The Touchwood Project

[Update: Well, RBS has turned us down. It's not a complete surprise, but it would have been nice if it hadn't taken 4 weeks to find out.

So now we're on to Social Investment Scotland, who offer loans only to social enterprises in Scotland who have been turned down by commercial banks. We've sent our business plan and financial projections, and filled out a pretty comprehensive application form. So here's hoping!]

Tomorrow we meet with our business loan manager, Bill. I’ve spent the last few hours going through the business plan doing a spit and polish so it shines so brightly Bill can’t wait to lend us £12,000.

The money is essentially to see Malcolm and myself through the next 6 months until we can start earning money from Touchwood.

The nightmare in starting up a social enterprise is that grant bodies hate paying you for your time. They love to give you money to buy buildings or pay other people to give their expert opinions, but they seem to feel it’s a waste to pay you to do all the work needed to start the thing off properly. Hence the loan.

We can’t make Touchwood happen in our spare time — it’s a full-on commitment from both of us and we squeeze everything else around it, from Malcolm’s tours and courses for Five Senses, to my web design projects. We’ve been paying for most things out of our own pocket these past four months, but now it’s time to get serious.

I’m nervous. Partly because our application form was sadly barren of anything like an asset. We don’t own our home or any other property, and the income tally didn’t look very impressive. Still, no debts either, and how many people can say that?

If RBS turns us down, we’ll be going to Social Investment Scotland, who lend money to social enterprises that can’t get commercial loans. Nice to have a backup plan.

Tags: social enterprise

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