Pictured: Heidi Harris
The number of entrepreneurs aiming to start their own community
interest companies (CICs) has trebled this year, according to a
Birmingham-based social enterprise.
Heidi Harris, founder and director of Harris & Harris
Accountancy Services, has received more than 250 enquiries this
year from people asking for expert financial advice on how to
establish a CIC. In 2010 she received just a third of this
figure.
CICs have existed since 2006 and are businesses whose primary
aim is to benefit the community, often through training young
people or reinvesting their profits into good causes.
Heidi attributed the boom to two trends - the ongoing public
sector job cuts and the fact that awareness of CICs has risen
dramatically in recent times.
"There's no doubt more people than ever are looking at how CICs
can deliver public services, which shows that people are being
entrepreneurial," she said.
"I believe the drivers have been, firstly, the redundancies from
the public sector - these people have plenty of expertise in
diverse areas and are seeing CICs as a great way to fill the gaps
in the markets - and, secondly, because the impact that social
enterprises and CICs are having is understood far more today.
"These two factors have combined to make 2011 the year of social
enterprise - and it's only going to get bigger."
Among the hundreds of enquiries received by Harris & Harris
this year, the two most popular queries related to setting up new
CICs to support youth services and work with
ex-offenders.
And there have been peaks and troughs in interest throughout
2011.
"We have seen a major rise in enquiries recently, towards the
end of the year, as people consider what their working plans will
be for the New Year," Heidi added.
"I anticipate another spike in February and March, as the
financial year ends and there is another wave of unemployment as
people's contracts finish. This will start people thinking about
setting up CICs afresh."
Harris & Harris reinvests its profits into the local
community through the charity Bloomsbury Cyber Junction and was the
UK's first accountancy firm to trade as a CIC.
One of Bloomsbury Cyber Junction's biggest successes has been
last year's launch of hair salon Bloomsbury Cutting Edge, which
provides training and employment opportunities to jobless young
people and has been supported by Harris & Harris
throughout.