Inspiration

Fresh Start Rotary Club - let's answer some questions!

Notes from our first talk about our learning from London to Jiangsu.
ABCity.org at Fresh Start Rotary Club, Shanghai

Can you think of a better way to end your trip and exploration than giving a talk about your experience and learnings? We couldn't. When we realised that we could have this opportunity, we got super-excited, shafted plans around and got all sorted for our speech at the Fresh Start Rotary Club.

We will not repeat here what we said last Friday. There will be other opportunities for this:

  • Specific blog posts on social impact per country (coming up in January, so watch this space!);
  • A photo gallery of the social entrepreneurs and innovators we have met;
  • The documentary we are working on; and 
  • (we hope!) Other speeches!
     

Let's start the speech!

But we thought we should share some of the questions we were asked at the end and our answers:
 

  1. How have you found and selected the social enterprises and initiatives you visited during your journey?

    First, research on the internet during the months before the trip. Then word of mouth, both at a distance and in country - for example through the Impact Hub network. Two directories were also very helpful - one in Russia and one in China. And this website is full of inspiring social enterprises too!

     
  2. What are the main causes social entrepreneurs are trying to tackle? Did you see any pattern?

    Our exploration focussed on three main areas: radical food, urban innovation and sport for transport. So most of the initiatives we visited work in these sectors. However, these are mainly our own interest areas, not really patterns that we could identify. Among these three sectors, it is true that we have seen more initiatives around food than on the other topics.

     
  3. Did you ever felt that some causes are more important than others? Or that people are doing what they do because of their own interest and not for the cause?

    No, it's all about their passion. The people we met do what they do because they believe it is important. In some (perhaps most) cases, they are still ‘struggling’ in making their initiatives financially viable. Of course, social entrepreneurs want to make a living out of their businesses. But profit was not the motivating factor among those we interviewed. Plus, except the SocEnt we interviewed in Germany and the U.K., they receive no recognition from the government, so no tax release for example.

     
  4. You mentioned the story of a social enterprise that was shut by government’s decision in Russia. This could happen in China too. What should be done in contexts where governments are not always supportive? What should the role of the Government be?

    This is a tricky question. We would go with a politically correct answer ;-)
    The legal and political environment is obviously an important influencing factor for any type of business to succeed. When the government supports social entrepreneurship, financial viability can be reached earlier and in an easier way. However, the social innovators we saw social innovators that did not give up in spite of their struggle. The ones behind the story you refer to opened a new social enterprise after their first one got shut down. Determination is crucial to make the world a better place and… lead by example!

     
  5. In some cases, social enterprises now play the role that used to belong to religious organisations. Do you agree? Have you witnessed any of this?

    We have not… but this is an interesting question! In fact, we found it hard to speak about religion most of the time as if people were in denial of such a thing as ‘religion’. We think this is due to the recent history of the countries we have visited and the communist approach to religion. Instead, we were under the impression that social enterprises are coming in to fill gaps left by the state in countries where the state used to provide to society more than what it is now.

     
  6. What was the most unexpected thing during your journey?

    Packing ‘eco-rice’ until late at night to help our hosts in the middle of the most rural China!
    Afterthought (not shared at the event but worth mentioning here): doing an interview via WeChat using the ‘translate’ function. That was brilliant!

     
  7. What is coming next?

    Three main plans:
    • Sharing our learning more and more widely!
    • Keeping in touch with all the social entrepreneurs and social innovators we met, and providing services to them. We are developing a series of webinars with one of them, working on the visual identity of a couple of others. We are post-producing photos that we took to help their marketing activities, etc.
    • Developing our own products to tackle issues that we think should be solved. We have an idea related to eco-friendly transportation - as travellers, it’s pretty much obvious! And we are working on a website hosting service powered by green energy. We have introduced this in Italy a few months ago and are planning to scale it up!

 

Protagonists.

