Bright One Logo.
Can you please tell me a little bit about yourself and your Social Enterprise?
Ben Mathews - Founder Bright One
I’m the founder of Bright One, a volunteer-run communications agency for the third sector. Our team is on hand to offer charities, social enterprises and other not-for-profit organisations affordable yet effective PR and communications campaigns. We help organisations get their messages heard and offer resources so they can focus on core activities.
What makes your social enterprise a success?
Without a doubt it’s the energy, commitment and dedication of our volunteers. We wouldn’t exist as an organisaiton without them and I’m constantly amazed by the fatastic work they do. In our first year, over 1,500 hours were donated by our volunteers – an amazing achievement.
What are the big challenges that your enterprise faces?
Time is a big challenge – making sure that the time our volunteers spend working with clients is effective, and that our management team are able to volunteer around their day jobs, that we have time to look at the bigger picture. We’re managing well so far, but it’s an area that we keep a close eye on.
In your current role what significant learnings have you had?
I’ve learnt to trust in people a lot more – stepping back from the nitty gritty and let people get on with their roles. I’ve also leartn about the power of a storng network – being able to contact people for support, sharing resources and knowledge is an invaluable part of setting up an enterprise.
What advice would you give to a social entrepreneur starting out?
Make sure there’s two founders and you’re good friends with them – it really helsp to have someone to bounce ideas off, spread the workload, and to drive things forward when you’re having an off week. Also, success is often less down to intelligence and more to do with persistence, so keep doing the little things and keep doing them well – you’ll see the rewards once you’ve put persistent hard work in.
What creative idea do you have, that does not cost a bucket of money, which would kick start the social enterprise business model?
I would get someone to design a one-page guide to what a social enterprise is and make sure that everyone involved in social enterprise agrees to use that guide in their messaging around social enterprise. Their’s too much confusion about weaht a social enterprise is, but joined up messaging from all involved would ensure that our collective voices get heard a lot more widely.
What was your favourite book as a child?
Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ – a classic read!
Tags: Ben Mathews, Bright One, interview, social enterprise
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