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The Social Entrepreneur Index 2020 campaign has wrapped up with the publication of the Index report, celebrating the social impact, creativity and innovation of 55 of the UK’s most inspiring social entrepreneurs. A further 19 individuals are highlighted as “ones to watch” – the judges felt in the coming year these are entrepreneurs that will be making a significant impact. The Social Entrepreneur Index is powered by UMi, in partnership with Social Enterprise Mark, Inspiring Women Changemakers and the School for Social Entrepreneurs. The campaign focuses on the entrepreneurs behind the businesses, telling their story and providing inspiration to thousands of others to do more and go further in their businesses. Nicki Clark, Chief Executive of UMi said “At UMi we believe that business has the power to make a difference to the world we live in and with that in mind the index is an inspiring read -  what a powerful group of people and enterprises doing amazing things” In the report, you’ll find highlight Q&As from four of the social entrepreneurs – Tim Howarth, CEO of United World Schools; Waltraud Pospischil, founder of Arkbound Foundation CIO; Dave Anderson, founder of Heartwood Skills; and Andy Douglas, founder of Scotland All-Strong. You can read full versions and many more nominee profiles online on the Social Entrepreneur Index website that make for thought-provoking and inspiring reading. In addition to celebrating and promoting their work, the campaign offers social entrepreneurs a platform to network and discuss the challenges that they face. With its vibrant mix of entrepreneurs from so many different backgrounds and specialisms, the network is a rich source of knowledge, experience and support. Together, we can achieve more. As part of the celebration event, the online ‘roundtable’ discussions showcased this perfectly. The entrepreneurs shared how they had successfully adapted to challenges, offered support to each other and contributed ideas on what further support would be beneficial from fellow social entrepreneurs, the community, industry partners and government. We would like to thank our judges for taking the time to read through each nomination and giving us their expert opinions on this year’s Index. This year’s judges were Rachel Fell – Social Enterprise Mark; Kate Welch – Social Enterprise Acumen; Kat Luckock - Social Entrepreneur Coach; Josie Armitage - Josie Armitage Associates; Louise Graham - Impact Mentor and Coach; and Arabela Silva - Inspiring Women Changemakers. The UK Social Entrepreneur Index has received the support of eight ambassadors who were selected for being shining examples of how social entrepreneurs can make an impact on a local and international level. They have invested their time to help inspire current and future social entrepreneurs. They are: Lucy Findlay MBE – Social Enterprise Mark; Andrew Bastawrous - Peek Vision; Cameron Saul - BOTTLETOP; Kate Welch - Social Enterprise Acumen CIC; Lucy Buck – The Good Company People CIC; Paul Skidmore - Rising Academies; Rachel Wang - Chocolate Films; and Rosie Ginday - Miss Macaroon. View the report here and the full index is now live at https://www.socialentsindex.co.uk

UMi, in partnership with Social Enterprise Mark, Inspiring Women Changemakers and the School for Social Entrepreneurs, have announced this year’s Social Entrepreneur Index of individuals who are leading the way. We celebrate the social impact, creativity and innovation of 55 of the UK’s most inspiring social entrepreneurs. We have also indicated 19 companies that are “ones to watch” – the judges felt in the coming year these will be entrepreneurs that will be making a significant impact. The campaign focuses on the entrepreneurs behind the businesses, telling their story and providing inspiration to thousands of others in the process. We would like to thank our judges for taking the time to read through each nomination and giving us their expert opinions on this year’s Index. This year’s judges are Rachel Fell – Social Enterprise Mark; Kate Welch – Social Enterprise Acumen; Kat Luckock - Social Entrepreneur Coach; Josie Armitage - Josie Armitage Associates; Louise Graham - Impact Mentor and Coach; and Arabela Silva - Inspiring Women Changemakers. UMi’s Chief Executive, Nicki Clark, explained: “Over many years, UMi has been celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship across the UK. As part of this focus, the UK Social Entrepreneur Index is a celebration of entrepreneurs running businesses with social purposes who we hope will also act as beacons of inspiration for others to encompass positive social impact. We’ve been delighted with the response and quality of entries and in it’s second year we have doubled the Index and the entrepreneurs recognised.” The UK Social Entrepreneur Index has received the support of eight ambassadors who were selected for being shining examples of how social entrepreneurs can make an impact on a local and international level. They have invested their time to help inspire current and future social entrepreneurs. They are: Lucy Findlay MBE – Social Enterprise Mark; Andrew Bastawrous - Peek Vision; Cameron Saul - BOTTLETOP; Kate Welch - Social Enterprise Acumen CIC; Lucy Buck - Child’s i Foundation; Paul Skidmore - Rising Academies; Rachel Wang - Chocolate Films; and Rosie Ginday - Miss Macaroon. The full index is now live at https://www.socialentsindex.co.uk

We meet Dr Saussan Khalil, Director of Kalamna one of our nominees for the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020 who says "Social enterprise is simply the future of business." What does your social enterprise do? Kalamna, meaning ‘our words’ in Arabic, provides Arabic language classes for children and adults. Our focus is on everyday spoken Arabic and providing a positive learning experience by making learning Arabic fun, relevant and engaging. We also provide training for teachers and parents to enable them to use our teaching and learning tools. We currently operate in Cambridge and Newcastle, as well as online. What made you start your business up? Arabic is taught as a classical language, usually with a focus on religion. We identified a lack of non-religious classes that teach Arabic as a spoken language, particularly for children. Our founder, Saussan Khalil is a teaching Arabic as a foreign language teacher at Cambridge University and so decided to start her own classes to do just that! How do you measure your impact? Alongside the standard metrics of number of beneficiaries reached and classes taught, we also measure children’s enjoyment of our classes and their engagement with them. Our main aim is for learners to achieve self-efficacy and have the confidence to keep going in their language learning journey. What help did you have to start your social enterprise? Initially, none! We started very small and grew organically mainly through word of mouth. Eventually we joined the Cambridge Social Ventured incubator programme at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University which provides a lot of essential help for social enterprises. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? The Cambridge Social Ventures programme was instrumental in advising us on the best legal form for our business. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? Feeling like we are making a real difference to families and providing something that is clearly needed but until we came along, wasn’t available. We also have a lot of freedom to create our own rules based on what we think it best for our learners – they are our bottom line. What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? Finding great teachers and franchisees, which we have managed to do but are always looking for more. Finding great teaching resources, which we have resorted to making ourselves and this has turned into another line of business for us Balancing time and financial reward What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? Talk a lot about your ideas to anyone who will listen and in turn listen to any thoughts, advice or feedback offered to you. Find a good support network such as an incubator programme to meet other social entrepreneurs and share the journey with them. Why do you think social enterprise is important? Social enterprise is simply the future of business – as they say doing no harm is simply not enough anymore, we must all strive to make a positive difference in the world. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? The feedback from parents when they see their children enjoying learning Arabic, which for many seemed impossible, and seeing children thrive through accepting their cultural heritage. What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? I highly recommend joining the Cambridge Social Ventures programme, which is open to all. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? That it can become a long-term, sustainable business like any other! What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? To open more franchises in the UK and abroad, publish resources for teaching Arabic and expand our training and licensing offer. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? I would like to see all businesses become social enterprises in some form or another and working towards a social aim. What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? Opening our first franchise in Newcastle Being featured in the New York Times and Middle East Eye Winning the iStudy Best Arabic Language Provider UK 2019-20 What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? The global challenges we are facing has brought to us the realisation that we must function as a global society, and that in order for us all to succeed, we must invest in our societies and be the change we want to see in the world.

