What skills are needed to start a creative social enterprise? Creative Choices spoke to Kate Hewitt of the Devon School for Social Entrepreneurs and Mitchel Knight, who won a bursary from the Cultural Leadership Programme.
From creative idea to business
Kate Hewitt
"Leadership is always important, but particularly at times like now, where funding is becoming more difficult and there's a lot more pressure on resources.
"The Devon School for Social Entrepreneurs is a school where we identify people with entrepreneurial potential, but who are motivated by making a difference, rather than just making money.
"We take them through a year-long learning process to help them develop the skills and the confidence and the understanding of the sector, so they can be successful businesspeople."
Mitchel Knight
"I work with young people, either teaching DJing or introduction to music technology, which is the recording side of things.
"We use it as a tool to communicate with young people and help promote self-worth, well-being and generally boosting confidence. Taking kids that might have come from troubled backgrounds or disadvantaged backgrounds, or maybe have learning difficulties, to actually increase their confidence and self-worth."
Leadership skills for entrepreneurs
Kate Hewitt
"Leadership is always important, but particularly now, when funding is more difficult and there's more pressure on resources."
"Mitch was our Cultural Leadership Programme bursary winner for this year. He has a fully-funded place on the programme. We ask for 40 days' contact time over the course of a year, but we expect our students to spend 80 days on top of that at least, working on their own project.
"With this particular group, we're doing a lot on project management, intellectual property, leadership and so on. So all the things that you need to run a successful organisation, but always tailored to the students."
Mitchel Knight
"Already I've gained so much knowledge. From how to find grants, what sort of company structure to have.
"One of the main things for me was how to write a business plan. That was quite a big part, we had a long course on that. It's given me a lot more direction and a lot more understanding of actually where I want to take my project. From the little beginnings I'm at at the moment, to where I can actually expand to and grow the business.
"The aim of the company is not to roll out a load of different DJs and music producers, but to actually engage with the young people, to let them grow in confidence, teach them new skills so they actually grow as a person.
"Show them that they actually do have some sort of worth and skills, so it promotes a better life for them. By doing that, it improves the surrounding communities as well."
Peer support for creative entrepreneurs
Kate Hewitt
"When you bring people together from very different backgrounds working in very different areas, they actually learn a lot more and they learn from each other.
"So we do have quite a number of creative practitioners on our programme, but we mix them up and we do that intentionally."
Mitchel Knight
"I've gained so much knowledge. From how to find grants, what sort of company structure to have."
"The best advice and the strongest thing I've gotten from the School for Social Entrepreneurs is that you're not alone. There are people out there that will have belief in your cause or your project or what you're doing.
"Take as much help as you can, build up a support network. I've started a business without really knowing a thing about what I was doing. These people that I've brought in to help, and they've offered me advice and different skills. That's helped me create what can be a really strong business."