Crisis

Ethical Enterprise
and Employment
(3xE) Network

Growing homeless
entrepreneurs
From practice to theory
and back again
2 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again

Contents

Definitions........................................................................................................ 4
Different models............................................................................................... 5
Benefits of incubators...................................................................................... 5
Key development issues ................................................................................. 6
Common problems ........................................................................................ 6
Relevance of incubators for homeless entrepreneurs ....................................... 7
Case studies................................................................................................... 8
Further resources ......................................................................................... 11

3xE Network: helping the homeless sector
establish social enterprises to help homeless
people access work and skills
The Ethical Enterprise and Employment
(3xE) Network is run by Crisis to bring
together organisations using social enterprise
and supported employment models, and
organisations working with unemployed people
who are homeless. 3xE works in partnership
with social enterprise infrastructure organisations
throughout England to improve take up of their
services by homelessness sector organisations.
3xE also funds a variety of support services
specially tailored to the needs of homelessness
sector organisations to enable them to start or
further develop social enterprises or supported
employment schemes. The 3xE Network is
funded by the Big Lottery Basis programme.
3
Infosheet
This is the first in a series of infosheets that
3xE is producing to capture and disseminate
learning from the Network. ‘Growing homeless
entrepreneurs’ is based on the learning and
experience gained from a series of visits to best
practice incubators and a seminar held by 3xE.
The overview has been produced by Adrian
Ashton, an expert on business incubators.
Many homelessness sector organisations have
grappled with clients’ difficulties in getting back to
work: setting up their own business is a flexible
option, but will they have the skills, confidence
and staying power needed? A business incubator
with support can provide just that.
4 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again

Growing homeless entrepreneurs

From practice to theory and back again
This overview of business incubators is based on a presentation by Adrian Ashton
(www.adrianashton.co.uk) at the EcoHub in Southend-on-Sea in July 2010 for 3xE.

Definitions
Incubators for enterprises are defined by UKBI, the national trade association for
business incubators as:

“providing SMEs and start-ups with the ideal location to

develop and grow their businesses, offering everything
from virtual support, rent-a-desk through to state of the art
laboratories and everything in between. They provide direct
access to hands-on intensive business support, access to
finance and expertise and to other entrepreneurs and suppliers
to really help businesses and entrepreneurs to grow – faster.”

They can therefore be seen to take many forms, but ultimately an incubator offers
a physical space and facilities from which an enterprise may begin to trade, and
non-physical support services to increase the success of the start-up enterprise:
advice, training and signposting. Through these non-physical services, incubators
often also support a number of additional enterprises which are not physically
housed within them.

Different models
In the main, incubators are modeled in one of
four ways:
1. ‘Hub and spoke’ - a central building exists which
offers all the core services available to tenants and
other enterprises using their non-physical services,
and is linked to a number of ‘satellite’ buildings.
These satellites will usually be unserviced, offer
smaller rooms, but share an IT network with
the ‘hub’ through internet, phone and possibly
video connections. They are most common in
remote, rural areas where it is impractical to offer
a fully-serviced facility in all conurbations due to
insufficient demand in each locality.
2. ‘Hybrid’ - incubators tend to be focused on
supporting a particular type of thematic enterprise,
for example young people or digital technologies.
A hybrid model deliberately sets out to ensure
a mixture of tenants and users of its services
to encourage the wider business community to
benefit from its services, rather than focusing
support on stimulating a single type of business
within it.
3. Integrated housing - while incubators have
traditionally focused on housing new enterprises
only, newer models are being created that offer
housing for workers as well (although Emmaus
communities have been offering work and
accommodation for many years). In recognising
5
that the distinction between work and home is
becoming blurred for many lifestyle entrepreneurs,
this model seeks to support entrepreneurs in a
‘whole person’ way through also supporting their
personal need for accommodation
4. ‘Piggy back’ - given the costs associated with
the development of incubator facilities, some are
developed within larger facilities. Such instances
include universities who, through refurbishment of
buildings, have begun to offer incubation to their
graduate entrepreneurs.
Benefits of incubators
Incubator facilities offer benefits to two main
groups – the individual entrepreneurs, and the
wider local economy:
For the individual entrepreneur, they gain access
to a supportive peer group of like minded people,
and become part of a community that offers them
access to various types of support. And research
shows that through this supportive environment,
their businesses are three times more likely to
succeed than they might have otherwise.
For the wider local economy, incubators have
been found to directly support an average of 30
enterprises, with a further 150 being supported
through their associated services, and that
through the support to these businesses 167
full-time jobs are created and sustained.
Above left: Social Enterprise Coalition, image:
Steve Forrest
Above right: Farming For All
6 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again
Key development issues
In developing incubator facilities, a number of
approaches can be taken depending on the type
of model being adopted. Regardless of model
though, there are two key issues to consider:
1) Ensuring that there will be a sustained interest
and demand for facilities and services being
offered into the future – this means understanding
not just the current needs of local businesses,
but their future needs and those of aspiring
entrepreneurs who are yet to develop and launch
their enterprises;
2) That there is sufficient interest and support
able to be offered by other agencies and
providers to the future tenants and users around
business support services.
Common problems
There are a number of challenges and problems
that incubators experience and it is useful to
know what these are before developing a new
facility to ensure that they can be accounted for
from the outset:
• Financing - not just raising the finance required
for the initial start-up costs of the facility, but
also supporting its cash-flow during periods
where tenancy rates (and therefore rental
incomes) may be low, to allow for discounts to
be offered to incoming enterprises, to support
salary and maintenance costs and so on;
• ‘Move on’ - the premise of any incubator is
that it supports an enterprise to form, grow,
but that the enterprise then ultimately ‘moves
on’ having been nurtured and able to support
itself, so that others may benefit from the
facility. However, due to the supportive culture
and environment of incubators, many tenants
are reluctant to move out;
• Common areas - incubators have a number
of shared facilities including kitchen space
and it is usually around how different tenants
use (and leave) these facilities that causes the
most problems; and,
• Access and infrastructure - it should be borne in
mind that not all entrepreneurs will be able, or want
to, drive. There should therefore be adequate
access to public transport links as well as parking
facilities for those that do wish to.