We meet Mitchel White, Managing Director of Reward Agency one of our nominees for the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020 who's advice is "Don’t spend years thinking about it. A lot of entrepreneurs wait for the right time, when in reality there isn’t one. Get started today." What does your social enterprise do? Reward is a sustainable branding & marketing agency working with ethical brands to unlock sustainable growth with branding, marketing and digital design. We work with two types of brands; those who are already doing great stuff for the planet with a view to helping them reach more of their audience and grow sustainably, and organisations who might be new to sustainability and want to become more sustainable and reposition themselves in the marketplace. What made you start your business up? As a marketing agency, we have an influence on our clients and their industries. Our campaigns can have a negative or positive impact on people and the planet. We launched Reward as a way to help more brands do more good in response to a personal annoyance at the behaviour of brands and other agencies over the years. We recognised that action needed to be taken to tackle the many environmental issues emerging and felt that as creatives and business strategists we were well positioned to do so. We also wanted to be able to use our success as a brand to give back. We donate 10% of our working month with volunteering and skills to social enterprises and charities to support those doing good. During COVID we’ve increased our time donation to 25%. We’re also part of the Buy One, Give One scheme through our sister firm Copy Generators, which will see us donate 10% of our revenue to children’s charity, Save the Children. How do you measure your impact? We measure our impact through client results, campaign metrics and the good achieved through the additional growth we generate for our clients. We also monitor negative news and align our mission with the suggestions made by experts on what brands can be doing to make a positive impact. One of our plans for the next 12 months is to improve the reporting of our impact. It’s something a lot of brands struggle with and we’re no different. Through collecting more data and asking more questions of our clients, we’re on our way to being able to deliver an even more positive impact. What help did you have to start your social enterprise? We have had some funding over the years, namely in the form of a startup loan with a major high street bank in 2014/15. Since then, we’ve grown organically and have continued to grow by reinvesting our profits into marketing , training and business development. We have also had some support from the Growth Accelerator in Manchester via mentoring and coaching, our coach had a lot of experience which helped us gain a better understanding of the challenges that lay ahead when growing a brand. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? Having freelanced for a number of years beforehand and as a business for profit, we decided on a limited company status. We believe generating a profit ethically gives us more opportunity to do more good. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? It might sound cliche, but knowing the positive impact you’re having is the biggest motivator. We feel like we’re a part of something much bigger than ourselves, we’re working with talented people who care about the planet and people to drive positive social change. By using our skills and knowledge we’re able to bring about change. What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? Having started the agency in 2014, sustainability wasn’t a hot topic back then, pushing a message for a more conscious version of business was tough when nobody was listening. However, it has become a lot easier in recent years as the sustainable movement picks up pace and has become pretty hard to ignore. Growing a team comes with its own challenges. As a small business owner you have to learn new skills quickly. Managing and enabling a team of passionate creatives and marketers is fun and challenging at the same time when you haven't grown a team before. Finally, reporting on social impact has been a challenge for us, in 2020 we launched our Sustainable Development Goals Plan as part of our commitment to the UN SDG’s which has helped us hone in our important metrics and where we can improve on our impact. What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? Get started. Don’t spend years thinking about it. A lot of entrepreneurs wait for the right time, when in reality there isn’t one. Get started today. Start researching the space and your idea and start with small steps to realising your ambition. The world needs more social entrepreneurs. Keep costs low in the early days, it’s easy to get excited when you’re launching a new brand. Don’t overspend and keep an eye on costs to make sure every penny you spend is working hard to achieve your goals. Connect with other social entrepreneurs. The social enterprise and sustainability communities are open and love sharing their knowledge. Don’t be afraid to ask people in the space questions, they have overcome challenges to get to where they have - learn from them. Know your audience and their pain points; this is what will help you grow as you begin your journey. Why do you think social enterprise is important? Everyone can have an impact, it’s our responsibility to act. We must all do our bit to ensure we have a thriving planet and communities. We all have personal passions and most can align to big problems in the world, whether it’s a lack of opportunity for those from developing countries or a frustration that more isn’t being done to tackle the wealth divide across the world. Whatever our passion, we can work towards creating change with social enterprise and business. We can’t rely on governments and big business to do the right thing - we all have a duty to act and do what we believe is right for the planet and people. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? I mentioned above the cliche answer of seeing the impacts we deliver, but this has to be the biggest thrill of my job. Being able to help others to achieve growth for their businesses and charities whilst knowing that growth is going to do so much more than add profit to shareholders accounts. Beyond that, helping consumers and brands understand the business and environmental benefits of being socially responsible is really rewarding. We can use our voice as an agency and mine as an entrepreneur to push for more positive change in business and consumer behaviour. What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? I can’t not mention my best selling book here. Serve, is a book for ethical brands looking to grow sustainably with branding and marketing. It’s a really accessible book and one you can dip in and out of. Apart from that, the Sustainable Development Goals website and edie.net are great sites to visit to read up on the latest news in the space. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? I was surprised and still get taken aback sometimes at how helpful others in the space are. The willingness to share value and knowledge is amazing. I’ve had many 5 minute conversations with other social entrepreneurs where I’ve come away having learnt so much. The collaboration across organisations is something that puts a smile on my face too. What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? Our mission is to enable every organisation to have a more positive impact on the planet and people. We have a clear roadmap of where we want the business to be and plan to grow the team and agency over the next 5 years. In recent weeks we also launched a new unlimited copywriting service for SMES and startups called Copy Generators which is part of our growth plan. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? I’d love to see a more conscious awareness and action around the climate crisis as well as a more compassionate way of life. What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? Ribble Packaging success story: We helped a sustainable packaging organisation reduce CO2 emissions for large national retailers by taking lorries off the road with a perfect sized box solution whilst generating £6.5m in additional revenue. A positive impact across different stakeholders from our client, to the supply chain, the environment and the consumer. Introducing a Buy1, Give1 model & giving initiatives: Everytime we work with a client we give to a giving project through Buy1, Give1 - we’re able to tie our growth to giving and make sure we’re having a positive impact. Being in the position to donate our time to nurture new creative talent: I’m a big believer in education and opportunity, we’re fortunate to be able to give back to our community by donating our time and skills. What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? Organisations that don’t consider their impact won’t exist in 10-15 years with changing consumer expectations and empowerment - if you don’t consider your impact, you will be left behind. We all have a responsibility as entrepreneurs to have as positive an impact on people and the environment as possible.

