Social enterprises and charities using a mentoring service connecting them with acclaimed business experts have reported significant increases in turnover and job creation. The social entrepreneurs reported an average increase in turnover of 19%, and an average of 1.3 jobs created.

Kendra Walsh, Director of Expert Impact said:

The figures show that the advice that social entrepreneurs are getting from the Human Lending Library is working; it is giving them the confidence to adjust strategy, grow and do more. Revenues are increasing and jobs are being created, resulting in stable social enterprises and charities creating more social impact,

Colin Hegarty of maths e-learning service Hegarty Maths grew his staff and revenue after meeting Expert Richard Skaife. Three years after starting the social enterprise, Hegarty was stil continuing to do the majority of the sales work himself.

Richard helped me redirect my energies, making me realise that my job is to action change and think strategically. I found him very inspiring. He made me come out of the weeds and think ‘big picture’. It helped me get in the right frame of mind to make some big partnerships and big hiring changes,

Founders or CEOs of organisations can “borrow” one of more than 70 business experts, for free, for mentoring on a wide spectrum of leadership challenges including investment, business development and strategy. More than 240 charity and social enterprise leaders have used the service to date.

Social entrepreneurs are matched to experts according to the particular business challenge they want to address.

Image credit: Colin Hegarty from Hegarty Maths