the company's owners or shareholders - the idea is that they go to the community the company has been set up to benefit.

OUR BUSINESS VISION & ACTIVITIES

Vision: We will be recognised as thought

leaders in social entrepreneurship by proving a

mainstream agency can be both profitable and

make a tangible contribution to society

Mission: Use our skills and experience to

deliver high performance marketing

communications that make the most of our

clients’ resources and help them achieve more.

So some thoughts and tips


How’s our world shaping up?

• Social enterprises are businesses which exist to address social or environmental need. Rather than maximising profit for shareholders or owners, profits are reinvested into the community or back into the business. It’s this which makes social enterprise the most exciting and inspiring business movement in the world.

• The 2005 Annual Survey of Small Businesses UK found that there are 55,000 social enterprises in the UK with a combined turnover of £27 billion. Social enterprises account for 5% of all businesses with employees, and contribute £8.4 billion per year to the UK economy.

• The UK could be home to 232,000 social enterprises and not the official figure of 62,000, new research shows. Delta Research 2011.

• The Community Interest Company is a bespoke legal structure designed for social enterprises with a built-in asset lock. However a social enterprise can also be a Company Limited by Guarantee, a Company Limited by Shares, or an Industrial or Provident Society. Many also take charitable status.


How’s our world shaping up

1578 CIC’s (1296 - 2009/10)

But………..393 dissolved.

Couldn’t get business Unable to survive on income Never got started….


What does it take to succeed

• Social: Relating to human society and its organisation

• Enterprise: A project or undertaking that is especially difficult or requires effort

• Business: Where goods and services are exchanged for one another or for money

• Profit: A financial gain, esp. the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.

• Venture: A risky or daring journey or undertaking


1. It’s not about what you want to sell

It’s entirely about what the market wants to buy.

You may love what you do and feel you do it well, but if what you do does not have a market value or is a product or service that the market don’t want or need you will fail.

So….do your homework, examine your markets, develop a compelling and differentiating proposition.


2. Balance the scales

Voluntary Sector Professional Entrepreneur Collaborative Strong willed Patient Authoritative Measured Intuitive Structured Creative Motivated by organisational goals Self-Motivated

You need to have a balance of behaviours in your business. You need to acknowledge and respect the differences. Your ultimate goal is shared (albeit from different perspectives).


3. Be prepared to take a risk

Building a social business is about everything but protecting your income or job.

You will need to accept risk. There may be risk to your salary, your life pattern, your stress levels. But your determination and belief will win the day. And just think what you can achieve!

Where does the SE Mark fit in?


What is the Social Enterprise Mark?

• The Social Enterprise Mark validates and differentiates your business as a genuine social enterprise from private sector competition through the robust, independent assessment process.

• The Social Enterprise Mark is the only way to prove your social enterprise truly operates as one. The Mark is the only guarantee which proves profits are spent on social purposes.

• It is a young organisation, but one with real commitment to driving excellence and supporting success within the social business sector.


Why is it different?

Promotes & champions

Social Businesses

Support and help the Social Enterprise Movement

Membership org / open to all

Mark of Excellence (Accredited against

firm criteria)


Why we applied for it?

Some concerns about the reputation of social business- Organisations using the CIC model to drive their business but deliberately

minimising profits- The well intentioned - who felt that the social business model might in

itself rescue them from closure or redundancy – take the problem away- A much higher proportion of failure of social businesses – CIC’s than

business per se (business per se 0.15%-0.26%; Community Interest Companies 20%)

We want to be part of something that offers real benefits and says something compelling to our customers.


A case in point

• To move from our individual membership to corporate membership.

• Of 1500 true Agencies in the UK, only 300 are members of the IPA

• Only 100 more are being targeted (including Social & Local)

• To achieve this mark of excellence that is understood by our prospects and which demonstrates that we are credible, professional, good business managers, we need to turnover £500K and prove we have the skills to deliver the job at the highest level. Watch this space.


x202aGlobal EntrepreneurshipWeek.avi


“Social & Local was a bit of a nirvana moment for me. I guess at heart I am an entrepreneur and the opportunity to become a social entrepreneur just made perfect sense in the times in which we find ourselves. It feels of the moment and it feels right. The big challenge was how to combine what I loved doing and have done for so long in the advertising and marketing world with a better, more fulfilling way of organising a business. Social & Local is the result. I really hope you will find us interesting. Just give me a call”.

Stephanie DrakesCEO

I’ve well over 30 years’ experience in designing and delivering Social and Local Marketing, CSR and Brand Strategies, working for a wide range of private, public and not for profit clients including: BT, Boots, Dairy Crest, Royal Mail, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Department for Education, Home Office, The Counties of Devon and Lincolnshire, the Cities of Derby and Leicester and the Universities of Nottingham and Bucks.

I love developing strategy, advising clients about the realities of engaging real people, and getting support and buy- in from partners and stakeholders in the campaigns I work on. I know I have a real commercial streak, which my clients appreciate - most of whom have been attached at the hip for at least 5 years and some poor souls for 20.

Prior to Social & Local, I was Head of Public sector and MD of 23red in the regions. And before I set up and sold two previous integrated communications agencies in London and the UK regions.

Social Enterprise The Business Perspective. A community interest company Strategic communications...

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