We’ll be in Myanmar next year… and very keen to see what will happen there!

Were you at the Fresh Start Rotary on 1st December? Is there anything we have forgotten? 
Were you not there? Does anything of the above resonate with your experience of social entrepreneurship?
Please use the comments below!

Ale

31.212578, 121.458183

Up for the Sunshine Blogger Award!

A way to connect and share positivity by blogging
The Sunshine Blogger Award

The Sunshine Blogger Award and is a way of connecting bloggers and sharing positivity.

These are the rules:

  • Thank the person who nominated you for the Sunshine Award and link back to their blog Answer the questions set by the person who nominated you

  • Nominate other blogs and give them questions to answer

  • Notify your nominees through social media or commenting on their blog

  • List the “rules” and display a Sunshine Award logo in your post

 

So… let’s get started!

THANK YOU, Lisa, great blog!

Less-stuff writes about de-cluttering so her questions are about waste, objects and saving practices. Here are our answers

(our nominees and their questions are below… keep reading!)

What has made you happy recently?
Ale: the little presents and cards we received from friends to wish us happy travelling!
Fra: our new camera. My parents too got a new one right after getting married. Good memories :)

I write about decluttering but I think stuff is really important to us. What is your favourite thing?
Ale: The Sierra Leonean bracelet that Francesco redesigned and gave me on our engagement.
Fra: my MacBook. It's an object of hope. It has no purpose per se. It can be adapted to any type of change and evolution.

At www.less-stuff.co.uk I do lots of challenges like Plastic Free July and Zero Waste Week. Do you blog any challenges? If not, what is stopping you?
Ale & Fra: not yet. We've just started blogging. We've done a few challenges, though. Sober October a couple of times. Inline-skating tours of cities... Any suggestion for challenges to blog?

What is your top money saving tip?
Ale: in office-based daily life, definitely a lunch box from home. When travelling, Couchsurfing - which is also a super interesting experience!
Fra: working from a public library as opposed to from a café.

How do you reward yourself when you want a treat?
Ale: blueberry soy yoghurt.
Fra: like our blog, our married life has just. The best reward: bacini from my wife
(Ale: oops slightly less romantic...)

Where is your favourite place and why?
Ale: in London, Regent's Canal. Because it's London without being London. And because the landscape and buildings change at every step. In the world... I've got so many favourite places for so many different reasons, I'd probably had to write another blog for that!
Fra: in London, the area around the Tate, the Globe theatre, the millennium bridge. Because it's architecturally beautiful and humanly vibrant.

It is a rainy, miserable day, do you stay in or go out?
Ale: out!
Fra: in...

Marmite, delicious spread or Satans own diarrhoea?
Ale: as a vegan, it’s super helpful to get all the b12 vitamin I need!
Fra: simply disgusting.

What do you do with a glut of courgettes? I need to know this pretty urgently as we have loads in the garden!
Ale: it’s probably too late to answer, Lisa, but… ask my husband ;)
Fra: risotto! If you cook too much, freeze the surplus and eat later on.

What is the best present you can give that isn’t a physical thing?
Ale: time together. Just offered a canoeing afternoon to Fra for his birthday.
Fra: share a passion, teach something that you’re passionate about and skilled in.

Being sustainable is a big part of less-stuff, what is your top tip for living green?
Ale: be moderate in what you think you need. Then, if you are motivated enough, go vegan, start cycling, etc.
Fra: buy the server hosting service by Masterismi.com. It’s based on renewable energy.

