growing homeless entrepreneurs - from practice to theory and back again
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8/8/2019 Growing Homeless Entrepreneurs - from practice to theory and back again
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Growing homelessentrepreneursFrom practice to theory
and back again
CrisisEthical Enterpriseand Employment(3xE) Network
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2 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again
Contents
Denitions ....................................................................................................... 4
Dierent models .............................................................................................. 5
Benets o incubators ..................................................................................... 5
Key development issues ................................................................................ 6
Common problems ........................................................................................ 6Relevance o incubators or homeless entrepreneurs ....................................... 7
Case studies .................................................................................................. 8
Further resources ........................................................................................ 11
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3
The Ethical Enterprise and Employment
(3xE) Network is run by Crisis to bring
together organisations using social enterprise
and supported employment models, and
organisations working with unemployed people who are homeless. 3xE works in partnership
with social enterprise inrastructure organisations
throughout England to improve take up o their
services by homelessness sector organisations.
3xE also unds a variety o support services
specially tailored to the needs o homelessness
sector organisations to enable them to start or
urther develop social enterprises or supported
employment schemes. The 3xE Network is
unded by the Big Lottery Basis programme.
Inosheet
This is the rst in a series o inosheets that
3xE is producing to capture and disseminate
learning rom the Network. ‘Growing homeless
entrepreneurs’ is based on the learning andexperience gained rom a series o visits to best
practice incubators and a seminar held by 3xE.
The overview has been produced by Adrian
Ashton, an expert on business incubators.
Many homelessness sector organisations have
grappled with clients’ diculties in getting back to
work: setting up their own business is a fexible
option, but will they have the skills, condence
and staying power needed? A business incubator
with support can provide just that.
3xE Network: helping the homeless sectorestablish social enterprises to help homelesspeople access work and skills
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4 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again
Growing homeless entrepreneursFrom practice to theory and back again
This overview o business incubators is based on a presentation by Adrian Ashton
(www.adrianashton.co.uk) at the EcoHub in Southend-on-Sea in July 2010 or 3xE.
DefnitionsIncubators or enterprises are dened by UKBI, the national trade association or
business incubators as:
“providing SMEs and start-ups with the ideal location todevelop and grow their businesses, oering everythingrom virtual support, rent-a-desk through to state o the art laboratories and everything in between. They provide direct access to hands-on intensive business support, access tofnance and expertise and to other entrepreneurs and suppliersto really help businesses and entrepreneurs to grow – aster.”
They can thereore be seen to take many orms, but ultimately an incubator oers
a physical space and acilities rom which an enterprise may begin to trade, and
non-physical support services to increase the success o the start-up enterprise:
advice, training and signposting. Through these non-physical services, incubators
oten also support a number o additional enterprises which are not physically
housed within them.
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5
Dierent modelsIn the main, incubators are modeled in one o
our ways:
1. ‘Hub and spoke’ - a central building exists which
oers all the core services available to tenants and
other enterprises using their non-physical services,
and is linked to a number o ‘satellite’ buildings.
These satellites will usually be unserviced, oer
smaller rooms, but share an IT network withthe ‘hub’ through internet, phone and possibly
video connections. They are most common in
remote, rural areas where it is impractical to oer
a ully-serviced acility in all conurbations due to
insucient demand in each locality.
2. ‘Hybrid’ - incubators tend to be ocused on
supporting a particular type o thematic enterprise,
or example young people or digital technologies.
A hybrid model deliberately sets out to ensure
a mixture o tenants and users o its services
to encourage the wider business community to
benet rom its services, rather than ocusing
support on stimulating a single type o business
within it.
3. Integrated housing - while incubators have
traditionally ocused on housing new enterprises
only, newer models are being created that oer
housing or workers as well (although Emmaus
communities have been oering work and
accommodation or many years). In recognising
that the distinction between work and home is
becoming blurred or many liestyle entrepreneurs,
this model seeks to support entrepreneurs in a
‘whole person’ way through also supporting their
personal need or accommodation
4. ‘Piggy back’ - given the costs associated with
the development o incubator acilities, some are
developed within larger acilities. Such instances
include universities who, through reurbishment obuildings, have begun to oer incubation to their
graduate entrepreneurs.
Benefts o incubatorsIncubator acilities oer benets to two main
groups – the individual entrepreneurs, and the
wider local economy:
For the individual entrepreneur, they gain access
to a supportive peer group o like minded people,
and become part o a community that oers them
access to various types o support. And research
shows that through this supportive environment,
their businesses are three times more likely to
succeed than they might have otherwise.
For the wider local economy, incubators have
been ound to directly support an average o 30
enterprises, with a urther 150 being supported
through their associated services, and that
through the support to these businesses 167
ull-time jobs are created and sustained.
