So – in a few weeks time, #SocialSaturday will be kicking
off: one Saturday in September that’s been hijacked to showcase, celebrate,
and generally let everyone know how great social enterprises are, and to
encourage everyone to do more trade with them.
Good idea? Possibly...
You see, while in theory I like the idea, other sectors have
been doing this type of thing for some time already: international charity day,
Manufacturing Day, national freelancers day, and so on... heck, some sectors are so
expansive in the scope and range of their constituent organisations, they have a whole fortnight!
And all of them tend to take place during a weekday – a day
when people are in their places of work; in roles where they can immediately
start to influence and reflect on their workplace behaviours and practices, and
are in a mind-set of being open to new ideas.
But fast-forward to the weekend: most people tend to want to
relax, enjoy time with family, pursue personal interests – not be recipients of
campaign activity designed to get them to change their spending and business habits.
And by staging this day on a weekend, it sends a message that social
enterprises are only really active in those businesses whose main trade is at
weekends: retail, consumer goods, tourism – and that makes it harder to
showcase those involved in manufacturing and construction, investment and
finance, healthcare and education, public services, employment support, public transport, and so
on...
I’m concerned that by staging the showcasing of social
enterprise on a weekend, a lot of the wider sector will miss out on the opportunity
to be seen and to show how vibrant and full of potential the sector is in all
parts of our economy and society, leading many to assume that the sector is
mainly about high street stores that are trying to do things a little
differently (rather than enacting what many see to be a revolutionary business model) by not bringing it into everyday workplaces.
But as with all things I take a view on, I’m very open to be
proved wrong on this (and hope I am...)
I must admit that when I was approached about taking part in social enterprise Saturday my immediate thought was 'on a Saturday? No chance'.
ReplyDeleteI, along with my fellow social entrepreneurs, work hard and that inevitably carries forward into the weekend sometimes - especially for those providing care and support services, after all people don't limit their addictions or homelessness to the working week - but I do still feel that for those of us that do work a Mon - Fri, the weekend is sacred. I'm not sure that setting up a stall in a hall on a Saturday afternoon is going to help my business in anyway because my core service is B2B and I suspect I'd only be promoting myself to the other social enterprises that already know me. So I'll be mainly showing my support via Twitter.
I must admit that when I was approached about taking part in social enterprise Saturday my immediate thought was 'on a Saturday? No chance'.
ReplyDeleteI, along with my fellow social entrepreneurs, work hard and that inevitably carries forward into the weekend sometimes - especially for those providing care and support services, after all people don't limit their addictions or homelessness to the working week - but I do still feel that for those of us that do work a Mon - Fri, the weekend is sacred. I'm not sure that setting up a stall in a hall on a Saturday afternoon is going to help my business in anyway because my core service is B2B and I suspect I'd only be promoting myself to the other social enterprises that already know me. So I'll be mainly showing my support via Twitter.
My guess is that the Social Saturday idea was developed by people for whom social enterprise represents a voluntary activity in your community (maybe at the second home in the Oxfordshire countryside?) undertaken for an hour or two at weekends after a busy week at work doing a proper job.
ReplyDelete