Tameside Social Economy Network
Our event held on the 15th of January with guest speaker Wendy Breakell was a great example of how the network helps groups to build those key connections and gain valuable insight on their journey to develop their social enterprise.
Our guest speaker Wendy Breakell has extensive first-hand experience of starting and developing successful businesses. As the founder and managing director of Break Into Business, as well as a number of other businesses in Manchester and London, Wendy has used her expertise to support social entrepreneurs in setting up and growing a social enterprise. She has been named one of the top 50 advisors in the North West and is currently delivering to the Greater Manchester Build a Business programme.
Boss Mindset | Employee Mindset
One of the key points raised by Wendy at the event was the need to work using multiple mindsets. A “boss” mindset, and an “employee” mindset. What this essentially means is that you yourself are accountable for the planning and decision-making of your social enterprise, as well as carrying out those decisions and making sure the necessary tasks are completed. This can sometimes mean having to delegate to other people and bringing others in to help with decisions or tasks.
When planning the work to be carried out, there is no right way to plan and not everyone will work best in the same environment. What was emphasised in the network meeting was going back to the basics of how you plan and what environment suits you best. For some this could be at a desk in an office, for some it could be whilst they’re on a walk or completing a chore. It’s important that you plan in the best environment that suits you with the tools you need. If you plan out loud, using a speech-to-text tool could be useful, or pen and paper for those who write things down, or a visual map for visual thinkers. Whatever way you plan the main thing is to play to your best skills and to make sure you are managing your time effectively.
Purpose, Priorities, and Progress
Wendy also touched on the “3 Ps of an action plan”, a useful tool to direct your thinking on the different tasks related to your business plan. These are Purpose, Priorities, and Progress. For each aspect of your plan, you should map out what it is you are wanting to achieve, the main priorities that come from that, and what progress you have made in completing it.
In the process of thinking about your action plan those wanting to build a successful social enterprise should focus on what they want to change about their approach or the way their enterprise already works. Some examples that were given at the network included giving staff and volunteers a thank you day at Cash Back Credit Union as it’s important to recognise their efforts and focus on the people as well as the business.
Another idea that was discussed by Valley Farm CIC was that in their bushcraft project they had started to have conversations with service users about interpersonal boundaries and were then prompted by this session to think about delivering a course on interpersonal boundaries as part of their work.
Wendy challenged the group to think about the need for Social Enterprises to be innovative to meet sustainability needs. Whilst it’s important to champion your social value and to carry that social responsibility in the work you do, it’s also important to recognise that you are selling a service to people and in selling a service there should be a unique selling point (USP) that is financially viable. She helped the group to think about what sustainability looks like for them, and how innovation plays a part in achieving this.
Making contacts and sharing ideas through the network
The tools Wendy shared were a great success in helping our groups in Tameside to think differently about time management, planning and delegation skills to lead their organisations towards sustainability. The event also gave groups the opportunity to connect with our partners to take the next steps towards their business plan.
One of the groups who attended were Save the Harewood, who are trying to safeguard the only remaining pub left in Broadbottom, and run it as a Community Pub. The group are looking to fund the purchase of the pub partly through offering community shares and have had £125,000 in pledges as of the 15th of January. Grenville who is the lead of the group gave us the following feedback after the network event.
Please tell us about one thing you will take away from this session and implement
“Differentiating between things that need immediate action, and things that can wait, or need more thought, and calendarising them.”
What is your biggest challenge as a Social Economy Organisation?
“1) sourcing grant funding (in particular government funding).
2) finding enough committed volunteers.”
Is there any other feedback you would like to share?
“I thought Wendy Breakell did an excellent job engaging with the participants, listening, comprehending, and responding. I enjoyed the format, getting us all talking, gently pushing us to get us thinking. It was good to hear the issues the different participants raised, and it also worked really well as a networking opportunity. A big thanks to Action Together for organising!!”
Our Network
As part of the Tameside Social Economy Network, we will hold regular network events each quarter to support our social enterprises in Tameside as well as 1-2-1 support for social entrepreneurs. If you would like to know more about our work please follow this link Tameside Social Economy Network | Action Together.