Consultancy
Having had many negative experiences of traditional old school investment funding I decided to specialize in new ways for social enterprises to become investment ready and exploit the large amount of specialist funding available.
I have tried to put this into action for myself: by setting up an incubator for the long term unemployed and business start ups called Woking Inc.
Where I charge social enterprises for my time I offer a refund if I am not successful at raising £50000 plus for their organisation. I have to charge to keep my focus on companies that can benefit from my time and avoid the tire kickers.
The first problem I came across was how few social enterprises had any idea about business planning for investment. Either in the company structure, lack of growth projections, weak financial knowledge or the inability to talk Angel.
To address this I have set up a Business Plan Competition with £5000 of prizes. Based on a simple questionnaire, 1 page Angelsoft business plan outline and short You Tube presentation competitors will be offered coaching, software, courses and presentation opportunities that could lead to £50,000 plus of investment.
Amongst the planned training courses I expect to run shortly are: E Bus plan, Altcofunding, £50000 for your business and Bus Plan Bootcamp. All designed to help social enterprises raise Angel investment funding.
As well as speaking at trade events I will be organising a series of workshops, webinars, conferences and working lunches. One of these will focus on the steps to taking a social enterprise public. This will show the faults and benefits of social enterprise investment.
These will use internet and multimedia to encourage networking. A series of DVDs and E books will also be produced from the information presented.
Part of my job is to keep on top of new social enterprise funding methods. Whether this is grants, soft loans, near equity or specialist funding competitions. I have good relationships with the new Social Fund organisations, so when it comes to applying I know what they want and how it should be presented.
I have found the existing Angel networks ineffective at creating real investment for normal companies. This is even worse for social enterprises.
I have therefore set up my own networks to make regular contacts with potential investors. One of these, Angel1000, offers sophisticated investors £1000 a year to study business plans from companies like yours.
Return on Giving has been recently set up to promote an alternative to cheque book giving. Philanthropists should be made aware of the benefits and returns possible from social enterprise investing.
The scale and reach of my contacts and experience would not be possible if I did not make extensive use of new internet media to promote social enterprises as a relevant investment class.
If you have a project you think we could work on please complete the contact form below.
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