We meet Jo Ashburner from Red Dragon Flagmakers one of our nominees for the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020 who says "If you’re not 100% passionate, committed and resilient, don’t do it." What does your social enterprise do? We are a sewing business, a manufacturer, a social mission enterprise and a forward thinking dynamic product design company. We are the only social mission flagmaker in the World and we make custom flags, banners, bunting and more every day in our Swansea valley workshop. We are part of a thriving and growing sector of innovative Valley businesses here in Wales, actively pushing the boundaries to get people of every background skilled up and into work through our own in house training and Apprenticeship programme. We are exclusive flagmaker to the Human Rights 2019 event led by Amnesty International, we made the flags for the 2014 NATO Summit through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and we make all the ceremonial taffeta stitched banners for Effat University in Saudi. We make one off coat of arms and the smallest of burgees for clients, wedding banners, installations for European galleries and we also print quality one-off flags for sports fans, events and bulk orders. We are an award winning Disability Confident and Living Wage employer and we are 100% reliant on sales revenue.  We are not grant reliant and we are not a public sector business. We are an SE100 listed company, a member of the Flag Institute and the Wales Quality Centre and we are a thriving micro manufacturing business. What made you start your business up? Dad started the business in 1969 when he was commissioned to make the flags and banners for the investiture of Prince Charles are Caernarfon Castle. After his retirement in 2005 and the closure of the business I returned to Swansea from manufacturing in Vietnam and started it up again with some Dad’s original team and incorporated it as a social mission business in 2014. How do you measure your impact? All our profits go into the amazing people we train and help get back on their feet in the local community and economy.  There are nine of us employed full time and we've trained and helped rehabilitate over 300 people during the past seven years of trading (funded from the profits of our social mission business and not from external sources). What help did you have to start your social enterprise? The WCVA and the Wales Cooperative Centre were there for us right from the start – with support on Arts and Mems, kick start finance and advice. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? When we started, social mission business wasn’t really on any procurement radar which meant incorporating the business as a Limited by Guarantee and ‘not for profit’ was a huge gamble – but it paid off and its now the case that buying with social purpose is a cornerstone of corporate social responsibility and public procurement procedures. Being a social mission business is at the root of everything we do – it always was and always will be, so there was never really any question about what legal form the business would take when we started out. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? I am immensely proud of what the team and I have achieved - starting a niche business is a tough economic period with a relatively unknown business model and despite everything, surviving and thriving. What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? Educating those with purchasing power on the benefits of supporting a social mission business Proving that the third sector is NOT third rate Growing a business with Arts and Mems which don’t give any investment incentives. What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? If you’re not 100% passionate, committed and resilient, don’t do it. Why do you think social enterprise is important? It’s the go to business model for social and economic survival.  Social and economic pressures are proving year on year that monopolies and conglomerates and BIG business is unsustainable when the chips are down. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? Seeing a positive change and empowerment in the people we train and employ. What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? Social Enterprise UK and Social Value UK, Wales Cooperative Centre, WCVA, Unltd, Acas, FSB (Federation of Small Businesses), Make it British. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? How little awareness there is of the business model and socio economic benefits for more than just the business in being a social mission business. What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? When the pandemic lockdown happened it wiped out our order book.  Within two weeks we had set up a fundraiser (www.scrubsforall.co.uk) and started production of red tunic and trouser sets of scrubs for donation to care homes and health care professionals. We also linked into the Welsh Government supply chain for a short while making navy scrubs for the main NHS contractor but within a few more weeks the orders for flags and coffin drapes started to arrive and we achieved 80% of previous productivity levels. We have ageing monarchs which will eventually mean State funerals and a Coronation so we’ve already started producing and stockpiling traditional sewn Union flags and in addition to this we have soft launched Red Dragon Services to handle the growing need for flagpole maintenance and installation UK wide and will build on our experience of piloting the first Apprenticeship in Wales for Textiles Goods Production and establish an Apprenticeship in carpentry for historic and listed buildings.  Last but not least we are excited about the ROOF Initiative (www.roofcoatbag.wales) and the potentially game changer stab proof composite we have developed and patented with University of Wales Trinity St David. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? Remove all barriers to equality.  Overhaul the justice system.  Make heads of industry and politicians accountable.  Make racism and racialism a punishable crime. What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? Taking the team to London to have a tea and cake with the US Ambassador in a private meeting at the missile proof new embassy building in Nine Elms. Creating a sustainable and credible brand and business for the long term Listed as a Wise100 social entrepreneur in 2018 What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? Its becoming the go to benchmark for business giving more power to the purchasing pound. I'd say it is critical to the future of any business.