Relevance of incubators for
homeless entrepreneurs
Given the above, incubator facilities can be seen
to potentially offer a number of significant benefits
to homeless entrepreneurs:
• A dedicated space to focus the mind - hostels
and other temporary accommodation are
usually full of distractions and offer limited
storage facilities that may be needed by a
start-up enterprise.
• Flexible terms and support all in one place -
homeless support agencies are usually
fragmented by location and difficult to access
outside of pre-arranged times: having business
support services available on-site through the
incubator encourages entrepreneurs by their
having access to help ‘on tap’.
7
• Supportive peer network - from like minded
entrepreneurs who all wish to see each other
succeed and not be satisfied with simply
maintaining the ‘status quo’ of their life and
situation.
• Challenge perceptions about homeless
entrepreneurs through having a mix of
tenants - there is often a great stigma attached
to being homeless and offering a public
space that allows homeless entrepreneurs
to showcase themselves to the wider
business community (fellow tenants and
other users of services) will go a long way
to challenge others’ perceptions about the
abilities of people who are homeless.
Opposite left: Manchester Ceramics;
opposite right: Open Cinema
Above left: Create Leeds, image: Mark Skeet;
above right: Emmaus
8 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again
Case Studies
St Mungos
St Mungo’s offers a range of services to homeless
people, including advice on setting up and running
a business. However, the organisation recognised
that once back in the hostel or at home there was
little support to help people build their business.
They were missing opportunities to network with
other businesses and were restricted by a lack of
storage space or room to be creative.
One solution was to develop a space which
people could work out of to build an enterprise.
St Mungo’s had un-used space in its basement,
which with the help of volunteers was transformed
into a suitable workspace.
The first residents were Squeaky Chains, a social
enterprise set up in October 2009 to repair old
bikes to sell. The space is provided free of charge,
and in return Squeaky Chains provide one day of
training to clients each week. St Mungo’s provides
business support when requested, but the project
leader is given independence to pursue his ideas
and establish rules for his volunteers and trainees.
For St Mungo’s this is an important part of what the
business incubator offers: to demonstrate trust in
individuals and encourage independence.
Other groups have since set up within the space,
on a full or part-time basis dependent on their
needs. The centre aims to provide an opportunity
for anybody tackling homelessness and to
encourage a mix of individuals, projects and skills
so that people can learn from each other.
There are undeniably challenges. The cost of
renting in London is high and the more successful
the centre is the more space will be needed. The
centre is only open on weekdays, which limits
access to workshops and storage.
However, the space offers a secure, supportive
and productive working environment. In its
first year of operation Squeaky Chains trained
in bike maintenance ten people affected by
homelessness, many of who had no interest
in bikes before. Two have gone into related
employment, three have achieved City and Guild
qualifications and others continue to volunteer in
the workshop training new recruits.
The aim is to continue to build the centre to offer
space to more businesses and social enterprises.
Contact details
Colin Vint,
Business Start-Up Coach.
Tel 020 7902 7951
Email colin.vint@mungos.org
 9

Pop-up Business Incubator: Aspirations
In 2004, Aspire Support UK was launched to
support the network of social enterprises working
under the Aspire name. It became a registered
charity in 2006 and is now exploring and
developing new opportunities for spreading and
embedding the core Aspire model of transforming
lives through enterprise and employment. Aspire
Support UK became Aspire Foundation in 2008.
The pilot programme has attracted over 20
people, 17 of whom have graduated the course,
keen to carry on with their business idea. They
will continue to receive mentoring from Aspire’s
Business Development Manager. The Pop-up
Business Incubator will be repeated as and
where needed.