Above left: Social Enterprise Coalition, image:
Steve Forrest
Above right: Farming For All
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6 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again
Key development issuesIn developing incubator acilities, a number o
approaches can be taken depending on the type
o model being adopted. Regardless o model
though, there are two key issues to consider:
1) Ensuring that there will be a sustained interest
and demand or acilities and services being
oered into the uture – this means understanding
not just the current needs o local businesses,but their uture needs and those o aspiring
entrepreneurs who are yet to develop and launch
their enterprises;
2) That there is sucient interest and support
able to be oered by other agencies and
providers to the uture tenants and users around
business support services.
Common problems There are a number o challenges and problems
that incubators experience and it is useul to
know what these are beore developing a new
acility to ensure that they can be accounted or
rom the outset:
• Financing - not just raising the nance required
or the initial start-up costs o the acility, but
also supporting its cash-fow during periods where tenancy rates (and thereore rental
incomes) may be low, to allow or discounts to
be oered to incoming enterprises, to support
salary and maintenance costs and so on;
• ‘Move on’ - the premise o any incubator is
that it supports an enterprise to orm, grow,
but that the enterprise then ultimately ‘moves
on’ having been nurtured and able to support
itsel, so that others may benet rom the
acility. However, due to the supportive culture
and environment o incubators, many tenants
are reluctant to move out;
• Common areas - incubators have a number
o shared acilities including kitchen space
and it is usually around how dierent tenants
use (and leave) these acilities that causes the
most problems; and,
• Access and inrastructure - it should be borne in
mind that not all entrepreneurs will be able, or want
to, drive. There should thereore be adequateaccess to public transport links as well as parking
acilities or those that do wish to.
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Relevance o incubators or
homeless entrepreneursGiven the above, incubator acilities can be seen
to potentially oer a number o signicant benets
to homeless entrepreneurs:
• A dedicated space to ocus the mind - hostels
and other temporary accommodation are
usually ull o distractions and oer limited
storage acilities that may be needed by astart-up enterprise.
• Flexible terms and support all in one place -
homeless support agencies are usually
ragmented by location and dicult to access
outside o pre-arranged times: having business
support services available on-site through the
incubator encourages entrepreneurs by their
having access to help ‘on tap’.
• Supportive peer network - rom like minded
entrepreneurs who all wish to see each other
succeed and not be satised with simply
maintaining the ‘status quo’ o their lie and
situation.
• Challenge perceptions about homeless
entrepreneurs through having a mix o
tenants - there is oten a great stigma attached
to being homeless and oering a publicspace that allows homeless entrepreneurs
to showcase themselves to the wider
business community (ellow tenants and
other users o services) will go a long way
to challenge others’ perceptions about the
abilities o people who are homeless.
Opposite left: Manchester Ceramics;opposite right: Open Cinema
Above left: Create Leeds, image: Mark Skeet;
above right: Emmaus
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8 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again
Case StudiesSt Mungos
St Mungo’s oers a range o services to homeless
people, including advice on setting up and running
a business. However, the organisation recognised
that once back in the hostel or at home there was
little support to help people build their business. They were missing opportunities to network with
other businesses and were restricted by a lack o
storage space or room to be creative.
One solution was to develop a space which
people could work out o to build an enterprise.
St Mungo’s had un-used space in its basement,
which with the help o volunteers was transormed
into a suitable workspace.
The rst residents were Squeaky Chains, a social
enterprise set up in October 2009 to repair old
bikes to sell. The space is provided ree o charge,
and in return Squeaky Chains provide one day o
training to clients each week. St Mungo’s provides
business support when requested, but the project
leader is given independence to pursue his ideas
and establish rules or his volunteers and trainees.
For St Mungo’s this is an important part o what the
business incubator oers: to demonstrate trust in
individuals and encourage independence.
Other groups have since set up within the space,on a ull or part-time basis dependent on their
needs. The centre aims to provide an opportunity
or anybody tackling homelessness and to
encourage a mix o individuals, projects and skills
so that people can learn rom each other.
There are undeniably challenges. The cost o
renting in London is high and the more successul
the centre is the more space will be needed. The
centre is only open on weekdays, which limitsaccess to workshops and storage.
However, the space oers a secure, supportive
and productive working environment. In its
rst year o operation Squeaky Chains trained
in bike maintenance ten people aected by
homelessness, many o who had no interest
in bikes beore. Two have gone into related
employment, three have achieved City and Guild
qualications and others continue to volunteer in
the workshop training new recruits.
The aim is to continue to build the centre to oer
space to more businesses and social enterprises.
Contact details
Colin Vint,Business Start-Up Coach.