We meet Sophie Milliken, Managing Director of SRS Recruitment and one of our nominees for Social Entrepreneur Index 2020 who says "By aligning your social passion with your business, you can do so much good!" What does your social enterprise do? We work with universities, students and employers to improve graduate employability and recruitment. For universities, we are the leading UK provider of assessment simulations, run for groups of students from 20 up to over 3000. Our simulations can be stand-alone events or embedded within the curriculum. We create bespoke materials for each university and course. As a recent example, The University of Lincoln thanked us “for providing a well-organised, valuable experience” and a student said ‘I found the experience extremely helpful and I'm now more confident about assessment centres as a result’” For employers, we design assessment materials and support their recruitment process. We designed an assessment centre for M&S who rated us as “excellent” for both the quality of the materials we designed and the quality, professionalism and attitude of our people. 100% of our clients would recommend us to other organisations. What made you start your business up? I wanted to support organisations and individuals to realise their potential. With a background in graduate recruitment, I felt that I was in a strong position to particularly help students. Therefore, we work with universities to create opportunities for the students to practise and prepare for the graduate recruitment process. How do you measure your impact? We evaluate impact by reviewing the number of placements or graduate jobs secured by students after taking part in our events. For example, our work with the Manchester Fashion Institute meant that 40% of their cohort secured full time, yearlong paid placements compared to 10% of students across the university. We also survey the students anonymously to show the increase to their confidence and knowledge of the graduate recruitment process. For example, we work with the University of Hertfordshire to deliver an assessment centre experience to over 3000 students whose overall confidence levels increased by 44%. What help did you have to start your social enterprise? In the early years, we had some ERDF funding to support specific growth projects to do with the website and marketing. I was lucky that anyone I reached out to for advice and support was forthcoming. I now try to do the same for others starting out, as a way of paying it forward. Much of the help I had was in the form of guidance and advice. It was helpful to have a solid group of business buddies that were there whenever I needed specific support and to maintain morale when things were more challenging. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? The advice from the accountant was to set up as a limited company. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? We help to level the playing field and ensure that every student has the same opportunity to learn and practise for the graduate recruitment process. I never lose sight of the individual and I enjoy the challenge of having to adapt our model to different needs and circumstances. Personally, I take a lot of pride in improving the career prospects of thousands of students who go on to share their success stories with us. Their positive feedback keeps on driving us forward, “I really enjoyed the different exercises that we were presented with and the in-depth, personalised feedback that I received was incredibly constructive and invaluable.” What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? -  Adapting to the challenge of COVID-19 and very quickly having to move our proposition online. We rose to the challenge and created a series of digital solutions that provide a very engaging experience for students. This includes digital assessment centres, online coaching, free webinars and an online employability course. - Catering to sometimes very small budgets from our clients. I’m determined that our services should be accessible and affordable for all universities, therefore we have to make sure that we can provide a range of options, such as training their own team to deliver the events instead of us. Our main motivation comes from helping students, and so we always offer a lot of additional free resources. - The scale of our events has sometimes been a difficult process to manage, because despite catering for up to 3000 students – we still focus on that personal touch. Therefore, I had to quickly build up a team of associates and implement new tech to help us meet this challenge. What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? Find your tribe – other entrepreneurs with a similar mindset! They don’t have to be in the same sector as you but they do need to share your values. I find social entrepreneurs tend to be well-connected – someone always knows someone – which is super helpful when starting out. Set goals and make yourself accountable by sharing these with your colleagues and/or your tribe. Finally, just crack on! Why do you think social enterprise is important? Social enterprise is important, because it is a business with a useful purpose, creating equal opportunities for everyone and with a positive impact on different communities.  If all businesses were social enterprises, more of the world’s problems could be solved while also providing employment for many – a win/win. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? There have been many! I would say overall, it’s any feedback we receive from students about how our assessment centre simulations have increased their confidence. So many of my Linkedin connections are with students and graduates who continue to update me on their success stories, having secured placements or graduate jobs. What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? Anything that inspires you! I find a lot of books inspiring, particularly a good autobiography and there are so many out there now. Have a good rummage in your local book shop or on amazon and read something that grabs your attention. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? I think probably how popular social enterprises have become. The term is everywhere now and you see many entrepreneurs using their profile and business to promote positive change and action. What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? -  We always keep abreast of changes in the graduate labour market and ensure that our services reflect the needs of our clients. The chance to practise a realistic employer assessment centre is a fundamental part of the experience we provide to students, and so with COVID-19 having moved graduate recruitment online – we will continue to expand on our digital solutions. - We have also recently become part of the Careerpass Network, a fully integrated talent solutions platform that offers industry-leading creative and tailored employability services. As part of this, we have more scope to have an impact on the graduate recruitment industry – creating more opportunities for employers, universities and students to work together. - I’m writing my second book, The Ambition Accelerator. This book is aimed at young women who want to progress their careers either within organisations or as entrepreneurs. I’ve interviewed some hugely inspiring and successful women so far and am excited about the impact this book could have on the careers of young women. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? A big question with many potentially amazing answers! One change I would like to see that is specific to what we do, would be for every university in the UK to embed employability within the curriculum. This would be an especially positive step towards levelling the playing field for students from widening participation backgrounds and ultimately improving social mobility. What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? Securing a contract with the University of Hertfordshire to run our assessment centre simulation programme for over 3000 students per year from 9 different schools. A fantastic opportunity to have an even bigger, positive impact on the career prospects of different student cohorts. Sharing my business journey on stage in Birmingham where I delivered my TEDX talk in March 2020, ‘The truth behind the showreel’. This was a very honest account of how I overcame personal difficulties to become an award-winning entrepreneur, and the importance of saying ‘yes’ to any opportunities that come your way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woZ_d3WTtR4 I wrote my first book, ‘From Learner to Earner’ which is a recruitment insider’s guide for students wanting to achieve graduate job success. I was very proud to reach best seller status and the subsequent contact from students saying the book helped them get a job. What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? Everyone has a social issue they are enthusiastic about. By aligning your social passion with your business, you can do so much good!

