A community of entrepreneurs using their considerable skills to make a difference to society

DO SMITH is a not-for-profit company, which harnesses the talents of successful entrepreneurs to help social enterprises achieve commercial success, generating more profit to invest in their social goals.

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs:

Use imagination, initiative, energy and drive to create and build a business. Enjoy confronting problems and coming up with solutions.

How does DO SMITH work?

How will DO SMITH benefit entrepreneurs?

What do I do if I’m interested in contributing?

More about entrepreneurs
Enterprises

Social enterprises:

Use profit from commercial activities to improve part of society. Need commercial ‘nous’ to be able to achieve their social goals.

How does DO SMITH work?

How will DO SMITH benefit social enterprises?

What do I do to get help from DO SMITH?

More about social enterprises

Latest from DO SMITH

DO SMITH event postponed

Posted on April 12, 2012 by antony

We’ve had some news from DEKI which means we are going to have to cancel the next DO SMITH event which was pencilled in for 18 April.  We’d like to pass our apologies to everyone who was looking forward to attending the event; we’re as disappointed as you are.

Strangely, this cancellation is actually the result of good news.  DEKI, the social enterprise who were to be the subject of the next event, have suddenly had great news regarding major funding and are now in a period of rapid development to focus on this opportunity.  We can’t pass any more details than this at the moment but we’ll update everyone as soon as we can.

As DEKI’s issues have now changed from those identified for the DO SMITH event and a major change is in process, Vashti (DEKI’s founder) agreed that it would be best to return to DO SMITH once things have settled down.

We’ve already started work identifying an alternative social enterprise and pulling a new case study together and will let you know as soon as we have more details of when the event with a new social enterprise will go ahead.

I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing DEKI every success with their great new opportunity.

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We have become a membership organisation

Posted on March 14, 2012 by steve

So, this community of ours has agreed we should become a membership organisation.

The small monthly membership fee is a crucial contribution towards our running costs, though Antony and I are happy for F-works to continue to provide a financial contribution.  And we will continue to devote whatever time is necessary to make DO SMITH a big success, though as you’ll see from previous posts, we’re not alone in doing this.  Many other people are giving their time and expertise for free to make our events a success.  However, we owe Alison Larkman of Internal Workings a big and special ‘thank-you’ for the HUGE amount of time and effort she is putting into getting processes in place, and people in the right place.

In becoming a membership organisation we have had to define what we are looking for in a member and it’s this: experience of building or managing a business and a preparedness to share hard-earned knowledge and commercial know-how, and a few precious hours to help a social enterprise.  Is that you?

I should point out, providing you’re eligible to become a member, we’re happy for you to come to a couple of our events before deciding whether or not you would like to join.

If you feel you have the know-how and are prepared to do a little to have a lot of impact on your community, please get in touch.

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BIG DO event – 29 February

Posted on March 7, 2012 by antony

We held our first ‘BIG DO’ event on Wednesday 29 February at Source in St Nick’s market in Bristol.

Instead of our normal format (the ‘SMALL DO’) where two small teams work hard to come up with suggestions and an action plan to help a social enterprise, this was a more relaxed social event where a room full of entrepreneurs got to meet each other and people from the social enterprise world.

It was a good opportunity to take stock of where we’ve been and talk about where we’d like to take DO SMITH with the help of the entrepreneur community that is now behind us.

We heard from a social enterprise helped by DO SMITH in the past and from Vashti Seth, the founder of the Bristol based microfinance organisation Deki which supports entrepreneurs in the third world.  She gave us a flavour of the challenges facing them and we look forward to helping Deki who will be the subject of the next DO SMITH event on 18 April.

Thanks to everyone who came forward to be videoed.  We’re editing it now and will post it on the site as soon as it is ready.

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February 2012 DO SMITH event

Posted on February 24, 2012 by antony

The fourth DO SMITH event is this coming Wednesday (29 February 2012) and will be a different format to previous events.  Rather than a hands-on session working on solving problems in a single social enterprise, this will be an informal evening where we’ll explain a little about our activities and goals so people can form a view on how they may be able to contribute.  There’ll be plenty to eat and drink and, based on previous events, it will be an enjoyable few hours with like-minded business owners and social entrepreneurs.

We look forward to welcoming the following entrepreneurs:

Richard Arnott from Service Junkie

Kevin Broadley from Beef, ’Digital thinking and doing’.

Chris Brooker from iM Service Design.

Ed Brown and Griff Holland, co-owners of Friska Food.

Nick Ellis, Vern Edmonds and Rich Henderson from Halo Media.

Kate Gover from Lahloo Tea.

Ian Grimley from Roxburgh Milkins.

Mike Harvey from Amalgam, the model making group.

Glynn Hayward from Complete Control.

James Hutchins from James Chocolates.

Pete Kane from BD Consultancy.

Rob Law from Magmatic and Trunki.

Melissa Kidd from Coaching Creatives.

Sam Kotadia from Mindsport.

Sam Lacey from Gravity.

Clare Lindstrand from Dept. 707.

