So Hebridean Chocolate follows the path already trod by Touchwood, GREAN and Ness Soap. When is this ever going to end? These were important employers delivering good products and when they crash, vulnerable people become unemployed and the countless hours of volunteer effort and staff dedication disappears in a second. And though this handful of high-profile social enterprises has gone bust, HISEZ knows that there are many many more in the wings, hanging on to existence by the skin of their teeth. And soon some well-meaning institution will appoint a consultant to analyse these failures, suggest a strategy and arrange funding for ongoing research. But its not needed. All of those companies had experienced staff, well-motivated volunteers, good products and, to begin with, plenty of cash. But they all had one thing in common that led to their failure. They did not sell enough. Enough chocolate, enough furniture, enough textiles or enough soap. Simple as that. They all knew their overheads, and whether you are a private business or a social enterprise, you run a business by bringing in enough cash to cover your overheads. And in HISEZ, we reckon that the easiest way to bring in cash is to sell more. More chocolate, more furniture, more textiles and more soap. But the Enterprising Third Sector is choosy about the aspects of enterprise that it adopts; it has become used to the soft, polite end of business, and so we can get literally hundreds of people to go on courses about marketing, business planning and leadership. Hell, we can even get people to go on full cost recovery courses, whatever they are! But what we need are salespeople. People who believe in the product, who will visit hostile customers, who will take the rejection, and will get up fresh every day determined to knock on more new doors to find customers to buy that chocolate, that furniture, that textile and that soap. When you get to the level that Hebridean Chocolate and the others were at, you really cant ask funders for more grants. But surely its time that funders ask applicants for more salespeople. Click like if you think HISEZ should put on courses on selling.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 15:57:41 +0000
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