We meet Tim Howarth, Chief Executive of United World Schools and one of our nominees for the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020. What does your social enterprise do? United World Schools (UWS) works in some of the world's poorest regions to give every child access to free education. We establish, support and develop small and medium sized primary schools in remote regions with large populations of out of school children. We partner with local communities and supporters around the world to teach the unreached, as well as give young people around the world the opportunity to be active global citizens. What made you start your business up? As a family of teachers, we know first-hand the value and importance of education – so we started UWS around twelve years ago. We target areas around the world where there are large numbers of out of school children. Our mission is to improve - through education - life opportunities for some of the world's poorest children living in remote and marginalised communities. How do you measure your impact? Student attendance at school, engagement in lessons and improvements in literacy/numeracy, as well as numbers of students going on to high school / further education. What help did you have to start your social enterprise? A number of friends and family initially donated, as well as pro bono time and advice; since then we have had the support of thousands of donors around the world. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? Charitable status in the UK enables Gift Aid; NGO status in Myanmar/Cambodia/Nepal allows us to work in partnership with government ministries. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? Seeing the impact of your work – in our case, it’s enabling some of the poorest children on the planet to go to school. And working with a team who are all aligned to the same mission, and so pulling in the same direction. What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? Before Covid19 hit… maintaining a focus on our mission … when we work with very disadvantaged groups, they often have multiple social needs and challenges, so ‘scope creep’ is a risk. Once the pandemic hit, we quickly adapted a number of our programmes to focus on community awareness programmes, sanitation, hand-washing and distance learning programmes. The shift in a matter of weeks was (and still is) a huge challenge to work on. What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? Tell your story and stick with the mission. Why? Story telling inspires people, and people give to people who are passionate about causes. Stick with the mission because it’s hard work and resilience is a vital skill! (Someone once told me success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration … and you always need both!). Why do you think social enterprise is important? Social entrepreneurs offer business-like solutions to challenges people face every day – and can do so with agility and local expertise. Being part of the 2019 Index really showed me some of the best solutions to social challenges that directly improve and our nation’s long term economic, social and cultural health. And social enterprise is required more than ever. Despite the circumstances of Covid19, it is social entrepreneurs who are stepping up and continue to demonstrate how vital their work is, and the incredible role they play in transforming our world for the better, as they adapt to this new reality. Whatever happens as a result of Covid-19, it is clear we need an economy, democracy and society that is built on enterprising people and organisations who serve the public good, drive change, foster togetherness, healing and fairness. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? Hearing the story of a young girl in Nepal who was the first member of her family to learn to read, write and count when we opened a school in her village. It was the first one we opened in Nepal (and we now have 35). That little girl is now a teenager, she’s gone on to high school and has a transformational change in her life pathway. What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? A good coffee shop, a budget to buy 20 cups of coffee, and meet with as many people who will give you 30 minutes. There are so many great people in the sector, and they are the most valuable resource you’ll find. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? How good business principles apply to non-profits, and how people-focused principles are equally transferrable back into successful businesses. Profit/non-profit … we are alike in so many ways! What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? Continue to develop our schools and the UWS model, aiming to increase our reach to 100,000+ previously out of school children – with community empowerment and sustainability as core pillars of our approach. We will also transition our schools into local education authority hands, with strong community support, so that we are able to strategically exit from our projects. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? Our approach to business taxation; let’s embrace it, pay it and hold governments to account to use it well. Governments should – of course –  set sensible, clear and progressive rules when it comes to tax … and I’d also like to see business leaders providing politicians with the confidence that they’ll embrace tax regimes which are reasonable and fair. We should call out corporations who use loopholes to reduce the tax they pay. As a social entrepreneur, I strongly believe business leaders have a moral obligation to approach taxes responsibly. Leaders are able to run successful companies because the state provides crucial services paid for by taxes—education, hospitals, transport, policing, the rule of law and so on—and because of the social stability guaranteed by some measure of wealth redistribution. What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? So many! Catalysing a movement of thousands of Partner School students, each committing to supporting education as a global citizen, makes me personally very proud. From a team perspective - bringing together colleagues from Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal and the UK to share and learn from each other was inspiring. And from a mission delivery point of view, every time I visit one of our schools and see the hundreds of children each school is serving is very humbling. What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? To build on a well-used expression … revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is king … but galvanising people to be a force for good is inspirational.

We meet David Barker, Founder of Techcentre and one of our nominees for the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020. What does your social enterprise do? Techcentre works in partnership with clients to innovate new social enterprise technology start-ups to tackle issues in society. What made you start your business up? Unfortunately, there aren’t enough entrepreneurs focused on using technology to innovate new ways to tackle issues in society. Setting up Techcentre, we can be intentional about the mission to find new ways to tackle societal problems, and then work with social funders and government to innovate new solutions that we then support through the key three phases of prototyping, piloting and scaling up. How do you measure your impact? Techcentre’s social impact is measured by the social impact reporting of the social enterprises we help create. For example, our first three start-ups we helped innovate and create have social impact reporting, including: - www.charityithelp.org.uk – 3 years helping charities, 712 services delivered to charities, £735,000 estimated value of services provided pro-bono - www.placer.co.uk – 9 universities live, 4,124 employers promoted 7,000 opportunities to 235,000 students with 25,000 saved to shortlists and 2,000 applications - www.thevp.org.uk – 115 schools signed up, 233 volunteers signed up, 95 volunteers so far delivered enrichment activities for students in schools with ratings of 3.6 out of 4 from volunteers and 3.8 out of 4 from schools on their experiences. What help did you have to start your social enterprise? Like many entrepreneur’s, the risk investment capital to-date has come from myself to start the agency. This was important in the early days as I was still shaping what a Social Innovation Agency would look like and this has helped me to pivot quickly. As we start to finalise our unique proposition, and have case studies, we can then start to also look to attract our own investors to start scaling up Techcentre, combined with building our network of investors to invest in our client start-ups. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? It’s important when defining a legal structure to think about what will be the best vehicle to scale exponentially your social impact. For Techcentre, we are a normal business model as we will require traditional investment capital to scale-up. For our start-ups, we also help choose the correct legal form. For Placer this is a normal business model, but for two others these are charities. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? Being involved in projects that can help improve people’s lives! What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? Financial – it’s not easy using your own money and time to start something, but we are close to being a position where we can attract funding from investors to scale up Techcentre. Personal – I’m married and it’s not always easy to balance the time and commitment you have to put into start-ups with a personal life. However, I’m thankful my wife understood that before we got married and is very supportive! Covid-19 – Like all businesses and entrepreneurs, Covid is having an impact. I’m overcoming this with an Entrepreneur’s Mindset from previous experience. I’ve produced a video on this here that may help others too (in three weeks has been seen by over 200,000 people which is encouraging for the message it carries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlwaE7JXr-c What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? Really do your research on the social issue you are tackling and how others are tackling them. Your social enterprise needs to be different – even subtly – so understanding the eco-system will help affirm you are on the right track. It may also uncover some excellent strategic partnerships for you. Why do you think social enterprise is important? If we look at many social issues today, the statistics are getting worse and not better. Therefore we need innovation and social entrepreneurship at its core is about innovation and new ideas for social impact. It’s OK for entrepreneur’s to just be entrepreneur’s - but I’m hoping we will attract more entrepreneur’s to be social entrepreneur’s, especially in this time where the world is getting worse for so many people. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? My first social enterprise innovation was popup academies training long-term unemployed people into work. We received one million pounds from UK government that saw us pilot in 7 UK towns and cities training 233 long-term unemployed people. One woman was nineteen years unemployed who is now working. That was exciting to see! What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? ‘Good to Great’ and ‘Built to Last’ are two books I always recommend. It’s important we create social enterprises that are going to be here for the long term – too many people in society lose hope when projects come and go and they need consistency. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? I thought I’d only create only one social enterprise, but so far have created five and looking at starting a sixth! What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? Ensure our first client start-ups scale successfully whilst also laying foundations to receive investment into Techcentre for us to scale-up also. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? Every student in education all over the world have access to a connect device and the Internet! What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? Seeing unemployed people now in work from my first social enterprise Seeing charities transformed by good technology and more lives changed in my third social enterprise Seeing undergraduates at university focused on obtaining work experience to increase their employability in my fourth social enterprise What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? In difficult times, think of suppliers and their employees as much as you do for your own employees. Need to keep cash flowing into supply chains as much as in our business. Also consider paying contractors more if they charge too little. Too often contractors are driven down and it’s important we help them charge more where they should.

