Book on creating social enterprises launches
Melanie May | 23 March 2023 | News
Social entrepreneur Patrick Nash is sharing his experiences in a newly published book: Creating Social Enterprise.
Over 40 years, Nash started up, grown and led 12 social enterprises, including businesses, charities and worker cooperatives. The book tells of his four main enterprises that have made a positive impact on the lives of people and the environment.
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These are:
- A workers’ cooperative in emerging vegetarian food industry of the early 1980s
- Building an ecological village in Scotland
- Creating a UK-wide counselling service for schools and teachers
- A job-creating and life-affirming enterprise in South Wales that provides support to people struggling with mental health, poverty, debt and more
The book is the story of these enterprises, with Nash sharing stories of highs and lows, mistakes and accidents, as well as how to make great working relationships and how to leave a sustainable enterprise.
In it, he draws out over 40 key learnings including how to innovate, manage conflicts, encourage people, stay financially solvent, lead with empathy and most of all, change the world and the lives of others.
Commenting, Nash said:
“I became a social entrepreneur in 1980, aged 22. This book is my story of life as a social entrepreneur. It’s a tale of highs and lows from rapid growth to financial cliff edges. I share mistakes and accidents, successes and failures, risks taken and what happened as a result.
“I have written this as a story which I hope readers find engaging and entertaining and interesting. The narrative is peppered with some of the most useful learnings I made along the way. It’s a story I wrote to be enjoyed by anyone, not just social entrepreneurs, and I hope that it may inspire others to work for a social enterprise or even start one up.”
More information can be found on Nash’s site.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.