Kate Welch: resilience, sustainability and social enterprise success

Kate Welch is founder and CEO of Social Enterprise Acumen, a community interest company (CIC) which supports social entrepreneurs to develop their concepts or grow their businesses.She joined me for an extensive radio interview on this morning's show – and the podcast is below. It's crammed with great advice for leaders of businesses and social enterprises.Kate covers:Acumen's work and the most common challenges Kate and her team help clients to solvebalancing the delivery of public sector contracts with the need for positive cashflowsocial investment: do impact investors understand social enterprises' needs?the vital importance of developing resilience for social entrepreneurs, including advice on separating problems from solutionspublic recognition and awards (Kate's been awarded the MBE for services to social enterprise and the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion) – do they help?the difference between budgeting with wishful thinking and realistic financial planning covering best and worst case scenariostips on how to decide whether to bid for contracts, and if you do, how to put together an excellent bidher voluntary work with Girl Guiding and some of the skills and aptitudes this organisation develops in girls and young women (did you know girl guides are incredible sales people?)her long-held love for Sheffield having spent time studying physics at University in the cityTimings:0 - 8:13 introduction and updates, including Sheffield's free city wi-fi which went live this week, on World Wi-Fi Day; report finds young entrepreneurs choosing social impact as their top business priority; the UK Social Enterprise Awards are open for entries; so are the Sheffield Business Awards and the Barnsley and Rotherham Business Awards,8:13 - 43:44 Kate Welch,43:44 - (47:24) wrapping up.