the impact of a pandemic on the impact we create

Some of you reading this will be aware that for the last 15 years, I've annually published an 'impact report' on my activities as a sole trader/freelancer - and each time I do, I try and pause to reflect here on some aspect of it that's particularly struck me.

Most businesses, charities, and social enterprises who are currently talking about the impact they've created through the pandemic, successive lock-downs, and the disruption to communities and people's lives over the last year, seem to be largely focussing on what they've done over this last year. Which is fine and proper, but it doesn't help us fully understand the wider, longer-term impacts of the pandemic on how we try and achieve our respective missions - only what our immediate responses to it have been.

But I've been using a consistent framework and measures in how I monitor, report, and reflect on, my impact for over a decade. That means that this year's impact report has allowed me to better explore just how far the disruption to how we work, think, and feel, has truly had on my practices - and as such, I'm better able to consider what changes I might need to introduce as we emerge into our brave new vaccinated world (and which I can politely pass on).

Spoiler alert: it seems the pandemic has had little (or as expected) effect on the metrics I use to capture the impacts I create across different themes.

But what I do find of particular note is:

tax paid: it's been already shown by others that in being self-employed, I already pay proportionately more tax on my income than my counterparts both on payrolls, and those taking their earnings as company Directors. But this year, the amount of tax I've paid has significantly increased - and tracking this back into the data shows that it's because I was fortunate to be eligible for some of the government's coronavirus business support schemes: but that support I received to help me sustain my business (and family) was always going to be subject to being taxed - so although it may have initially seemed I could have breathed a sign of relief when HMRC said I was eligible to apply for SEISS, I always knew that there'd be at least one painful sting in the tail associated with it...

grace: in my last impact report, I'd started to capture and monetise my 'grace': the amount of lost earnings I'd suffered due to people either forgetting that we had arranged to speak/meet, or cancelling training sessions with only a days' notice (with no recourse for me to claim any late cancellation fee). Perhaps the most distressing part of this year's impact report is not that this figure hasn't changed, it's that if anything, its actually increased. Which means that the respect we're showing each other in making sure we turn up (or phone in/log on) when we've agreed to, or at the very least, sending apologies in good time if we know we can't, is on the wane...

But there's lots of other things in this years report. It now runs to 11 pages, with 12 indicators, 3 charts, 3 tables, and a slew of summary case studies and testimonials - in the first year I created it, covering the year 2006-7, it only had 3 numbers and was a footnote in my corporate CV!

And you can view it in all it's glorious technicolour and images, here.

Therefore, please do take a look through it - I'd be keen to hear what strikes you about it as being of particular interest in help me better understand it myself, and to therefore continue to create as much positive impact as I can into the future.

"we're going to sack our accountant and swear more..."

I had the pleasure this afternoon of spending time with the soon-to-be-graduating cohort of the School for Social Entrepreneurs North West's #scaleup programme - over the last year, this group of social entrepreneurs and social enterprise leaders have been exploring how they might best grow their respective ventures to create even more transformative impact in their local communities.

I'd structured my session with them to be largely open so as to offer anything that they might still need to learn with regards to specific pieces of information, contacts, and suggesting approaches to issues that they might not have considered before (including encouraging them all to watch Yes, Minister!). But principally I wanted to help them to formally reflect with each other on what they'd got out of being part of #scaleup, and what they'd be taking from it as they entered the next stages of their respective journeys, both personally and as an enterprise.

Many took the time to personally thank me as they left the session (always a good sign!), but what I felt was most useful from the session from my perspective was asking them all to share what one thing they'd now learnt that they didn't know when they woke up this morning, or one thing that they'd now do as a result of the day. This helps me understand the impact I've had, and while some of their responses were encouraging, I can't help wondering if I may have (accidentally) gone too far with some of them...

• we're going to find a social investor
• we're going to apply to Power to Change
• I'm going to start claiming more allowable expenses from HMRC (specially in relation to mileage rates for bicycles)
• we're going to change our accountant
• we're going to apply for Social Enterprise Investment Scheme tax relief
• we're going to apply for membership of Locality
• we're going to make changes to our financial management
• I'm going to eat more salad
• I'm going to go 'back to basics'
• I'm going to swear more

What social entrepreneurs personally gained from being part of the programme

How social enterprises have benefitted from being part of the programme

trains cause epic fail for Govt cycling initiative...

so - earlier this summer lots of people (including me!) got excited to hear about our Government wanting to encourage more of us onto our bicycles and investing nearly £80m to back up the rhetoric!

sadly, at the same time Northern Rail seem to be doubling their efforts to actively discourage cycling...

Anyone trying to board a Northern Rail service (at any time) with a bicycle will know how hit and miss it is as to whether there'll actually be a bike rack on a carriage, and if there is, if there'll be space to squeeze another frame in. But Northern seem to have now gone one better and seem to be actively discriminating against cyclists: they're about to close a tunnel for maintenance works for 5 months during the upcoming winter period, and during this time have arranged a replacement bus service between affected stations.

Now, any cyclist will know that replacement bus services can sometimes struggle with any passenger carrying more than a shoulder bag... so I made enquires at my local station office in Todmorden and was assured that pushchairs and wheelchair users would be accommodated, but that they were unsure about bicycles.

So, a few emails to Northern Rail customer services later, and I've been told that there will be no provision made for 'non-folding bicycles' - this means that if you're travelling by train with your bike, you'll need to cycle the 15 miles between stations yourself, in winter, and having done it myself (once!), you'll need to give yourself at least an extra hour and a half and be in really good shape to cope with the inclines...

