{"id":542,"date":"2015-10-16T12:19:02","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T12:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/?post_type=news_post&p=542"},"modified":"2021-08-02T12:59:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T11:59:51","slug":"grantee-workshops-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/news\/grantee-workshops-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Grantee share stories at Power to Change workshops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week we were in Camberwell in South London for our first workshop for community businesses to support them in their growth. Open to our grantees <\/a>and community business panel members<\/a>, the session was called \u2018Trading for sustainability, business planning and community finance\u2019<\/em> and ably delivered by our partners the School for Social Entrepreneurs <\/a>. Although the title may sound dry, the two days turned out to be anything but, and speakers included Keely Charlick, CEO of the\u00a0Sunnyside Rural Trust<\/a>; Ben Warren from Investment Associate, Big Society Capital<\/a>; Ged Devlin, from Power to Change<\/a>; Vinay Nair Director of Business Development, SIB Group <\/a>and Social and Sustainable Capital;<\/a> Tessa Blunden Chair of The Ivy House Pub<\/a>, the first co-operatively owned\u00a0pub in London.<\/p>\n

Our grantees represented diverse sectors, from sports facilities to community hubs of every shape and size from across England. Some of their challenges and concerns were what you would expect from any busy entrepreneurs: time management; prioritizing, and motivating people, though with the added nuance that the majority of your team could be volunteers rather than staff incentivised by pay. A shared issue was accessing the time, money and expertise to focus on marketing. Like all community businesses, each had a great story about their roots, including the desire to improve communities, jeopardy, broken promises, campaigns and the added complexity of creating an income generating business to support these community needs.<\/p>\n

The rapid rate of policy changes kept most of the delegates awake at night, whether it emanated from their local authorities under an unprecedented fiscal squeeze or from fears that those same authorities would not devolve funds and control further down the line, to community businesses \u2013 the best place for them, naturally!<\/p>\n

We watched a video which gives a nifty visual reminder of the core ingredients of a social business model.<\/p>\n