Optional question – What is your favourite joke?
Ale: I'm afraid I'm too boring to have a favourite joke...
Fra: “By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher” Socrates… my favourite since I met Ale ;-)

And now, our turn to nominate beautifully inspiring blogs:

Jasmine’s journey by Jasmine Nguyen
Exploring Social Enterprises around the world
https://journeywithjasmine13.wordpress.com/

EOS International by Wes Meier & team
Co-designing Solutions to Overcome Poverty
http://eosinternational.org/blog/

From Scratch by Sabine Harnau
Supporting businesses whose hearts are in the right place
https://www.from-scratch.net/insights/

Brave & Co Design by Kimi Mischke
Creating honest and brave visual brands for motivated do-gooders
https://www.braveandcodesign.com/blog/

And our QUESTIONS are:

ABCity.org is a nomadic programme based 2 loves, design and social value, and 1 condition, letters!

1. When you hear 'design', what's the first thing that comes to your mind?

2. How do you measure what's valuable for you?

3. What's your favourite letter (no matter the alphabet!)?

ABCity.org is now travelling to Russia, China, Nepal and Myanmar.

4. What's the most amazing place you've ever visited?

5. The most inspiring person you've ever met?

6. The funniest story from your travelling? ;-)

In our travelling, we'll visit social enterprises working with food, urban innovation or movement sports.

7. Do you have any particular food habit?

8. What's the most incredible thing you've seen in any urban exploration?

9. What's your favourite sport?
The Sunshine Blogger Awards is about blogs that share positivity. We've only just started blogging, so...

10. What's been your favourite post from our blog so far?
If you didn't have a chance to read our blog yet, not a problem, there's a reserve question: Who's your favourite blogger and why?

And last but not least, our favourite question:

* What's creativity for you?

@ our nominees: Thanks for taking up the challenge. Looking forward to reading your answers soon!

@ any other readers: Feel free to answer any question you fancy in the comment box below. We’d love to hear from you :-)

52.5200066, 13.404954

The Business Activist Entrepreneurs Bootcamp

How to boost your business in 21 days
Our brilliant graphics...

21 days ago we completed ‘The Business Activist Entrepreneurs Bootcamp’, a 21-day learning experience that we have very much enjoyed.

Short daily videos followed by useful exercises and accompanied by a funbook.

The aim? Learn how to develop a business idea, secure money to get started and launch!

The hosts? Brandon and Amanda Neely, two business activist entrepreneurs themselves. They that have run a coffee bar for nearly 10 years with the mission to ‘inspire a genuine and local community of people who change the world with their purchasing power, time, and talents’.

Light bulb - what we have learnt

  1. We don’t need a huge amount of time to improve our venture day by day... as long as we’ve got a good guide!  

  2. Key ingredients for success: a vision, consistency, good prep… and a plan B and C. On this, see also last week’s post in case you’ve missed it!  

  3. Oh wow… there are so many more learning learning points. Ok, a good one is that we can all be super-heroes  as long as we know what our super-power is. A simple test can help. 

Heart - what we have loved

  1. It was short and to the point. 1 theme a week. Three weeks altogether. No more than 20 minutes a day to spend on videos or exercises.   

  2. The exercises. Learning for a purpose.

  3. The forum. Great to share thoughts and ideas with other bootcampers and to receive useful insights from the facilitators.

Bootcamp

Smile - what made us laugh

  1. Diligently spending our lunch break in August with the tablet and the headphones on the landing, just out of our office door :)

  2. Some of the comments in the forum space   

  3. Talking about consistency with a creative person who hates planning and deadlines!

Pointing finger - what we take away

  1. An Instagram page with a consistent picture every Weds… prepping for our trip start!    

  2. A revised concept of triple bottom line which is very much in line with ABCity.org’s philosophy - measuring results through money, social impact and fun!     

Shaking hands - what connections we have made

  1. The first fans of our Facebook page were participants in the bootcamp!     

  2. We discovered the Smart Passive Income podcast and through it... The Bakers!     

  3. So much inspiration and good examples from another bootcamper, Sabine @ From Scratch

Bootcamp

Rooted foot - what we knew already and was important to remember

  1. #small matters. From selling coffee beans to setting up an amazing learning & business activist community :)

  2. One thing is to have a story to tell, another thing is to be able to tell it in a way that it’s engaging, inspiring and meaningful for other people

  3. There’s need to really understand what customers want, expect and think like.     

Bin - what we’d kick away (didn’t like that much…)

  1. Having 2 platforms to share comments and learning - the bootcamp forum and the Facebook page. 1 would have been sufficient or having the 2 talking to each other.

