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Virtual seminar - Creating a nurse-led social enterprise

We have developed our virtual seminars programme so that you can access most of the content on our free courses whenever and wherever you want. Each seminar comes as a series of audio files which you can listen to on your computer or download to your MP3 player.

This is aimed at people interested in the development and creation of nurse-led social enterprises. Although this seminar is primarily aimed at nurses who are interested in creating social enterprises, it will still be relevant to other people looking to create a social enterprise in health.

This seminar contains the following topics:

  • What is a social enterprise
  • Particular issues around nurse-led social enterprises
  • Pension and TUPE issues
  • Legal structures
  • Developing a "beermat business plan" for your social enterprise
  • Financing a social enterprise
  • Planning for the transition
  • Why most social enterprises fail
  • Developing entrepreneurial skills
  • Operating outside the NHS
  • Where to get support and advice

The seminar is in 5 parts and can be accessed as follows:

Part 1 covers:

  • Pros and cons of different legal structures of social enterprises
  • Setting up a company can be quick an easy
  • Guide to Community Interest Companies and asset locks
  • The key difference between "limited by shares" and "limited by guarantee"
  • How equity investment works and why it won't work with some company structures
  • There is no perfect model and how to judge your legal adviser
  • How to judge a business advisor
  • Why most directors get struck off

Part 1 lasts 37 minutes and can be downloaded here (34 Mb)

Part 2 covers:

  • Pros and cons of different legal structures of social enterprises
  • Setting up a company can be quick an easy
  • Guide to Community Interest Companies and asset locks
  • The key difference between "limited by shares" and "limited by guarantee"
  • How equity investment works and why it won't work with some company structures
  • There is no perfect model and how to judge your legal adviser
  • How to judge a business advisor
  • Why most directors get struck off

Part 2 lasts 34 minutes and can be downloaded here (31 Mb)

Part 3 covers:

  • Who has the power and control on your social enterprise?
  • How many directors should you start with?
  • How members can overturn the decisions of the directors and even remove them - the "Doris the Cleaner" effect
  • Why founders are sometimes sacked from their own board
  • Who do you want to be accountable to?
  • The interesting clauses in Entreprenurses CIC - the "nuclear button"
  • Fundraising is much much easier as a registered charity (and Dave's 204 rejection letters)
  • Why social enterprises fail (and 50% of them do in the first 4 years)
  • The main reasons that social enterprises fail are: Cashflow, Tax and VAT issues, Too low profit margins, Keeping unproductive employees and Market shifts
  • Why cashflow is the number 1 cause of social enterprise failure
  • Why you need to choose your bank manager very carefully
  • The most common tax mistakes businesses make
  • What social firms are
  • Why most business plans are a load of tosh
  • The best plans are created between the 1st pint and the 7th pint
  • The barstool test for your mission statement

Part 3 lasts 36 minutes and can be downloaded here (33 Mb)

Part 4 covers:

  • Introduction to marketing
  • Why marketing isn't just advertising and public relations
  • How to work out your start-up capital from your market information
  • How to pick your co-founders and why they need to be as dedicated to the business as you
  • The Napkin Business Plan: a) What is it you will do? b) What is the market and demand? c) Who are your competitors? d) What is your pricing? e) How much will you make? f) How much will it cost? g) Who is your founding team? h) How much start up capital do you need?
  • It is rare to set up a social enterprise without using 1 or 2 as start-up funding
  • If you run a social enterprise you risk losing your house
  • Why your house is still at risk even with a company limited by shares or guarantees
  • Why you will almost certainly need to personally guarantee any business loans or overdrafts
  • Sources of start-up funding (from easiest to hardest to get): 1) Your money (savings or personal loan) 2) Borrowing from friends and family 3) Banks (overdrafts and loans) 4) Grants 5) Equity It is rare to set up a social enterprise without using 1 or 2 as start-up funding
  • Dealing with £95,000 of personal debt
  • There isn't a risk-free way of keeping your house whether you are an entrepreneur or not
  • Dealing with fear and guilt
  • Why you want to be very very fussy about who your bank manager is
  • The smaller you start your social enterprise, the easier it is to raise money and the easier it is to learn quickly from mistakes.

Part 4 lasts 23 minutes and can be downloaded here (21 Mb)

Part 5 covers:

  • Money is important but it isn't worth focussing all your attention on
  • If you plan carefully, you can have a business collapse and keep your house and start a new social enterprise
  • The fear and the risk is manageable and you get the chance to save the world
  • Getting in touch with real quality of life
  • For some people the risk is so great they are too afraid to make the leap
  • Explaining the change and innovation curve: a) Innovators (about 2.5%) b) Early adopters (about 10%) c) Early majority (about 37%) d) Late majority (about 37%) e) Laggards (about 12.5%)
  • Your first paying clients will be innovators and you should market to them through personal contact
  • You move to early adopters through their contacts with innovators and by proving that your service works
  • You shouldn't use mass media or traditional advertising until you are at the early majority stage
  • There are lots of potential NHS commissioners - much more than just your local PCT
  • You need to be careful when you are planning your escape

Part 5 lasts 40 minutes and can be downloaded here (37 Mb)

If you have any problems accessing or playing these courses, please email us at dave@entreprenurses.net . All our material is created under a creative commons licence and you can find out more about this at www.entreprenurses.net/about/licence.php. If you would like to use this material in teaching or developing others, you can ask permission from dave@entreprenurses.net.

 

 

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