As Scotland looks to recover from the pandemic, the country’s third sector will be central to its renewal – whilst ensuring that it is rooted in a fair and inclusive society. Two organisations have combined forces to offer a tailor-made programme targeted at boosting innovation in social enterprises and third sector organisations. Community Enterprise In […]
Mt Auburn Associates were commissioned to do an evaluation of the cultural economy of Louisiana. A fantastic job, looking at a place with a strong culture, sense of place, and minority language, but a job that brought all sorts of challenges regarding definitions. The company came up with the following definition of the creative economy: “The people, […]
In Scotland, Third Sector organisations predominantly trade in services, rather than products and this creates challenges for many who do not apply an adequate costing system to their services. If we do not know the full cost of our services how can we possibly set a price for them? A robust costing system does not […]
From primary to secondary, population to preferences or qualitative to quantitative; the thought of undertaking market research can be overwhelming. However, the benefits to providing a good grounding for business planning are well documented. Market research is a key component in ensuring your organisation is headed in the right direction and vital to the success […]
Is Facebook right for my Social Enterprise? In our series “Is Social Media relevant to Social Enterprise?” we turn our attention to Facebook to discuss where it develops brand awareness and improves income streams. What can Facebook do for me? Facebook now claims 1.35 billion active monthly users, fractionally under the population of China (1.37 billion), […]
So your contact at the Council phoned you 6 months ago and told you that the service your social enterprise has been delivering for the last 5 years through service level agreement is going to be competitively tendered. “Ok” you thought “nothing will change for a few months, I’ve got plenty of time and anyway […]
Traditional marketing is increasingly ineffective Marketing can be intrusive: TV adverts when you’re watching your favourite game show, cold-calls from kitchen and PPI sales staff; and spurious hard copy mail when you’ve been working on your green credentials. Time is precious. People ruthlessly block interruptions through Caller ID; employ gatekeepers at work, and develop an […]
In part 1 we asked the question is social media relevant to social enterprise? Today we continue our series on what social media means, and explain how it can help you. What social media platforms are available? There are literally hundreds of social media platforms in cyberspace from Facebook to Google+, Blogster to Twitter. Even the […]
As Glasgow saw firefighters battling to save two of its historic buildings; Glasgow School of Art, an iconic building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1897-1909) and Broomloan Road Primary School, now disused but in its heyday attended by the likes of football manager, Sir Alex Ferguson; we were overwhelmed by the support and memories shared from well-wishers […]
Big Issue Invest Scotland, a new joint venture between Big Issue Invest (the social investment arm of The Big Issue) and our community development finance institution, DSL Business Finance has been established to provide social investment and loan finance to social enterprises, social ventures and Third Sector organisations in Scotland, offering loans from £3,000 to £1.5m and […]
