The Touchwood Project

It doesn’t look it yet, but below is the beginnings of the new Reinvention Sewing Lounge, one of our latest projects: Soon our tipi will be furnished with sheepskin rugs, a woodburning stove, and a cornucopia of fabrics and craft tools to transform the clothes you’ve got sitting in the back of your closet into hip bags, pillows and something new you’d love to wear. My favourite part: while… Read the rest of this article >>

Note: This is an older post I’m updating and re-posting because we decided to run the pilots this summer instead of last winter in 2009. One of the challenges in starting up a social enterprise is actually having something to show for months’ worth of effort. Since an eco-lodge will take some time to build, not to mention write a business plan, do a feasibility study, and consult with the community, we needed to… Read the rest of this article >>

This morning I started the day with a mug of lemon-flavoured green tea and a TED.com video about how to be a great leader. The point of this talk is basically that people follow your cause or buy your product because they believe what you believe. Simon Sinek goes through the successful example of the Wright Brothers who, he argues, succeeded because they believed in the power of flight to change the world and… Read the rest of this article >>

I’ve been having several people ask me what Touchwood is up to these days, so thought I’d write a quick post on my latest research project: how to get volunteers involved with Touchwood and make sure they have a great time. Since I only have a little experience with managing volunteers from back in the days when I ran a door-to-door environmental campaign, I’ve been looking for advice from Getting It Done:… Read the rest of this article >>

I’m still on a high from yesterday, when the 4th of July saw our Board declare independence from boring, endless, I’m-losing-the-will-to-live meetings and I thought I’d share some of the tips we learned on how to transform meetings from the ones where you feel utterly drained and bored to ones that leave you full of energy and excitement (really). Our challenge was to sit down and at long last come up with a… Read the rest of this article >>

Malcolm and I attended a free course run by the Scottish Social Enterprise Academy called “Prove, Improve and Account: Social Accounting” last Wed and Thurs and learned some good stuff that could help you and your social enterprise with funding and motivation. What is social accounting? The idea is to measure your organisation’s performance in 3 areas: social impact environmental impact economic impact… Read the rest of this article >>

If you’re a social enterprise — business with a social purpose whose profits go entirely towards that purpose — in the UK, then you might want to think about becoming a Community Interest Company. What is a CIC? Community interest companies (“CICs”) are a new form of limited company set up by the UK government which may be able to help you get more funding, advice and trust from your community and potential… Read the rest of this article >>

I’ve been learning to let go of my perfectionist, controlling tendencies and trying instead to be still, be present, be okay with not knowing what will happen. It all came about courtesy of several humbling blows. We didn’t get the loan from RBS, then Social Investment Scotland turned us down. Then we couldn’t find any grant funding that would actually pay us to keep working. It felt like we were just hitting… Read the rest of this article >>

This evening I’m working on the “Vision, Mission, Objectives” part of the business plan. I discovered I had actually taken out our vision in the most recent version of the plan, I think because I felt a bit bashful about wearing my heart so openly on my sleeve. What’s a vision and why should we have one? As Social Business Consulting explains in their post about Vision and Mission: Writing your vision is your… Read the rest of this article >>

Mr. Calcifer Touchwood. That would be the name of my business if he (and for some reason, he’s definitely a “he”) were a person. Let me explain. I came to this by reading the blog for social enterprises by Rob Greenland of Social Business Consulting, based in Leeds. Steadily working on the business plan, I thought it’d be fun to do some more thinking about how we want our guests to feel when they come to… Read the rest of this article >>