  2. A $1,000 worth bonus randomly allocated to a bootcamp participant - mainly because the winner was not super-engaged and we still don’t know what they won!  

  3. The impossibility to join the next step… the BUSINESS ACTIVIST BREAKTHROUGH! Mainly due to logistical reasons as ABCity.org will soon be travelling :)

If you’d like to know more about any of the above, leave a comment below!

If you’d like to know more about other learning opportunities that Brandon and Amanda can provide, this is the link for you http://overflowyourpossibility.com/bootcamp.

And if you want to receive regular inspiration pills, sign up for Overflow Your Possibility newsletter or follow Amanda on Twitter.

Quoting Amanda would say: “Keep overflowing”!

51.5073509, -0.12775829999998

Food that is good for the people and for the planet

Research Topic #1
Lemonaid!

Food is one of the 3 areas we are exploring and researching on, along with urban innovation and movement sports.

Why food? Food is something that everybody needs but nearly 800 million people in the world are in hunger and around 1.3 billion tonnes of food go wasted every year.

This means that there is a lot to do about how food is produced, distributed and consumed!

At the Profit with Purpose event we attended last Wednesday at the Business and IP Centre in London, four social enterprises that work with food shared their stories and their advice @HarrySpecters @rubiesinrubble @ChangePlease @TooGoodToGo_UK

 

Here are some of our thoughts.

4 things to have to set up a business that makes profit with a purpose:

  1. A good idea and a strong message to go with it

  2. Passion for what you do and why you are doing it

  3. A product or a service that you will test, improve, refine and make it love by your customers

  4. A supportive network including family members to give you good recipes or smart ideas for a name, your friends to test your products and provide feedback, partners with different expertise, mentors to help you build your skills and have a sounding board, etc.

 

4 things to remember in the journey to social entrepreneurship

  1. Start small, dream big. You can start from your backyard room and dream you’ll become a franchise all across the UK (and beyond) .like

  2. Know your customers and your competitors. The market will lead or hinder your growth. Apps like Smaply and Experience Fellow can be really helpful for this.

  3. Work step by step. Don’t over-think what you're doing in a way that puts you off. Try, test, fail, learn and make it better. Then move to the next step.

  4. Be prepared to work hard but do look after yourself!

 

4 things we really liked from the four social enterprises

  1. Coherence. Prices on Too Good to Go app are capped. This way businesses are discouraged to produce food with the aim to end up in the platform. The aim is to reduce food excess, not to provide another food delivery app.

  2. Closing the loop. Rubies in the Rubble collects apples and bananas that would be thrown away each week from Virgin train’s catering service, turns them into jam or ketchup and sells the end product back to the company.

  3. Onward-thinking. Please Change provides homeless with training and an opportunity to work as baristas at London living wage - which is already commendable. They also provide housing, a bank account and support to access further employment after their six-month programme.

  4. Social Investment. Harry Specters invests 60 per cent of their profit to further the social aims of the business, and to provide social activities and opportunities for personal development for their young employees with Autism.

 

1 conclusion

Profit with a purpose makes economic and social impact, can go to scale and can be fun :)

How beautiful is this?

If you run a social enterprise that works with food, we'd love to learn from you!

If you run a social enterprise that works with food in Russia, Mongolia, China, Nepal or Myanmar, we'd love to visit you :)



PS: the two bottles that you see in the picture were super kindly offered to us by Julian, Managing Director at Lemonaid Beverages Ltd, another socially-minded business that we had the chance to meet at the event. Thanks, Julian :)

51.5299717, -0.12767589999999

Subscribe to Inspiration