Tel 020 7902 7951
Email colin.vint@mungos.org
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Pop-up Business Incubator: Aspirations
In 2004, Aspire Support UK was launched to
support the network o social enterprises working
under the Aspire name. It became a registered
charity in 2006 and is now exploring and
developing new opportunities or spreading and
embedding the core Aspire model o transorminglives through enterprise and employment. Aspire
Support UK became Aspire Foundation in 2008.
The charity hopes to help homeless and
disadvantaged people start their own successul
businesses. Working with a network o the
capital’s homeless charities, Aspire Foundation
runs a series o courses in business development
around London.
Successul entrepreneurs with real lie experience
o starting and running a business present six
day-workshops on: researching your market,
raising money to start your business, where to
run your business rom, starting up legally (red
tape), who to ask or help, inormation, nance
and support, business planning, sales and
marketing alongside managing the risks.
The pilot programme has attracted over 20
people, 17 o whom have graduated the course,
keen to carry on with their business idea. They
will continue to receive mentoring rom Aspire’s
Business Development Manager. The Pop-up
Business Incubator will be repeated as and
where needed.
Contact details
Paul Funnell
Business Development Manager
Tel: 0207 921 4448
Email: paul@aspire-oundation.com
Opposite: Squeaky Chains workshop
at St Mungo’s
Above: Aspire Foundation
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10 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again
Wandsworth Youth Enterprise
Since 1988 Wandsworth Youth Enterprise
Centre (WYEC), based in Tooting, London, has
been supporting young people aged 17-30
to develop business ideas and start up their
own businesses. Their mission is ‘to increase
economic activity and promote entrepreneurial
behaviour among young people within
disadvantaged communities’.
WYEC’s is a our step model which begins with the Business Launchpad, an outreach
project that uses a range o methods to engage
young people onto their business training and
counselling programme. The next stage is or
those who are interested in setting up a business
to attend an interactive, introductory workshop.
At step three those who have decided to stay on
to explore setting up a business, become clients
and receive one-to-one assessment.
WYEC then oers a programme or young
entrepreneurs to support them in the rst two
years o running and establishing a new business,
including a business counselling service, skills
workshops, training courses and managed
workspaces. The centre has developed a £2.7
million business centre in Tooting to provide
income or the charity’s work and to provide
move-on space or young people moving rom
WYEC’s incubator space.
Since being established WYEC has supported
over 5,000 young people and seen more than
500 businesses started. The centre has a high
survival rate o young businesses with 85-90
per cent trading ater two years.
Contact details
Wandsworth Youth Enterprise Centre
Trident Business Centre
89 Bickersteth Road
London, SW17 9SH
Toyin Dania,
Business Counselling and Training Manager
Tel: 020 8516 7700
Email: toyin@wyec.org.uk Website: www.wyec.org.uk
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Further resourceswww.crisis.org.uk/3xE
• Find details o how to apply or FREE 3xE
Membership and FREE 3xE services
• Find 3xE Members’ Directory
• Read case studies o homeless social
enterprises and learn the lessons o their
experience
• Find policy documents about social enterprise
•
Find business planning guidance and tools• Add your product or service to the supply-
chain pages
• Find links to other helpul sites
Other
• CAN Guide: How to Mezzanine
• Cluster Policy: Issues or Social Enterprise,
Bob Allan
• Benchmarking Framework or Business
Incubation, 2003, UKBI
• Feasibility study or a regional fagship
incubator in Cambridge or Co-operative and
Social Enterprises, 2003, Adrian Ashton
• Research report on establishing a dedicated
Community Enterprise incubator in
Cambridgeshire, 2003, Adrian Ashton
• Mosques on stilts, rhubarb plantations,
and time share printing presses – Future
opportunities and needs or workspace in
Burnley, 2007, Adrian Ashton
• Workhubs – smart work spaces or a low
carbon economy, 2010, Workhubs Network
Online
• UKBI - www.ukbi.co.uk
• Development Trusts Association -
www.dta.org.uk
• Asset Transer Unit - www.atu.org.uk
• Workhubs Network - www.workhubs.com
Find help in your region rom regional
social enterprise inrastructure bodies:• North East www.nesep.co.uk
• South East www.se2partnership.co.uk
• West Midlands www.socialenterprisewm.org.uk
• East o England www.seee.co.uk
• East Midlands www.seem.uk.net
• South West www.rise-sw.co.uk
• Yorkshire & Humberside www.seyh.org.uk
• North West www.sen.org.uk/about-sen/senw
• London www.sel.org.uk
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For urther copies o this
document, contact:
3xE Network
Crisis
66 Commercial Street
London, E1 6LT
Tel 020 7426 8500Email 3xE@crisis.org.uk
www.crisis.org.uk/3xe
Registered Charity Numbers:
E&W1082947, SC040094.
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