Of course - the folding bicycles refer only to the brompton-style commuter bikes, and lovely as these are, not many people in the valleys have them as their wheels are too small to be able to cope with the hills in these parts.

So - for the next 5 months, I'll be forced to use a car for travel, as Northern Rail have failed to make provision for me as a passenger with a bicycle, while every other group of passenger will be catered for.

No wonder they've their own hashtag on twitter: #northernfail

a taxing question for social impact reporting

Some of you will be aware that I recently made my debut appearance on the stage of the Comedy Store in Manchester - sadly not to tickle peoples’ funny bones (well, not purposefully), but to speak at the national Social Impact Awards. And as part of my encouragement and challenge to the participants, I took the opportunity to share and publish my annual social accounts for 2012/3 (don’t worry, if you weren’t there - they’re on line now).

The reasons why I’ve committed myself to this annual report on my social impact / value / achievements are written about elsewhere, but I wanted to share the reasoning why I’ve decided to start monetising one of my measures - specifically the cash value of the pro bono support I offer.

Like many other businesses that offer professional services, I offer some of my support on a pro bono basis because, well, because it’s the right thing to do: why should people be denied support and advice on the basis that they’re not in a position to be able to pay for it (or have it paid for)?

For the last 2 years, I’ve struggled with if I should track the extent of my pro bono work, and if so, for what reason - after all, as a freelancer I only have so many resources I can devote to monitoring and evaluation so I need to know that there’s a valid benefit from what I invest resources in measuring and reporting against.

And I’ve decided that I should measure it - to help me reflect on how much support I am able to offer to people who would otherwise ‘go without’, and to make sure that I’m keeping this in balance with my need to make sure that I’m still earning enough to pay the bills. Given that this pro bono can take many forms, but all are based around time, I decided that the best way to track this would be by monetising it. That then raised the question of what should I use as my proxy value? After all, different services can attract different fees and what I charge can vary according to client … so in trying to keep it simple and transparent, I’ve taken a national proxy from a survey of other consultant’s fees.

It’s too soon to say what the effect of this new measure in my social accounts will be in how they (and I) are subsequently received and perceived, but I’m already considering another indicator - that of tax.

Private businesses are facing increasing demands for transparency in their tax affairs, and I realise that my current measures don’t have anything that allows me to reflect on the extent of my impact on wider society (I’ve already got the local economy, environment, and 3^rd sector covered). The proportion of my sales that are subsequently paid in taxes seems to therefore be a simple and effective way of strengthening my transparency and also reflect on how much I’m contributing to the benefit of the wider society in which I live (assuming that the bulk on my taxes and being spent on beneficial things such as training teachers, paying for healthcare, etc).

But what do you, dear reader, think? Am I right to be valuing my ’corporate love’ (pro bono), and should I really be talking about how much tax I’m paying with anyone other than the tax office given some of the cultural taboos we have in the UK around talking about how much we earn and pay in taxes…?

Adrian Ashton's social sccounts released...

I've always been a keen proponent of the idea of social accounting - after all, if we say that our values and ethics are important and make a difference, then we should be able to show to what extent, and in what ways, they do.

And there are a ton of toolkits and models out there to support you do this - some based on your form (ie - CESPIs for co-ops) and some on your main focus of activity (eg environmental impact).

However, as a sole trader, there's nothing really obvious that I've found that I can easily pick off the shelf and use on myself...so 4 years ago I began to create my own framework based on measuring the things most important to me in terms of what I try and achieve and contribute through how I work.

It's an evolving framework, and I usually add an additional measure each year, but surely its a start.

This year they show an increase in the extent to which I've contributed to stimulating debate and discussion around sector issues, that over a quarter of all my business purchases have been made from local companies, that the majority of all my business travel was made without the use of a gas-guzzling and polluting car, and that training I develop and deliver seems to be well received.


You can download a pdf version (as i include it in my 'blag sheet'/CV) from my website here (its referred to as the 'information sheet about me'); and below is a copy of their summary:



So what do people think? Is this a useful emergent framework for social accounting on sole traders, and what other measures should I incorprate for next years?

the true value of pedal power

A recent feature in New Start magazine highlighted the problems that increasing volumes of journeys by car are causing to our neighbourhoods and profiled ways in which encouraging cycling can perhaps best address this (Driven to the Threshold, New Start, Apr 2009).

As someone who has a concern for the environmental impact that I create, and seek to measure how this and my other values are being realised and the outcomes that occur through a social accounting process, I've always measured the different modes of transport I use as a self-employed consultant-type.
These have always posted to my website for the last 4 years, and I'm pleased to say that in answering the call to use the car less, I managed to use my bicycle for 18% of all journeys I made in the last year (for comparison 26% were by car, and the national average for bicycle journeys in the UK is a paltry 2%).

And this isn't just about me feeling self-righteous, but wanting to show that having concern for the environment can be reconciled to the demands and structures of todays economic environment. I work all over the country, yet am able to make nearly 1 in 5 of all journeys by pedal power. And this value of enviromental concern has other benefits as well: in addition to the (yawn) beneits to health (which everyone knows about), there are also financial benefits: most people know that the tax office offers a claimable expenses rate of 40p/mile for business travel when the journey is by car, but how many know that there's a rate for bicycles too? At 20p/mile it'll soon mean that I'll be making money when cycling!

(see also - www.cyclescheme.co.uk for tax free bikes for work)