Social Firms Scotland was constituted in May 2000 as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. It was born out of a recognition that if Social Firms were to develop they required a landscape that understood and supported the concept. An organisation was required that provided a voice for the sector, that would be a pioneer and would begin to pull together people’s understanding and give a focus to people’s efforts.
We didn’t have many resources (one person with laptop) and we didn’t have that many tools or experience. But we did have a vision – to see more Social Firms up and running and more people moving into work as a result.
When we started very few people really knew what a Social Firm was, social enterprise was just beginning to be a term that was heard down south and other agencies were yet to come into being. We decided to focus on raising awareness. However people started to ask us more and more for direct development support – “how do you do this? Where do you get ideas from? How do you know that ideas will work? How do you write a business plan?”, etc.
Therefore we began delivering direct business development support and capacity building. We have worked intensively with many Social Firms in the past 6 years and gained a lot in relation to knowledge and experience that we have consistently given back to others wishing to start up Social Firms.
In the last year as more business development support has developed in the sector, Social Firms Scotland have begun focusing on more strategic projects that will grow the sector such as acquisition of businesses. Click here for more information on our latest developments.
