Category Archives: Social Entrepreneurs

Top 10 Social Entrepreneurship Blogs

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Blogging requires passion and authorityWhilst writing a comment on a blog about blogs (and whether they are useful social entrepreneurship resources), I listed a few blogs that I find useful as a resource, as places of debate, or for inspiration. And then it occurred to me that it might be useful to share them.

There is a widely-circulated list of the top 50 social entrepreneur blogs here, but only 2 were UK-based (this SSE blog and Rod Schwartz's below). Mine's UK-focused, but includes some relevant international blogs as well. Cue the music, and in no particular order:

1) The Social Business – Rob Greenland's take on the UK scene is arguably the best in our sector, consistently prompting debates and giving real insights

2) Rod Schwartz / ClearlySo's Social Business Blog – One of the most influential reads in the sector, always writing with full honesty, and challenging the norms

3) Beanbags and Bullshit – David Floyd with a real practitioner's take on things; new-ish, but high quality writing and thought thus far

4) Social Enterprise Ambassador blogs – the Social Enterprise Ambassadors are some of the UK's leading social entrepreneurs, and they've been writing posts more regularly; an enlightening and entertaining mix; (Craig Dearden-Phillips blogs in his own right on his Naked Entrepreneur blog too)

5) Social Entrepreneurship on Change.org– Nathaniel Whittemore writes this and writes it bloody well; consistently interesting, illuminating and with high quality content; US-based, but looking outwards

6) Allison Ogden-Newton's blog – CEO of Social Enterprise London gives it straight in a new, promising blog

7) Social Catalyst – Todd Hannula writes great content; it's a little intermittent at times (hey, it happens to us all), but liking how the new site gives routes into content from previous posts; well worth reading

8) Social Edge blogs – cheating slightly here, but Social Edge hosts a whole load of interesting blogs; have a browse and see what takes your fancy from a US-heavy / international development lot; Forging Ahead and Kiva Chronicles are popular

9) How to Change the World – Guy Kawasaki's blog is very well-known and widely-read; about entrepreneurship rather than social entrepreneurship, there's nevertheless some great stuff here

10) Bubb's Blog – Stephen Bubb, CEO of ACEVO, writes the most talked-about blog in the third sector: entertaining, unashamed and gossipy, it's a good place to get a sense of what's happening in the sector, particularly in the public service delivery / social investment / government space

So there you go. Top Twitter feeds to follow soon….

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Starting up as a social entrepreneur (at Skoll Emerge)

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Dragged myself out of bed this Sunday morning to speak at the Skoll:Emerge conference in Oxford, along with leading luminaries like Ben Metz, Charmian Love, Rod Schwartz and Cliff Prior. Good turnout from the students from a range of universities, and much good learning, sharing and inspiring took place methinks.

For me, the standout was Caroline Casey, CEO of Kanchi + founder of the O2 Ability Awards, who was a truly fantastic, insightful, self-deprecating and very funny speaker. Pearls of wisdom from Caroline included:

– Too much analysis is paralysis
– Why am I a social entrepreneur? Because I'm finding myself
– You can't control the circumstances, but can control how you respond + react (positively)
– We don't all have to be Bono or Nelson Mandela. All of us have the capacity to make something happen

and her 5 rules for social entrepreneurs:

1) Get used to being a duck (calm on top, paddling furiously underneath)
2) Embrace + love failure (learn by doing)
3) Don't give up (take 'no' as motivation)
4) Friends matter (you can't do it on your own, ever)
5) Be self-aware (and honest, and open)

Good stuff.

Much less inspiring, but a packed and participative hour nonetheless, was my session on starting out as a social entrepreneur. Here are the slides (don't think all the animation works, but you get the gist):


Starting Out as a Social Entrepreneur

View more presentations from SSE.



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Global Entrepreneurship Week: why it matters (or does it?)

