There’s no shortage of women starting small social enterprises and delivering great services with passion and commitment. But still few women can be found heading up the larger social enterprises. To discuss what’s going on and how women can and should be playing a bigger role in social enterprise, the Guardian hosted a live and lively panel of female social entrepreneurs.
We’ve pulled out some great snippets of the advice they shared, below. To read the full discussion see here.
Becky John, managing director, whomadeyourpants? “My single piece of advice would be to ask LOUDLY and BROADLY for help when you need it but be selective about which offers you take up”.
Jobeda Ali, managing director, Fair Knowledge “Find champions, bug them. I have people who aren’t formal mentors but they are always doing good stuff for me, putting in a word here and there. Send some news or a link they’ll be interested in and then say, hey, how about a coffee? Great opportunities come out of coffee meetings with champions”.
Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive, Social Enterprise London “My one piece of advice would be to get some good advice. You need to find someone who shares your vision but has valuable experience and has the time to help you structure your business. In my experience social entrepreneurs are great at vision and sales and sometimes less willing to put in the donkey work on numbers and systems. A successfull business is one that has all of the above so if you don’t like process find someone who does”.
Servane Mouazan, Social Innovators Developer, Ogunte “Counter promote the good work you do, with evidence, patrons, supporters, advocates, it’s an organic work, it’s educating others to see the truth.
Back up anything you do with evidence!”