W2 Wins
September 10th, 2009
I was at City Hall again this morning, supporting W2 Community Media Arts Centre, representing BOB as my boss was off to the social venture institute.
Today was actually easy, it was all the time and effort people put in that got us to today. I joined the process about a year or so ago. I got involved through the Creative Industries Cluster. I got more involved during the writing of the social enterprise cafe business plan and the difficulty in securing the right to operate such a venture at Woodward’s. My employer was involved even earlier giving Irwin and Co one of their first grants, to hire a consultant to write the initial W2 business plan. Building Opportunities with Business will continue to be involved as we will help them hire and train local residents to work at the cafe. I’ll continue to be involved as I’m on the business advisory committee or whatever it is called.
W2 Cafe decision W2 Board Chair and parent Magnus Thyvold – DTES-style double-duty parenting and community service http://twitpic.com/h7icw
Update: The cafe did open. I went. I blogged and that at some later point the cafe and the rest of enterprise closed. Like a lot of things I put a lot of work into, it left me disappointed. It seems \more money was spent than was took in, a problem not uncommon but one that could have been avoided with more discipline and a greater willingness to say “no”.
If you’re an entrepreneur or considering starting a social enterprise I wrote some advice and collected some resources.
This entry was originaly posted on , it was last edited on and is filed under: Rambles and tagged: DTES, Social Enterprise, W2.
