As part of Ideas That Change Lives, we are offering you the opportunity to come to a series of free social business planning workshops to help you to develop your social enterprise idea.

The seven workshops will take place on Wednesday mornings, starting on the 1st of November, then taking place every Wednesday morning until 15th December. (We are also running a course on Monday evenings - you can find out about those here)

Each workshop will cover a key topic which you are likely to need to consider when setting up your social enterprise. 

We hope that by coming to the seven sessions, and by doing the work that we'll encourage you to do between the sessions, you will get a good idea as to whether your business idea has the potential to develop as a social enterprise.

The sessions tie in with the social business plan template which we've developed for Ideas That Change Lives - so coming along to the sessions should also help you to put together the business plan that you'll need to submit if you want to be considered for the £10,000 investment.

We'll tailor the sessions to the needs of the social entrepreneurs who sign up, but over seven weeks we are likely to cover:

1. Introductions - to eachother, to social enterprise, to social business planning
2. DIY market research
3. Setting social and financial objectives
4. Developing realistic financial projections
5. Legal issues - including legal structures
6. Marketing
7. Measuring your social impact

We will give priority to people who wish to attend all of the sessions.  If you don't want to come to all of the sessions, please sign up and let us know which ones you'd like to come to - and then if there's space, we'll let you know.

We intend to run the workshops at our offices in Dock Street in Leeds.  You can see a map on the right.  There is no parking at the office - but there are car parks nearby.  We are also only ten minutes from Leeds Bus Station and Leeds Train Station. 

We'll provide refreshments on arrival - but won't be providing lunch at the end.  There are plenty of places nearby if you'd like to eat and continue conversations after each session.

If the workshops are oversubscribed, we'll move to a different venue in the centre of Leeds - and obviously give you plenty of notice!

And finally, if you are working with someone else on developing your idea, you're welcome to bring them along too. 

Any questions - just get in touch with Rob, Gill or Jo on 0113 318 8685 or info@ideasthatchangelives.org.uk