http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk en-gb greenwellconsulting.co.uk 2011-9-22T00:00:00Z greenwellconsulting.co.uk http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#103055 You could be forgiven for thinking that the CIC legal structure was introduced to provide social enterprise business advisers with an income stream. Social enterprise legal structure options were already pretty wide but CICs seem to have tipped the potential for confusion over the edge. Im an experienced and accredited social enterprise business adviser but advice is not the main part of my work. Despite lowkey promotion of this service legally confused and dispirited proto social entrepreneurs keep finding me. Usually they have been to various other places for advice. Invariably they are even more confused by the end of it and often several hundred pounds lighter. Information theyve been given or accessed is dense and unclear. To respond to this we have developed three easy steps to the right social enterprise legal structure which we believe will help you make a clear and confident decision about your social enterprise legal structure. Weve used it with several clients and t... 2011-9-22 11:37:00 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#88864 We created this short Prezi for International Womens Day 2011. It went a little bit viral on twitter and resulted in a great deal of positive feedback interestingly as much from men as women. Which is great as the key point is ultimately that gender balance is best for people planet and profit. Here are a small selection of email comments Very impressive Attentiongrabbing and thoughtful. I found that presentation really brilliant. Thank you. I absolutely loved this presentation of yours. The information is so well presented and the facts stack up sadly beautifully.To view the Prezi click on the link then click through or set to autoplay httpbit.lygpSstBltdiv classpreziplayergtltstyle typetextcss mediascreengt.preziplayer width 550px .preziplayerlinks textalign center ltstylegtltobject idpreziyhk8wxivsjcr namepreziyhk8wxivsjcr classidclsidD27CDB6EAE6D11cf96B8444553540000 width550 height400gtltparam namemovie valuehttpprezi.combinpreziloader.swfgtltparam nameallowfullscreen valu... 2011-3-9 18:50:14 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#81861 There was a big step forward in the debate about female leadership today the language shifted. For the first time the Financial Times used the word balance in their headline rather than diversity. This prompted me to dig out an article on the topic I prepared for the a Guardian Women in Business supplement in 2009...I thought so I had headlined with balance in my oped foreword. When the mainstream gets it you know that change has taken root. Here is the article... As the UK faces the toughest economic climate in over 50 years it is time for the business world to review learn and get smarter. Women in business are a critical part of the solution. The evidence is now compelling that having more women at the top in business improves performance. Report after report confirms that Boards and senior management teams with at least 30 female members perform better in every area of operations and leadership and return profits three times higher. It is clear... 2010-12-2 09:45:35 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#79974 Optimism and chance are the two key factors in entrepreneurial success according to leading enterprise academic Prof. David Storey. Full details of Storeys new research will be published in a journal next year but I was able to get a preview at last weeks Enterprise and Small Business academics annual gathering the ISBE conference. Storey finds no impact from training in enterprise skills or from prior experience or forecasting. Americans often quoted ability to learn from failure was also rejected by his analysis previous failure makes no difference to your chance of succeeding but the cultural optimism of Americans does.According to Storey business owners dont just need psychological resilience they also need the wealth to withstand economic turbulence until their business gets that lucky break. In an ensuing discussion Ron Botham suggested that Storeys conclusions could be a case for enterprise for all. Bothams own powerful new report summarised in EFAN discussion suggests that ... 2010-11-10 13:19:36 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#79930 How to market inclusive business supportView more presentations from Erika Watson . 2010-11-9 20:56:03 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#77917 Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus says All human beings are born entrepreneurs. Some get a chance to unleash that capacity. Some never get the chance never know that he or she has that capacity. I completely agree. But where I part company from Muhammad Yunus is his famous statement that access to credit should be a human right. I dont think it goes far enough. Now more than ever with a jobless recovery diminishing pensions and safety nets and an uncertain environment not having the skills and freedom to work for yourself is a critical handicap. Id extend Yunuss call and say that access to enterprise should be a human right.In much of the world credit is the key that opens the door to enterprise opportunities. But in Europe for the majority of the entrepreneurial poor and excluded our more complex environment means that we dont need just one key we need a prison warders big jangling bunch of keys. The premise of this conference is one of th... 2010-10-14 14:23:15 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#77218 Recently Ive been involved in setting up and managing the Enterprise for All Network EfAN an online forum of almost 100 enterprise professionals who are concerned about the place of enterprise promotion and business support within the Coalition Governments proposed new Local Enterprise Partnerships LEPs. Over the past few weeks forum members have shared views and experience while contributing to monitoring and discussing developments of LEPs at national and local levels. With Rob Weaver of C3consulting I pulled together and edited a briefing note which summarizes key conclusions to date. We believe it makes an important contribution to LEPs debates and development around the country and we urge nascent LEPs and their advisers to consider its findings as they shape their proposals.We identified seven principles that we believe should be adhered to in shaping the delivery of enterprise support within LEPsEnterprise and Business Support must be central to LEPs rol... 2010-8-31 15:31:05 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#61775 As world leaders head to Copenhagen to trade ideas if not actions on a lowcarbon future lets hope their reading lists are not restricted to the new and shiny. Thirty five years ago EF Schumacher wrote Small is Beautiful which predicted the devastation we now see from squandered natural resources. He called for an economics of permanence to replace the economics of limitless growth. Small scale solutions Schumacher argued are always less likely to be harmful to their natural environment than largescale ones simply because their individual force is small in relation to the recuperative forces of nature. Recent research from the Smith Institute think tank suggests that homebased selfemployed people can deliver considerable environmental benefits from reduced commuting congestion and other lifestyle changes. Three quarters of all homeworkers are selfemployed people and they make up at least 40 of all UK businesses and most womens businesses. Whats more most have ... 