Steve Gray

I get sick of hearing, "there are no jobs" or "there are no opportunities"... It's time to create a solution, a solution which can be duplicated and grown, a solution which can do more than help just one community, let's think bigger, better bolder.

So sit back and relax a little, while you read all this and get your head around it. Got that Mojito in hand, okay chill... "Once upon a time..." Nah let's skip that and get to the meat in the sandwich, (or the Tofu if you are vegan...)

Let's find business ideas and bring them to fruition, let's do it right, let's do it by caring, about people. Let's do it with a business model people can get involved in and enjoy what it has to offer. And now to the more serious bits... ;) The Vision... "To create sustainable enterprises with soul".

Making a positive difference in people's lives can be challenging, Imagine coming up with a solution that can have incredible impact, provide sustainable jobs, be duplicable, and serve the community.

Years ago I worked on a similar model, then a resource centre for business, then a website of free resources for business. It seemed a waste having all this information at my finger tips and not fully use it. I shared the idea with a few people, they went nuts about it and said  "You have to do this!" so here is the second stage in the process.

More than just a social enterprise, I think of it more as a 'melding' of the best of both a commercial and social enterprise. It will utilise a multi service co-operative enterprise model to give members deeper ownership of what happens,  The guidelines, mission, vision etc have taken three years of development to get it to this point.  Ideas have been looked at, concepts pushed about, revelations had, more research, more exploration and finally I have a structure and set of guidelines to move to the next level.

I have had incredible support from a range of business people, and have been encouraged to put enough guidelines in place to get this project happening on paper, now it's time to take action, I invite you to read further and assist in raising the funds to get the plan ready to go further!

These funds will be used to create a business plan out of the research and information gathered over 2+ years. This will mean the project can be one huge step closer to becoming a reality.

It's time to get on with making the information and early research come to life and get the business plan ready to go to the next level, then explore the development of the interim board, other funding and development options.

To develop the plan I will require other business and community professionals to become involved.

- With deeper knowledge on Cooperatives
- With experience in obtaining project funding (for future social enterprises)
- With business planning experience for the fiddly details :)
- With number crunching skills for the cashflow and finance