We meet Dave Anderson, Founder of Heartwood Skills and one of our nominees for the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020. What does your social enterprise do? We transform the life chances of vulnerable young people and impact their communities. Our focus is the most vulnerable students, who are often excluded or at risk of exclusion from schools. We work in schools to strengthen the support they can offer and also provide opportunities for alternative education and youth work. We have a community hub that reaches out to families. Through all this young people can raise their self-esteem, build resilience, and find that they have something to offer back to the world. What made you start your business up? In a previous role in a 3rd sector setting I was working with vulnerable adults. Each week we would have to turn away a 17-seater minibus full of under 18s. I recognised that these were young lives who had a chance – if we could find a way to stop them entering the same system, being swallowed up and spat out years later with the kind of damage I was trying to help undo. When I researched the issues in that age group, I realised the issue of exclusion was key and that there was an opportunity here to make a difference. How do you measure your impact? We use a range of measures. Within each session we include reflections and plenaries so we can check how much has been understood. Over weeks or months of involvement there are various tools to measure young people’s wellbeing and we also ask them to record reflections of what they have learned and how they are feeling. We can track progress towards qualifications, attendance rates, and behaviour data too. Feedback from others involved like school staff is important to us. It depends on the situation. What help did you have to start your social enterprise? Initially I relied very much on my own research. I bounced ideas off early collaborators and found people with expertise so I could ask lots of questions. I attended entrepreneurship wherever and whenever I could find it and learned a lot by chatting to others who were also just getting started. Being selected for the Durham City Incubator was fantastic for developing business readiness. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? A major influence was again through chatting with other people – a local food rescue business had chosen the CIC model and I could see the benefits. I did look at the charity setup but felt that this was too unwieldy for a model that was built on enterprise, where decisions have to be taken quickly. The advisory board model allows us to bring in experts in various fields but still to retain the ability to pivot and seize opportunities as they arise. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? It’s got to be working with like-minded people to make a difference. And that’s not just a difference now - it’s about having future impacts. Essentially, I’m a bit of a culture monster, what I’m trying to do is change the culture in my town. I want to break the hereditary reliance on what the state can provide whilst also helping people to recognise that they are worth something, and it’s them that can make the difference to their community. What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? Do I have to just choose three?! The first is managing the team’s expectations. People who get involved in something like this always have strong reasons, visions, and they want to achieve something - but then you have to marry all those ambitions into a viable team, and move forward together. That’s inevitably going to mean managing constant frustrations! Motivations are complicated things – we want to be true to our own values, to leave a mark on the world and to feel good about what we’re doing and those are really powerful drivers. Secondly leading in this sector can be pretty lonely and alienating. You share a lot, share the vision, share the heart, which takes emotion and courage – I’m really sharing a piece of myself - and most of your audience will always have other priorities. It’s a vulnerable place to put yourself and you have to watch your reactions, don’t get jaded. Then I guess the other obvious areas is the constant battle for funding. I really wanted to make a statement by doing this on a shoestring, to prove to others that you don’t need a hedge fund to be able to make a difference. Lots of CICs stay reliant on grant funding for years but I want us to reach sustainability. Which means a LOT of applications and rejections at the moment! What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? Stick with it. But you’ve got to work out what is at the core of your mission. I mean a particular product might fail, but if you’re trying to offer a service to help someone it’s never a bad idea; you’ve just got to work out how to achieve it. The heart motive to make a community better is a good motive, so we should always pursue it; products may need to be adapted. Why do you think social enterprise is important? Fundamentally this is about helping your neighbour, about being family to those who don’t have their own. We’re all in this together and an enterprise like Heartwood Skills can help people feel as if they don’t have to tackle things on their own. We’ve all faced challenges - we all know what that feels like. I think as well that social enterprise gives people the dignity that they deserve and helps skill them in order to better their own situation – it’s not a charity donation or a handout, but a hand-up. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? There’s a 15-year-old lad we worked with who had all sorts of challenges going on. He said to his school once that he loved Thursdays, the day we were in, because “there are two hours when I know I’ll actually be happy”. There’s nothing that beats the knowledge you’ve been able to provide a safe space to support and validate someone, whatever they’re going through. What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? For me the main resource has been people who are a few steps ahead down the journey. I use LinkedIn a lot to find those I need to talk to next and I’m always looking for examples I can learn from online and in my communities. The Durham City Incubator also gave me loads of tools and connections. A couple of people I find really inspirational are Simon Sinek and Johann Hari – their TED talks are great. The other important thing is to keep your own personal sense of mission strong, to fuel whatever it is that drives you. That’s going to look difference for each of us but you can’t ignore it. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? How long it takes! I guess I’m learning to be patient – I certainly haven’t got there yet.  The resilience needed to keep plugging away day after day, and to keep your vision clear, and bring people along the journey with you.  It really isn’t much like Dragon’s Den… What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? I’m always dreaming so I’ve got a plan for 10 years… I want my own academy. There was a reason why the old polytechnics worked. We can do something exciting with vocational skills, where young people are validated for what they can do and are supported to turn that to the benefit of the wider community. To answer your question though, in two years I want to have a vibrant flagship community hub that’s genuinely reaching into the local area and seeing lives changed.  And in five years’ time that should be happening on multiple sites, always learning from what we’ve done before. I want to see young people who’ve come through our provision, who were at risk in school, coming back and mentoring the next generation, to see expectations rising and a sense of hope. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? There’s a cycle that needs to be broken. Generation 1 struggle because they’ve not had a good start in life and become reliant on government support. Generation 2 follows because of the hard time generation 1 went through. By the time you get to generation 3 it’s an expectation, and generation 4 don’t know anything else. Change that loop!  I want to see these young people change their own communities; the answers we need are here among us. What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? Firstly, it’s the enormous change that’s possible. I’ve seen people who would normally fight each other in the street get on and work together for a common goal. That hope is a real driver for me. Secondly there are the ways that all of us can make a difference. I helped a young person make some practical plans for tackling his school work. It’s ironic because this was never my strength, but I shared a piece of advice that I’d been given and it had a massive impact on that child’s self-esteem, stress, home / work / school life balance.  We can all have an impact. And thirdly was the night Heartwood Skills won the ‘Biggest Social Impact’ award in a north-east start up competition. It was incredible to be on stage pitching my dream at a room of established business people – but above all it was a validation of what we tell the young people. I’ve never won anything before, but here I was, in a penguin suit, holding the award. Well, if I can, then they can too. What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? Well, obviously there are the tax breaks for donations and the positive publicity you can get – but I don’t think that’s the point. Beyond that is the truth that it feels good to pass on some of what we have, it’s a kind of emotional profit. And then ultimately there’s the challenge to do something genuinely selfless, that really is about the other person. I think we all know that margin isn’t everything. Value, success and profit are different measures. It’s a heart and mindset question.

