Supporting social entrepreneurs to scale effectively: What Impact Hubs have learnt from their Scaling Programme

Devi Clark, Scaling Manager at Impact Hub King’s Cross, lead a workshop on ‘Supporting social entrepreneurs to scale’ at UnLtd’s recent event Big Social: The Big Share. In this post, Devi reflects on the learnings from the Impact Hub Scaling programme and shares their insight into supporting social entrepreneurs to scale.

Social enterprises can often be seen as niche businesses, whose roots in local communities mean they don’t have the scope to grow. For some this is true and scaling up may not be necessary for everyone.

On the other hand, the sector all too often re-invents the wheel. Rather than starting another small enterprise doing the same thing as their neighbour, might we achieve more impact if we scale up those who are already successful? Might we achieve economies of scale that build sustainability, and allow us to learn from our previous experience? How can we go mainstream unless at least some social enterprises achieve scale?

When we talk about scaling, we are not talking about organic growth. Scaling involves rapid growth, replication or the introduction of new products to your existing market. Importantly, it can sometimes mean that you are adding impact or revenue to your business at a higher rate than you are adding resources.

When are social enterprises ready to scale?

For the past year, Impact Hubs across Europe have been working with over 100 social enterprises through our Scaling programme.

We know that scaling can be a risky time for enterprises, requiring clarity as well as resources – in fact  it can be as unsettling as the start-up phase of the business.

So, as well as looking for proof of concept and a sustainable business model, we seek teams that are resilient, ready to learn and willing to do the work involved in scaling successfully. They need to be teams that are not easily distracted from their purpose.

Sometimes social entrepreneurs think they are ready to scale, but in fact are still at an early stage of growth in their business. We seek out those that have a product or service that is both proven and simple. The simple ones tend to be the easiest to adapt to other markets.

What are the stages of scaling a social enterprise?

As we worked with them, we learned that, despite their uniqueness and need for specific support, scaling social enterprises tend to go through three stages as they grow.

Stage 1: Organisational transformation

‘The business model, goals, team roles, systems and communications all need to be as complex as necessary but as simple as possible’. The shift from a small organisation to a larger organisation is a major transformation for most enterprises. Rather than a small group of founders who know the business inside out, the enterprise has to develop ways to communicate its culture and goals, and its processes and targets to new team members – sometimes in geographically distant locations. Not only does this demand recruitment and management skill, it also means that the enterprise needs to establish new systems and processes, without losing the strength of its culture.

Understanding what they have been doing subconsciously and documenting and communicating it in the right format, can be tough. It takes time, effort and focus. However, it can also reveal previously hidden issues and improve efficiency.

Enterprise A had a very complex invoicing system which meant that large amounts of time were spent chasing customers. Knowing that this system was going to be delegated to a more junior team member prompted the entrepreneur to prioritise a simpler and more controllable system.

The easiest way to tell if an enterprise is ready for this stage is that they start doing it!

We found that the market entry phase often runs in parallel with improvements in the previous two stages – developing the team, systems, research and so on. After all, scaling a business is an iterative process.

At this stage, social entrepreneurs tend to need some or all of the following: space to work; partner/customer connections; translation and copywriting; company, legal, tax and financial advisers and set up; ongoing market insights; recruitment of local team members and investment to grow.

Top tips for supporting social entrepreneurs to scale successfully

If you’re a support organisation working with social entrepreneurs, here are our top take aways from Impact Hub Scaling programme:

1. Support for scaling social enterprises needs to meet the needs of diverse enterprises with unique goals and challenges, while also offering opportunities to learn from one another. In the UK, many social entrepreneurs have already participated in other support programmes and don’t want to ‘waste their time’ in similar training sessions, so when you do offer training it needs to be particularly relevant to the business stage they are at. We have offered sessions on social franchising, organisational design and recruitment and finding investors, for example, which have proven very popular.
2. The workshops we ran were suggested by working closely with the enterprises during their individual coaching sessions. If a particular topic arose regularly, we would run a group training. In effect we designed the programme by listening to them.
3. Connecting social entrepreneurs to sector or technical experts is of real value. No social enterprise support organisation can be an expert in everything (from cinema to coffee or from venture capital to branding), so spend time building partnerships with the specialists who can provide that depth of insight that really adds value.

Find out more about Impact Hub Scaling Programme