Meet the free services keeping Bolton's social enterprises afloat

A social enterprise or Community Interest Companies (CICs) is a business that mostly exists to benefit its community.

They are not charities. But they can have a big impact on industries like education, social care and others. 

Lisa Forrest, Project Coordinator for Proper Good, said: “Social enterprises do massive good and make huge economic contributions.

"They employ local people on good terms. And pay a living wage.

"To me, they set an example for other companies of how we can do business for good.

“Founders usually want to fix social issues and have lived experience of the problems they’re trying to solve.

"But they might not be ‘businesspeople’ at heart.

“Proper Good helps them develop those skills whether they’re just starting out or more established.”

Bolton Community and Voluntary Service’s (CVS) Proper Good programme helps social enterprises navigate the world of business.

It offers CICs legal structure, governance and accounting workshops.

And support with creating the all-important business plan.

Of course – it also helps them make money.

Lisa said: “We have loans funded by Local Access so they can do things like grow their business or get more staff.

Lisa Forrest (Image: Newsquest)

“If they try to get loans on the high street, they can struggle.

“Social enterprises are considered risky.

“But we offer funding that takes the difference they make into account, which is as important as profits for them.”

Proper Good also helps them diversify their income – or find different ways to make money.

Lisa said: “This can mean starting an online store, renting out space or anything else.

“CICs often rely on grants, which can be unpredictable.

“And there's not as much money available in them as there used to be.”

Proper Good helps CICs gain security by making their own money.

But sadly, like any useful project – the project has an end point.

Lisa said: “Proper Good’s business support programme is only funded for five years, and our loan funding for 10.”

But it has plans to continue its influence.

Every few months, it runs an Enterprise Network Programme.

Bolton’s social enterprises can meet and connect at these events.

Lisa said: “We hope they will be our legacy.

“We want to connect these organisations so they can trade, support and collaborate with each other once our funding is gone.”

And Bolton CVS has another programme supporting CIC’s – Turn Up the Value.

It helps deal with the annoying paperwork that determines whether they get funding – social impact reports.

Karen Smith, Director of Turn Up the Value, said: “If CICs win grants or contracts, they constantly have to demonstrate their social impact.

“Or the money gets taken away.

“We help them report on it.

“Sometimes, they can be pulled in different directions and report on different things.

Karen Smith (Image: Newsquest)

“But my process helps them monitor the whole organisation’s social impact.

“Otherwise, they'd have to do it like 17 times.”

Social businesses like Funding Futures have found Karen’s help invaluable.

Funding Futures started over two years ago.

Husband-and-wife team Hayley and Billy Darroch had owned of HD Beauty for years. It had expanded to three beauty salons, a training centre and a wholesale shop.

By then, they “wanted to give back”.

They began giving free spaces on their beauty training programme to disadvantaged women.

Billy, co-founder of Funding Futures, said: “By last October, we had a waiting list of 140.

“And we registered it as a CIC.”

Now, Funding Futures is thriving. And trains disadvantaged women in a beauty career for free.

Hayley Darroch; Billy Darroch (Image: Public)

Billy said: “The six-week programmes help ladies who are the furthest from work.

“It’s an introduction to structured and accredited learning.

“And we offer a bit of work experience.

“In ten week programme, we add three weeks of life, digital and employment skills.

“After a year, we’ve fully qualified 164 women.

“We've worked with homeless, survivors of domestic violence, people who have left care or at risk of entering the judicial system.

“83 per cent of our graduates have gone on to employment, self-employment or secondary education within three months.

Funding Futures graduates (Image: Public)

“Our results are good because we're not telling the ladies you will do this and that.

“We offer them programme and they can make the choice.

“Everyone that graduates can earn money from the moment they walk out the door or go to a salon and look for work.”

And Karen has helped in their journey.

Billy said: “I was pretty advanced in business strategy.

“But, I knew my weakness was reporting social impact and value.

“That's where Karen came in.

“I asked for help from Proper Good and she mentored me.

“She helped me nail down our values and how to report them.

“By the time Karen finished working with us, we were getting contracts.

“It really helped us go up a tier.

“Rather than convincing businesses to do a little good, we could talk to them about what's in it for them.”