Four Top Steps for a Start Up Enterprise
How does a business plan make gardening bloom all over Bendigo? Having a plan, investing into training and development and building great partners have been essential elements for Sara Hill’s start up enterprise Go & Grow. Her idea has recently been backed by the ING Dreamstarter program, selected to receive $7,800 matched crowd funding.
This year Sara graduated from Social Change 101 School for Social Entrepreneurs in Bendigo. She is now a director of a start up enterprise that is growing and gathering momentum. We are all so extremely proud of her work here at Make a Change.
“I started with a general idea that I wanted to help local the local community, so I started volunteering in gardens”. All her gardening work got Sara thinking about the ways setting up a social enterprise can make community gardening happen. Her enterprise has a number of elements that result in both commercial and social outcomes.
Go and Grow is the social enterprise that builds eco recycled portable wikking beds. Her social venture networks backyard gardeners to help one another and coordinate food swapping. Grow 3556 is the not for profit that will be the foundation for organisations and individuals who have a passion for growing food within the community of Eaglehawk.
The SSE course was awesome for Sara to develop ideas and get a business plan together for her idea. “Taking this course made me focus on what I needed to do to achieve great outcomes and address things that I didn’t really want to look at like the financial and commercial aspect of setting up a social enterprise.”
Having partners involved in getting her enterprise off the ground made the project real and also was important part of attracting the support of ING. “Momentum really gathered when I started working with other people like FEO and Eaglehawk Community House. We set goals and their critical feedback helped me get through hurdles and make decisions.”
So how can you apply Sara’s practice to your start up?
1. Feel the pain and get a business plan
2. Feel the joy and work towards great partnerships
3. Commit to training and development.
Lastly grab hold of opportunities whey they arise! Sara was ready with her business plan, her partners and her skills to apply for investment. All that hard work certainly has paid off and has created the beginning of an amazing enterprise. Be inspired.
Contribute to the Go and Grow Start Some Good campaign.
Watch the building of a wikking bed protype