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No10reception
A brief note to reflect on last week. It was certainly a full one for us: attending the launch in the British Library, speaking at a Westminster briefing event, organising a networking videoconference for our Sydney / London students, speaking at an event in the Black Country, and going (with half a dozen current students) to Downing St for a reception there (see pic).

At times the week can feel a bit like preaching to the converted, or at least meeting with the converted (several times), and there was little sense of this permeating mainstream media to any degree. Enterprise UK might prove me wrong on that: there were certainly thousands of events, so I'd imagine that there was a huge amount of cumulative web + local news coverage. Nevertheless, social entrepreneurship and social enterprise are a small world, so it can sometimes feel a bit insular.

To a degree, though, I think that is part of the value of the week, and social enterprise day in particular. Though this might not be the remit or core objective, there is a "rallying the troops" feel where people can get recognition for the work they've done (see here on the importance of recognition in this sector) and get re-inspired about why they are doing it. Some might pass off the reception at number 10 as hob-nobbing and schmoozing, but the students from different SSE programmes who were there got the chance to network with leading practitioners, civil servants, politicians, and sector media, got a sense of what was achievable (given the award announcements), got recognition for the work they do, and got a slug of inspiration to keep doing it. And my role was (not always successfully) trying to introduce them to as many relevant people as possible.

My favourite part of the week was the international networking video-conference we organised (article in Social Enterprise Mag about it) not only because it was 'global', but also because it was practically useful, about entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur interaction, and because the people involved were amazing in their openness and energy. And they are what the week is really about.

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Why Jedward are social entrepreneurs: fact

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Jedward On the way back from a full day of Social Enterprise Day events (which I'll round up next week), was delighted and amused to read an article in the Evening Standard, by the CEO of Blastbeat (which you should check out: amazing organisation). In the context of the interview, he said the following:

"Jedward have all the attributes we look for from social entrepreneurs: belief in themselves, determination, vision. They have a social conscience, having climbed the four highest peaks in Ireland for charity last year, and they know what it is to struggle, having been born two months premature, and being bullied in school."

And what better way to end Global Entrepreneurship Week than that? :0)

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Social Enterprise Day: from the Black Country to Downing St

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Happy Social Enterprise Day everyone. It's been a busy Global Entrepreneurship Week already, with SSE at the British Library launch event, a Westminster briefing event, our own Sydney-London video-conference event (check out the write-up for top 10 networking tips for social entrepreneurs), a Learning Launchpad speed networking event, and an UnLtdWorld breakfast event this morning. Oh, and I wrote a guest post about scaling for the Shout Out for Social Enterprise series, which you can read here: Scaling social entrepreneurship.

In about an hour, we'll be attending the Downing St reception, which is exciting not because we're going, but because the winning team from our recent residential will also be attending, which is a great opportunity for them to get access to an exciting and interesting bunch of people who'll be there. It's also exciting because the Social Enterprise Awards winners for England will be announced, in which SSE has interest: two SSE Fellows, Chris Dabbs and Dave Miller, are nominated with their organisations (Unlimited Potential + Bikeworks) in the Social Enterprise / New Social Enterprise categories. And if that's not enough, our Liverpool SSE has been working with St Cuthbert's in St Helens who are nominated in the schools category. Here's hoping for all 3….

Meanwhile, our CEO Alastair Wilson and Network Director Suzanne Creasey are speaking at an event in the Black Country in the West Midlands this morning, meeting a range of partners and supporters in the area to see what we can make happen. After all, if it's Global Entrepeneurship Week, we've got to be doing stuff, not just talking and blogging about it (he says, mid-blog).

Other highlights to check out:

– Social Enterprise Ambassadors have been blogging on a range of subjects all week. Great posts here.

– The Social Enterprise Coalition are launching new research into the movement today

– And you can follow the big Social Enterprise Conference in Birmingham

….and much more besides, including the Future 100, 3 impressive examples of whom I met this morning (hello James of Red Button Design, Ben from Bright One and Chris from Incerts).

Have an inspiring day everyone.

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