Consultancy Services
Inclusive Enterprise
Enterprise and entrepreneurship is a vital component of social inclusion and community regeneration. Small businesses are the engine house of UK-based job growth and contribute a huge amount of economic vibrancy and innovation. Ensuring enterprise policies, business support practices, and the delivery of business support to a broader range of individuals, their families and their communities, helps social cohesion as well as improving UK and regional productivity.
I have extensive experience in the development and use of small-scale research tools, including focus groups: very useful in testing out public opinion regarding their knowledge and usage of enterprise support. I and my consultancy partners also work with Banks, Regional Development Agencies, Business Links and other specialist agencies to test out their perceptions of customers’ / communities’ needs and level of demand, sometimes with surprising results!
More than ever before, it’s vital to ensure that enterprise is accessible to a wider proportion of our populations and communities, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, age or religious creed. Having championed women’s and minority enterprise for many years, I am now still involved with developing policies and practices designed to increase participation in business and self-employment.
For years me and my partners have taken pride in advocating for enterprise policies and business support services that recognise the role and contribution of women’s enterprise, and BAME enterprise including me being a member of the national ministerial Ethnic Minority Enterprise Task Force reporting to Lord Peter Mandelson.
We have also contributed to gathering the lessons learned from targeting and delivering enterprise support to ‘non-traditional’ communities through more appropriate, accessible and transformational forms of publicly funded business support.
We can offer:
- Research into specific business support needs of particular communities or market segments, including women
- Support to Corporates and business support agencies wanting to become more effective in targeting and engaging with ‘non-traditional’ client groups, or communities
- Practical recommendations to support the development of appropriate enterprise policies, business support practices, and engagement strategies
Examples of Enterprise policy development work
- South East Development Agency (SEEDA): collation of women’s enterprise statistics for the in order to support the women’s economic inclusion and enterprise PR and policy agenda.
- Partner with Inclusion (formerly CESI): to review the skills, education and enterprise needs of BME communities for the East of England Development Agency (EEDA).
- South East Development Agency (SEEDA): Small-scale study into the business support practices of 6 Enterprise Gateways.
- East Midlands Development Agency (emda): with partners Aegis Associates (Debra Blisson) and Profs Monder Ram and Sara Carter researched the business support needs and experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic including a national and regional policy overview of women’s and minority ethnic business trends as well as lessons learned from international perspective.
- DTI / Small Business Service: coordinated, researched and authored ‘Investing in Success’ Phoenix Development Fund lessons learned project looking at specialist enterprise support to disadvantaged communities.
- DTI / Small Business Service: supporting the work of the Women’s Enterprise policy team and in support of the national WE Strategic Framework, including advocating WE to RDAs, the development of the WE Online Summit, the WE Task Force, BME Women in Enterprise project support.
- Prowess, women’s enterprise advocacy organization: strategy, policy and business development support; management of national consultations, research activities etc
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