We meet Andrew Duncan, Founder of Soar and one of our nominees for the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020. What does your social enterprise do? Over 3 million people in the UK rely on High Cost Credit such as payday lenders and loan sharks to make ends meet. Soar is here to play a part in ending this struggle for the most vulnerable in society. We’re cracking down on irresponsible lending with our white-labelled mobile banking app, web app and a platform hub that automates applying for loans for affordable credit providers such as Credit Unions and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI). Rather than playing catch-up with other parts of the financial services sector, our technology helps these organisations to leap ahead whilst continuing to have a positive impact on their communities. Soar also allows these providers to be attractive challengers in the financial services market by offering them loan origination and transactional banking services that will allow their consumers easier access to credit when they need it the most. What made you start your business up? When I was leading Soar’s sister company, Swarm Online, I was approached by several credit unions asking for mobile apps. It was at this time that the idea for Soar was born as I realised that this type of technology was really lacking in the ethical finance sector. From this realisation, Soar was formed, and we have been working with affordable credit providers ever since to build a better society where credit unions and other responsible lenders can gain access to innovative technology. How do you measure your impact? We evaluate our social impact by measuring the growth of the organisations we work with. Our technology allows them to give access to credit to more of their customers as well as attract in people who might not have otherwise known that this option was available to them. Therefore, we can evaluate our impact on the uptake of our technology from both existing and new, joining members. We can view this data from our platform and report on the findings. We currently have over ten thousand users on our platform (which has only just launched) which means all these people are gaining more and more access to the financial services that they need from their affordable credit provider. As we watch this number grow, we can see the social impact we have is rising and more members need this type of technology to gain access to credit when they need it most. We can also see from our platform; how many people are applying for loans through their provider and as this number increases, we know that more people are likely to be turning to our customers instead of high cost credit providers. What help did you have to start your social enterprise? I was keen to grow our business organically, so I built Soar with no external finance or debt. As we phased some team members from my previous company Swarm Online over to Soar, we had some help from Swarm in building our initial app until we finally had our own team together. We are also lucky enough to have support from Scottish Enterprise who have helped us to grow the business and our development team. We recently won the Affordable Credit Challenge from HM Treasury to help us develop our technology further for the sector. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? Soar is a private business that operates in an ethical way. We want to demonstrate that a private business can have social impact at its core. Our aim is to help ethical businesses grow but we need to do this with a high level of rigor and due diligence, for example, with security standards and meeting regulatory obligations. In our experience, our customers are unable to get that level of ‘peace of mind’ from the social enterprise market. Being a private business also gives us more options when it comes to financing future growth for the market. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? One of the best things for me about being a social entrepreneur is taking something that I am passionate about and using it in a positive way. As a team, we have managed to build a company that continues to be experts in technology but one that also serves an ethical purpose. In the community lending market, it’s also just good to know that myself and the team are at the forefront of something great in the ethical sector and that all the work we’re doing is having a positive impact. It’s really allowing the industry to move forward, and this in itself is inspiring for us to be a part of. What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? A big challenge for myself and the team has been entering into a very traditional market. Credit unions and other community lenders are run for the benefit of their customers, not shareholders, and will do everything they can to stick to their core values. However, some are hesitant to move away from their traditional methods of working even if it is what their customers want. Understandably, many credit unions are afraid that technology will take the personal service away from their members. We do not want to get in the way of this and work hard to bridge the gap and offer further education on how credit unions can get the most from technology. Some other challenges I have found over the last few years have been finding the right team and getting others to believe in the vision. Having started as a small tech start up, I sometimes found it hard to find the right team members as it can be difficult to attract the best talent to a small and new business. Luckily, we stuck with it and now have a great team who believe in the journey we’re on. This also ties in with making others believe in the vision. Whether it be potential employees, partners or investors, it can be hard to make others see what you see. This is something we’re continuously working on as a company, but we’re getting better at it as the days go on, especially now that we are proving our concept! What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? I would always tell aspiring social entrepreneurs to consider your customers, your business and the impact you’re having on everyone that you serve. It’s still possible to do great business while thinking about the social impact that you’re having. It doesn’t need to be difficult either, there’s usually always something good that you can do that will be within your capabilities and it can even be the impact you have through the suppliers that you use. This outlook will also encourage a certain type of person into your business and these will most likely be the people you want to be helping to build your company. After all, the success of your business has as much to do with the quality of your team as it does your personal efforts. Why do you think social enterprise is important? It’s a different way of being in business and a social enterprise can connect you to your purpose. It not only serves those who you are aiming to help but it also allows you to be connected on a personal level too. Social enterprises, I have found, also focus on the customers’ exact needs rather than just trying to push a product on them that might not fit their exact requirements. Soar, for example, has worked with a number of credit unions to make sure our product is exactly right for that market. It may have taken us a little longer to build because of this but we know we have a product that is needed and will be used. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? Seeing the impact of our technology on the organisations that we’re working with. We see so many community lenders going from long, painful processes to revolutionising their businesses and fulfilling their social purpose at the same time. We want to see more people turn to these community lenders when they’re in need instead of high cost lenders and we’re now starting to see this happen as our technology is making organisations such as credit unions more accessible than ever. What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? I would definitely recommend going to/joining as many events as you possibly can regarding social entrepreneurship and your own market. These are the best places to learn about being a socially responsible business but also about your customer too. You’ll gain some great advice from people who have done this before and most likely meet some useful contacts for the future. Social Enterprise UK is a great place to find some inspiration in their blogs and articles and they run some informative webinars and events for you to utilise. Gov.uk is also a good place to find some useful pages on setting up a social enterprise to get you started. