A number of years ago I was visited by “an angry mum”, sent to see me to work out how best to complain about the lack of services for her disabled daughter. That’s how I met the fabulous Anita. At the end of our meeting I found myself asking “so why don’t you set up something yourself?”
Approach
There followed a few meetings where we talked through how she could go about it. When I asked her to do a business plan she said, “I don’t know how to do a business plan, I’m just an angry Mum”. I sent her 4 questions to answer about what she could do and, when she had replied, explained to her that she had just prepared her first business plan.
After a few more conversations, I suggested that Anita apply for our School for Social Entrepreneurs programme.
Results
Anita completed the SSE programme. She now runs Lily & Lime and has a number of cafes running in the Portsmouth area. Her staff are people with learning difficulties. They don’t just have a job, they receive training and have personal development plans & goals. Anita encourages them to be ambitious in their lives.
Other areas are approaching Anita to set up Lily & Lime cafes. However, Anita is also busy developing a training academy and a cleaning company. She still checks in with me on a regular basis and I still wonder at what “just an angry Mum” is achieving.
