Enterprise Programme

The primary objective of the program is to give young Genesis residents the necessary skills, knowledge and support to develop and successfully maintain their own business. The hands on interactive support programme will:

• Empower young people by focusing on the individual to take responsibility for the business venture by instilling self-confidence.
• Support young people to develop their creative skills so they can identify possible opportunities and formulate plans to exploit them.
• Enable the individual to lead a team and work as part of it so they can recognise the contributions team members can make, and how effective leadership can motivate performance.
• Ability to handle uncertainty, an accompanying factor when starting a business.
• How to manage their own self employment status and managing others.

The programme will cover all elements of starting a business such as routes to market, raising money and perfecting their pitch, developing a business idea and plan, and getting one to one support, including mentoring.

Link it consultants ltd provide practical help and individually adapted business advice sessions for 35 beneficiaries, comprising:

• Readiness interview involving appraisal of business idea and entrepreneur’s capacity and commitment
• Regular, one-to-one business advice sessions adapted to individual entrepreneur’s capacity and circumstances
• Planned around childcare commitments
• Sensitive to homelessness and unemployment, the risk and debt averse
• Disability and diversity strategies ensuring inclusion

The personal capacities which will be profiled:

Confidence, listening, timekeeping, emotional and mental health, motivation, independence, key skills in IT, literacy and numeracy, self-employability, self-management, goal setting, and goal achievement.

THE DELIVERY MODEL

- Individual learning rather than group training: regular, one-to-one consultations to solve practical everyday problems.

- Progress monitored through on-going assessment of a wide range of personal capacities and business skills vital to setting up a successful microbusiness.

- Fast track brand development for instant online/offline trading credibility

- Workshops that work: City Business Library induction; social media for marketing and sales &c

- Hands on help with Investment Proposals/Micro-finance Applications

Shared Enterprise Clubs are a safe and welcoming space for people to build their confidence and spark their entrepreneurial skills. They have been described as pre pre-business start up support.  Clubs work best for people who are thinking (however vaguely) about starting or growing their own business or social enterprise now or sometime in the future. They provide a flexible overall framework for an informal, open ended and participant driven programme. 

Key features of Shared Enterprise Clubs:

• Participants learn from and inspire each other whilst building their social networks.     
• Delivery anywhere with space for a group, ideally in familiar community settings.
• Flexible design and open recruitment enables the Club to accommodate fluctuating numbers and people who for many reasons (including chaotic lifestyles, health issues, caring responsibilities) may struggle to attend regularly.
• As far as possible, activities are peer led and facilitated. Peer buddying, mentoring and facilitation are actively encouraged.  Mentoring training is often provided, subject to available funding.
• Sustained by participants themselves for the longer term with small scale funding.     

Shared Enterprise Clubs have a transformative impact on individual participants, but they also deliver wider community benefits. In addition to learning the basics about how to set up a sustainable business, the projects that participants undertake benefit the community and the new businesses which come out of them boost the economy. The majority of participants become more confident and self-aware and their journey of self-discovery results in them having clearer goals and ambitions and results, for many of them in setting up in business. Evaluation of Shared Enterprise Clubs confirms that they deliver excellent value for money.