2009-12-7 17:36:49 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#61774 Just when we were beginning to think it wasnt the big issue it used to be it seems that childcare has returned as a problem for startup businesses but in quite a different way to before. A few years ago the issue was cost. Now with great help from tax credits and Sure Start that doesnt seem to be as great a barrier as it was. Now the problem is supply according to some of the providers of business support here in Norwich. Even when they are able to help with costs a significant number of their clients just cant find anyone to mind their children. Whats going on Firstly theres been a sharp decline in the number of registered childminders since Ofsted stepped up regulations a year ago. All childcare providers were required to adhere to the Early Years Foundation Stage which sets out a series of 69 early learning goals which have to be recorded. And if they provide any kind of snack the childminder has to have their home registered as food premises. I ... 2009-11-10 17:32:25 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#61773 Icelands womanpowered response to the global recession appears to have propelled it to the top of the global gender gap charts. The World Economic Forum released its annual Global Gender Gap index GGGI on Tuesday a comprehensive countrybycountry ranking of gender equality. Overall it finds that 67 of countries have improved gender equality while 33 including the UK and USA have got worse. Iceland has been particularly hard hit by the global financial crisis. Women there have been outspoken in blaming a highrisk masculine banking model for the countrys financial mess. And they have been determined to replace it with a new improved capitalism guided by feminine values such as more diligent risk taking collaboration and a long term perspective which takes into account wider social values alongside profits. Since the crisis hit women have taken over the top jobs in Icelands newly nationalised banks and Johanna Sigurdardottir has become the countrys prime minister... 2009-10-29 17:30:52 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#61769 What an honour. This morning I was the first ever customer of a new Cooperative minimarket in Norwich glad to be accosted by excited balloon waving sash wearing staff though slightly unsure about the one squashed into a squelching strawberry outfit. There are now three Coops within a mile of my home. The Coop a notforprofit organisation owned by its members and publicly committed to ethical business is thriving. Earlier this week the Cooperative group posted a 17 rise in firsthalf profits. It has responded to recession with sales of its Simply Value range increasing by 80 and at the same time sales of its extensive fair trade range have gone up 35 reflecting wider success of fair trade brands. Ethics are big business. And they are an important driver for growing numbers of new businesses too many of which unfortunately fail to get the balance right between passion and profit. So what can idealistic startups learn from the success of the Coop and the fair... 2009-10-22 17:26:25 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#61770 Ruth Sutherland Business Editor of the Observer reported today on Deauville the Womens International economic summit. The illustration above beautifully sums up the event buzz in a nutshell the impact of the financial crisis needs holistic and longterm responses and to take into account the context of climate change food supply health and governance. Women in developing countries are taking the brunt of the crisis girls are the first to be taken out of school and the last to eat as resources tighten. Enterprise development especially methods like microcredit which put resources directly into the hands of women can help. But elsewhere reports suggest that this recession is in contrast to others resulting in a significant contraction of the informal sector in many developing countries. The potential of the microenterprise sector to provide a financial cushion has shrunk considerably. Women are a safe and lucrative investment much more likely to use e... 2009-10-18 17:27:53 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#61768 The futures not female it seems if you live in Norfolk. Following a campaign to identify the Future 50 businesses by regional Daily newspaper the EDP only two of the businesses to watch have any degree of female leadership. This just doesnt add up either with enterprise statistics or my local knowledge. So what went wrong and how could the EDP and others reach more women Here are some tips from my experience of gender sensitive marketing and Awards schemes for women 1. Segment your marketing. Run the campaign in phases targeting specific sectors such as hospitality and services where womens businesses are more dominant. This helps overcome a sense that it isnt aimed at me. 2. Target women. It just works and will attract a higher response from women. The Flying Start programme aimed at graduates increased its take up by women by 800 with this kind of targeting. 3. Diverse judges. Its often said that people recruit in their own image and perhaps the Futur... 2009-10-12 17:08:40 http://www.greenwellconsulting.co.uk/page10.htm#49821 Emma Harrison founder and Chair of leading welfare to work provider A4e has called this week for a benefits buffer which would cushion the sharp transition from welfare benefits into work or starting a business. Its very very frightening if youre on benefits to take a job she says in the Guardian highlighting worries about the sharp removal of secondary benefits like housing benefit. If youve been unemployed for a long time you dont have a great stock of food in your cupboard. You dont have a buffer. If you take a job and something goes wrong you cant go back to your stocked up cupboard because its empty. And if you have got kids its just untenable. She is absolutely right. Its has been a persistent problem for potential entrepreneurs on the margins for the last couple of decades. Lobbying about this issue was a feature of my career for many years. In 2003 along with colleagues from Community Links who continue to do sterling work in this area we were invited to have a meeting... 2009-10-1 21:53:37