The charity hopes to help homeless and

disadvantaged people start their own successful
businesses. Working with a network of the
capital’s homeless charities, Aspire Foundation Contact details
runs a series of courses in business development Paul Funnell
around London. Business Development Manager
Tel: 0207 921 4448
Successful entrepreneurs with real life experience Email: paul@aspire-foundation.com
of starting and running a business present six
day-workshops on: researching your market,
raising money to start your business, where to
run your business from, starting up legally (red
tape), who to ask for help, information, finance
and support, business planning, sales and
marketing alongside managing the risks.

Opposite: Squeaky Chains workshop

at St Mungo’s
Above: Aspire Foundation
10 Growing homeless entrepreneurs - From practice to theory and back again
Wandsworth Youth Enterprise
Since 1988 Wandsworth Youth Enterprise
Centre (WYEC), based in Tooting, London, has
been supporting young people aged 17-30
to develop business ideas and start up their
own businesses. Their mission is ‘to increase
economic activity and promote entrepreneurial
behaviour among young people within
disadvantaged communities’.
WYEC’s is a four step model which begins
with the Business Launchpad, an outreach
project that uses a range of methods to engage
young people onto their business training and
counselling programme. The next stage is for
those who are interested in setting up a business
to attend an interactive, introductory workshop.
At step three those who have decided to stay on
to explore setting up a business, become clients
and receive one-to-one assessment.
WYEC then offers a programme for young
entrepreneurs to support them in the first two
years of running and establishing a new business,
including a business counselling service, skills
workshops, training courses and managed
workspaces. The centre has developed a £2.7
million business centre in Tooting to provide
income for the charity’s work and to provide
move-on space for young people moving from
WYEC’s incubator space.
Since being established WYEC has supported
over 5,000 young people and seen more than
500 businesses started. The centre has a high
survival rate of young businesses with 85-90
per cent trading after two years.
Contact details
Wandsworth Youth Enterprise Centre
Trident Business Centre
89 Bickersteth Road
London, SW17 9SH
Toyin Dania,
Business Counselling and Training Manager
Tel: 020 8516 7700
Email: toyin@wyec.org.uk
Website: www.wyec.org.uk
 11

Further resources
www.crisis.org.uk/3xE Online
• Find details of how to apply for FREE 3xE • UKBI - www.ukbi.co.uk
Membership and FREE 3xE services • Development Trusts Association -
• Find 3xE Members’ Directory www.dta.org.uk
• Read case studies of homeless social • Asset Transfer Unit - www.atu.org.uk
enterprises and learn the lessons of their • Workhubs Network - www.workhubs.com
experience
• Find policy documents about social enterprise Find help in your region from regional
• Find business planning guidance and tools social enterprise infrastructure bodies:
• Add your product or service to the supply- • North East www.nesep.co.uk
chain pages • South East www.se2partnership.co.uk
• Find links to other helpful sites • West Midlands www.socialenterprisewm.org.uk
• East of England www.seee.co.uk
Other • East Midlands www.seem.uk.net
• CAN Guide: How to Mezzanine • South West www.rise-sw.co.uk
• Cluster Policy: Issues for Social Enterprise, • Yorkshire & Humberside www.seyh.org.uk
Bob Allan • North West www.sen.org.uk/about-sen/senw
• Benchmarking Framework for Business • London www.sel.org.uk
Incubation, 2003, UKBI
• Feasibility study for a regional flagship
incubator in Cambridge for Co-operative and
Social Enterprises, 2003, Adrian Ashton
• Research report on establishing a dedicated
Community Enterprise incubator in
Cambridgeshire, 2003, Adrian Ashton
• Mosques on stilts, rhubarb plantations,
and time share printing presses – Future
opportunities and needs for workspace in
Burnley, 2007, Adrian Ashton
• Workhubs – smart work spaces for a low
carbon economy, 2010, Workhubs Network
For further copies of this
document, contact:

3xE Network
Crisis
66 Commercial Street
London, E1 6LT
Tel 020 7426 8500
Email 3xE@crisis.org.uk
www.crisis.org.uk/3xe

Registered Charity Numbers:

E&W1082947, SC040094.