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? The support that is available to those looking to run a business that is trying to tackle social issues. This support is not just from our target audience either, but from technology partners, to funding initiatives to media partners, the interest and support from everyone has been amazing and has definitely helped us get to where we are today. What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? In the next few years, we would like to not only offer a solution to credit unions but also to others in the ethical finance sector. Our solution will deliver a key difference to society so that credit unions and other organisations can compete more efficiently with major financial service organisations and they can continue to have a positive social impact on their members and communities. We are currently working with credit unions around the UK and we’re in talks with a number of CDFI’s about offering our solution to the wider market. We are also looking to expand our product into the Irish credit union market too – we are working with Scottish Development International to achieve this. Our aim is to have everyone across the country being able to access some form of affordable credit and as we continue to develop our product, we are also developing our means for getting our technology out into the market. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? Our aim is that everyone in society have access to affordable credit as nobody should have to go without or fall victim to unfair interest rate. This continues to drive us forward and as we begin to enter into the CDFI market too, we can see more of a need than ever for our technology, not only for consumers but for the organisations themselves. This change would make such a difference in peoples’ lives and is something we would like to see happen sooner rather than later. What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? Working at Soar has brought a lot of monumental moments, which has been extremely rewarding considering we are still a relatively young business. Very early on in our journey we gained the UK’s largest credit union as a customer and for me, this was pivotal as it meant we were going to be working on fulfilling our mission of making this market more accessible. Soar also gained some well-deserved recognition when we were awarded a research and development grant by Scottish Enterprise and with this came a ministerial visit from the, now Cabinet Secretary of Finance, Kate Forbes MSP; this was definitely a proud moment for myself and the team. More recently, we were announced as winners in HM Treasury’s Affordable Credit Challenge with Capital Credit Union. We were up against some amazing projects and initiatives so to win and be allowed to further our work in tackling high cost lending was one our biggest achievements to date. What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? There’s always an option to do some good while running or creating a business. Even if your business doesn’t seem to have an obvious route for social impact there may be a way you can still fit it in. There are so many initiatives, charities and programmes that are supporting social enterprises, so the help is there if you need it. It’s okay to start small too; Soar started to help credit unions reach more of their members and now we have evolved our mission and we’re part of an entire movement that’s taking place across the UK.

Social Entrepreneur Index nominee David Barker is an internet & social entrepreneur. In this video, he shares some of his crisis moments and learnings to encourage others as they make decisions to navigate the COVID-19 crisis.

We meet Richard Collins, Creative Director of Sortified and one of our nominees for the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020. What does your social enterprise do? Sortified is a progressive social enterprise that supports people, communities, and community organisations with an overall aim of making things better for people. Most of our work is supporting social businesses to be more sustainable, helping them to grow and thrive. We do this by developing improved service models, supporting organisations to think more strategically, and utilising financial strategies to seek inward investment and to increase income and revenue. We also run some local projects and services that work directly with people to improve life outcomes. What made you start your business up? I was working in the statutory sector, leading commissioning teams that were making real differences to local services. Then austerity came along and I was increasingly being asked to make savings and efficiencies. After several years of working in this way I began to be told to make significant cuts in services, and I decided it was time to move on and do something more positive, supporting people and communities directly. How do you measure your impact? We have an in-house social impact measurement system that utilises baseline data and ongoing feedback and measurement to analyse journeys that people, communities and organisations going on, and where we have had impact. We capture this information in terms of outcomes, and then seek to highlight this in terms of improvement metrics, financial impact, or narrative stories. While it is nice to have data that can be analysed, we really like to capture real life stories and quotes. They mean a lot more to most people. What help did you have to start your social enterprise? In the beginning we were completely on our own, but we quickly linked up with key partners and other organisations, and it has been by using collaborative approaches that we have found success. It has been difficult at times, and we have had to learn an awful lot of new skills, but I would never go back to working for a council again. How did you decide on what legal form would work best for your business? We didn’t want to run a charity as we didn’t want the bureaucracy and some of the limits that can come with that model. We also didn’t want to be a limited company as our social ethos is at the centre of everything we do. We also knew that some of the work we wanted to do would be grant dependent. As a result it seemed most appropriate to be a community interest company that allowed us the freedom to trade as we wanted, allowed us to receive grant funding, gave us the control we needed, and allowed us to be a not for profit organisation. What’s the best thing about being a social entrepreneur? Being able to make a real difference, and seeing what I do on a daily basis having a positive effect for people’s lives What have been the three biggest challenges that you have overcome (or that you’re still working on)? Not having a team to deliver my ideas, I have to do a lot of this myself! Learning some IT skills that I never knew. We are too small to have an IT department Seeing the level of need within some of our communities, and not being able to support everyone What advice would you give to aspiring social entrepreneurs? Talk to other people. There are lots of folk who are willing to chat, share and support. Don’t be afraid to ask. Why do you think social enterprise is important? The social economy is the future of how we should all work. There are lots of talented people out there, and a lot of community lead. We need to support more people to support their own communities through social business. What’s been your most rewarding experience as a social entrepreneur? Getting positive feedback from organisations to say that you have really helped them to survive or thrive, and hearing how they are able to support their communities with our help. What information sources would you recommend (books, websites, organisations?) to help someone just starting their social enterprise journey? There is lots of amazing information on Social Enterprise UK's website, but to be honest a good look through Twitter can be super useful in finding folk to follow and engage with. What’s been the most surprising thing about creating a social enterprise? That there are still lots of people who don’t know what a social enterprise is. Maybe we all need to talk about this more. What are your plans for the next 2-5 years? We want to carry on what we are doing, and to grow so we can support more people and more community organisations. We do however, need to negotiate the Covid-19 crisis first and make sure we support other social enterprises through it as well. That way we will all be here to support our communities once we begin to recover from this challenging situation. What is the biggest change you would like to see in the world? The end of social and economic inequality. What have been your three proudest moments as a social entrepreneur? Employing our first member of staff A client saying that the strategic plan that we wrote for them has become their ‘bible’ and they don’t do anything that isn’t in their core offer My youngest child realising that what I do helps people, and that is a good thing What would you say to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider the social impact of their businesses? There is no reason for any business not to work socially so why not look at social enterprise as a way forward. Its worth thinking about how you can benefit people and communities, while running the business that you want to run.