Business for Good Growth and Resilience Programme – UK

The programme is jointly delivered by the School of Social Entrepreneurs and Co-operatives UK and builds on both organisations experience of working with alternative businesses.

The programme will support alternative businesses to grow their impact with particular emphasis towards those creating and safeguarding jobs. The programme aims to:

• Develop entrepreneurial skills to help grow your organisation and/or safeguard jobs.
• Develop resilience and leadership skills.
• Develop strong peer networks of fellow entrepreneurs.

What you’ll learn?

• The learning programme will be focused on the needs of the participants and will be further defined once the cohort has been selected. Potential topics include:
  • Business strategy planning and income streams
  • Personal resilience and wellbeing
  • Leadership
  • Increasing financial resilience
  • Impact measurement
  • Environmental impact and decarbonisation
  • Reaching new markets
  • Governance & HR
  • Social investment
  • Contracts & commissioning
  • Tech and Digital (for pivoting business model, new markets or just improving systems & processes)
• There are 20 places in total, with 10 places earmarked for people from co-operatives. As well as eight sessions, the programme includes peer-to-peer support, site visits and access to a wider network of support through the Business for Good programme. The programme is specifically designed to help grow the participating organisation’s impact and to create or safeguard jobs.

Who can apply?

• The Business for Good Growth & Resilience programme will support representatives from alternative businesses who meet the following criteria:
  • Your organisation is based in West Yorkshire (Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Wakefield and Leeds)
  • You have been trading for at least 18 months and able to demonstrate this via financial records showing an income of at least £15K over the last 12 months.
  • You can provide evidence of your legal structure and governance documents. You may be a co-operative society or co-operative company, registered charity, a Community Benefit Society (CBS), registered society or a Community Interest Company (CIC). We can also accept limited corporations if you have a social purpose, majority restriction on profits, and an asset lock.
  • Your organisation has a social or environmental purposes and/ or is democratically controlled and owned.
  • Your aim is to make your business more resilient and ensure staff numbers are maintained or increased in the next 6 months.
  • You are interested in supporting the growth of your enterprise through adopting new processes/technologies or
  • You are planning to explore launching new markets, services or membership this year
• We would particularly welcome applications from those who are from Black and minoritised communities, disabled people, LGBTQIA+ people and/ or those working with communities with less privilege.

For more information, visit School for Social Entrepreneurs.