Ian Colquhoun from GDS.

Tony Marwick from Oakwood Design.

Matthew Morris from Desynit.

Mark Panay from Simpleweb.

Ian Robson from Robson Dowry.

Ian Rummels from PES.

Jonathan Salisbury from 100% Cotton.

John Spencer from The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company.

Tom Barnes from Barnes Graham.

Damian Connop from Goram and Vincent.

Gildas  Jones from Dial a Geek.

Nic Price from People Thinking.

Rob Buckland from Bristol Business News.

From the social enterprise world we have:

Mike and Liz Zeidler from Happy City.

Ben Hilton and Kirsten van den Hout from SOFA Project.

Elaine Flint and Julie Ellison, social enterprise experts from Social Enterprise Works.

Finally the team from DO SMITH who have helped to put it all together:

Alison Larkman, founder of Internal Workings.

Mick Dickinson from Buzzed Up.

James Lott from Working Knowledge.

Anna Clark and Stephanie Muir from Brandon Hill Communications

and last but not least Steve King and Antony Clark from F-works.

If you’d like to attend the next DO SMITH in April or have any questions please get in touch – yes@do-smith.co.uk

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DO SMITH onwards and upwards

Posted on February 23, 2012 by antony

Since the last DO SMITH event we’ve been pondering how to build on what we’ve achieved so far in bringing experienced and creative business people together to help social enterprises (and have some fun in the process).

We’ve decided we owe it to ourselves, everyone that has been involved so far and the many social social enterprises that haven’t been involved, to do our utmost to turn DO SMITH into a ‘bigger thing’. By ‘bigger thing’ we mean a larger community of like-minded business people helping more social enterprises, in a wider range of ways.

We will be relaunching DO SMITH at a social event on the evening of 29th February.

If you would like to be invited to this or future events please get in touch.

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Thank you to the team working on the DO SMITH relaunch

Posted on January 19, 2012 by antony

DO SMITH has been very popular and now that we have proven the concept a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes incorporating everything we have learnt into a relaunch.

We’d like to say a big thank you to the following who have kindly donated time to the project:

Alison Larkman from www.internalworkings.co.uk for her help with organisation and processes;

The team at www.brandonhill.co.uk for their PR expertise;

Mick Dickinson from www.buzzedup.co.uk for Social Media advice;

The team at www.thebdconsultancy.com who will be helping us communicate effectively.

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SOFA Project’s initial feedback on their DO SMITH event

Posted on May 22, 2011 by antony

Julian Williams from the social enterprise SOFA Project gives his feedback the day after their DO SMITH event. Visit their website www.sofaproject.org.uk to find out more about the great work that they do.

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What entrepreneurs thought of the 19 May DO SMITH event

Posted on May 22, 2011 by antony

Entrepreneurs Melissa Kidd, Alison Larkman and Clare Lindstrand talk about the DO SMITH event they attended on 19 May and it’s subject, the social enterprise SOFA Project.

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May 2011 DO SMITH event

Posted on May 17, 2011 by antony

The third DO SMITH event is this coming Thursday (19 May 2011) and we’re looking forward to helping the SOFA project (www.sofaproject.org.uk), an excellent Bristol-based social enterprise.

The entrepreneurs who have stepped forward to offer their experience are:

Charlie Stockford, MD of SustainIT Solutions, a leading software consultancy that help organisations establish Corporate Social Responsibility systems (www.sustainitsolutions.co.uk).

Clare Lindstrand, owner and MD of FOUR Design & Marketing and Dept707, marketing guru and entrepreneur (www.four-group.co.uk and www.dept707.co.uk).

Glynn Hayward, Creative Director, Complete Control, creators of imaginative online games (www.completecontrol.co.uk).

Jane Randle, MD of Data Driven Promotions.

Joe Wheatcroft, Director of Source Food Hall and Cafe in St Nick’s Market (www.source-food.co.uk).

Melissa Kidd, Owner of Coaching Creatives, helping professional business people become more effective and confident networkers (www.coachingcreatives.co.uk/).

Zoe Trevett, Designer at The Harmsen Group, specialists in sustainable interior building design for businesses (www.harmsen.co.uk/).

Rob Law who designed and launched the Trunki child’s ride-on suitcase and is now the MD of Magmatic, building on the success of Trunki with a range of travel products (http://www.trunki.co.uk/).

Alison Larkman, founder of Internal Workings, helping business owners develop teams and processes around them so they can work on moving it forward (www.internalworkings.co.uk).

The social enterprise, SOFA Project, will be represented by Julian Williams, Peter Jameson and Graham Papworth.

And, of course, we have and the DO SMITH team: Steve, Antony, James, Natalie and Joie (who’ll be arriving later).

If you’d like to attend the next DO SMITH event later this summer or have any questions please get in touch – yes@do-smith.co.uk

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FRANK Water talk about how DO SMITH helped them

Posted on March 3, 2011 by antony

Tom Alcott from the social enterprise FRANK Water talks about their DO SMITH event

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