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Gill tells us why
she grew up wanting to be a lorry driver and why she wants more
people to get into social enterprise
How did you get into social
enterprise?
I dropped out of the commercial world in 2002. I was a legal and financial advisor in a firm of
accountants thinking ‘there must be more to life than this’ and
there is!
I went to work in the voluntary sector
and was almost equally dissatisfied there because of a lack of
entrepreneurialism and accountability.
I became fed up with chasing ever
diminishing funding instead of doing my job. Then, an opportunity
presented itself to create a community-based business supporting
older and disabled people at home.
How does your enterprise work?
We provide domestic and support
services for older and disabled people living at home. We subsides
our charges to older and disabled people by charging everyone else,
including commercial clients, a higher hourly rate.
What are your ambitions for the
future?
To grow and diversify. A reasonably
immediate ambition is to persuade social services that we do a lot of
what they should do in a more efficient and cost effective manner and
to have them pay us for that.
What did you want to be when you
were growing up?
A lorry driver, like my dad!
“I want to inspire people like me who need to feel good about what they do as well as earn an income from it.”
What kind of person makes a good
social entrepreneur?
Someone who can mix solid business
skills with a genuine desire to make a positive difference, and/or
someone brave and energetic who needs little sleep!
What advice would you give to
budding social entrepreneurs?
Learn from the mistakes of others,
listen to a lot of advice, know that you can change the world and
never stop networking.
What are the best and worst parts of
your job?
The worst undoubtedly is paperwork. I
know I have to do it if I am to do my job properly, I just think I
should be doing my job, not filling in forms. The best is knowing
that what we do changes and improves people’s lives and knowing
that we have a business model which means we can continue to do this.
How do you feel about being an
ambassador?
I want people to understand what social
enterprise is, why it’s important, why they should support it, use
it, fund it, invest in it, contract with it, start it. I want to
inspire people like me who need to feel good about what they do as
well as earn an income from it.
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