Frustrations of a Third Sector Worker

Well, this all started because we have become very frustrated with the funding system. We are a social enterprise called Bohemian Trove CIC

www.bohemiantrove.com and are lucky enough to live in the Lake District and work in a beautiful old house in a park. We exist to incubate, train, mentor and support emerging creative entrepreneurs. We aim to add value to the area with the fruits of their achievements and also give them the best ongoing support possible. We are both (Sam and I) passionate about providing some hope and future prospects for young returning graduates who want to be able to make a future for themselves in our area. Currently many of them are unemployed or have to move to big cities to find prospects.

Well, the funding competition proved fierce and because we are not looking at a disadvantaged group, we didn't have a sustainability plan and because of some other local politics, we have found it a huge struggle. We spent hours working on funding bids, kept changing our model to suit funders and got increasingly worn out and disillusioned. We spent months meeting with potential funders and doing all the right things without much luck. At this point, I would like to thank and acknowledge the support we have had from UnLtd, they have been brilliant, and also Business Links. We had to find a way of generating income that would sustain us and get us non-grant dependent.

We needed to develop some income that would be automated and residual so that when we DO have students in, we would be able to concentrate on their enterprises and give them the time and energy that they need to achieve excellence.

So I set about learning about the different ways of making money online and this blog will share these ways with you. I have chosen to work with a company called Your Net Biz for a number of reasons. I knew that if I were serious about making money online I would need to get a mentor, to learn in a systematic way and get help with strategy. They have a library of videos for me to watch that covers every aspect of internet marketing and also some personal development which I am into anyway.

I have set up two strands to my business, one is Third Sector Finance and the other is Work in Slippers (that one is aimed at helping single parents).

We are also planning on developing office services, a virtual office and some facilities for hot-desking. We are planning ahead, and wondering what might be in store for third sector organisations if the Tories get in and we become the first sector.

I want to use my business experience, coaching skills and training background to help as many people as I can. I particularly keen to help single mothers and those in the third sector. Do drop me a line if I can help!