Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Partnership (OSEP) are offering a host of free, tailored support to develop social enterprises this Autumn/Winter 2025.
Here is the support they can offer individuals:
- 1:1 Business development support: Meet a business advisor to support you with whatever stage or development needs you have. We will assess your application and match you with someone who has relevant expertise to share.
- Free Training workshops: A series of training sessions will be run online and at venues across the South Oxfordshire, Vale of Whitehorse District & Oxford City.
- Peer support groups for Food social enterprise, Creative social enterprise & Community assets enterprises learning from peers and experts together. A series of peer support groups for social entrepreneurs working in the creative industries, the hospitality industry and those managing community assets will provide ongoing mutual support. Get in touch to register your interest makena@osep.org.uk
Find out more on our website, or email us to find out more. Please note, this programme is funded from the UKSPF fund by South & Vale District Council and Oxford City Council and is solely supporting businesses or sole traders operating in these areas.
How to register as a Community Interest Company (CIC)
September 16th 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
A practical and informative session taking you through how to do the CIC registration. This session will see you go through each step of the legal registration to become a CIC.
Let’s Own It! An Introduction to Community-Owned and Worker-Owned Businesses
September 17th 10:00am – 12:00 pm
Understand what community-owned and worker-owned enterprises are and if they are right for you.
Enterprise Accelerator
18th September, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
How to develop a business idea and take it forward + networking.
Marketing with a Mission: Defining your vision, mission and values
Friday 26th September from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Defining your vision, mission and values – Learn why marketing with a mission matters and how you can bring together what you do, with what you market.
Form follows function: Setting up the right legal structure for your social business
Tuesday 30th September, 2025 – 12.00 -2.00pm
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the many legal structures available to register your social business? We will help take you through the process, step by step.
Raising investment for your socially impactful business.
Friday 3rd October 2025 – 3 -5.00pm
Find how to make your socially impactful business attractive to investors. Exploring different forms of financing your business.
Finding Space for your socially impactful business
15th October 4:30-6pm
Within this session, we will discuss: – What are the root problems with the property system, and what would it look like if we were to change the systems at play to support communities’ access to the space they need?
Sharing ownership: Is a Co-op right for your business?
Thursday 23rd October 5:30-7:30pm
Are you interested in finding out whether your business could be set up as a Cooperative? Find out more about what CoOps are and how you might benefit.
Unlocking space for your socially impactful business
6th November 4:30-6pm
Within this session, we will experience how to unlock a space to support your social enterprise. This includes creating a business plan to take on space, creating a vision and the hidden costs and restrictions of taking on space.
Marketing with a Mission: Making a marketing plan that works for you
Friday 7th November 2-4pm
A practical session aiming to demystify and simplify marketing – Learn what marketing is (and isn’t) and how to put into practice.
Enterprise Accelerator – Developing a business idea
11th November 3-5pm 2025
How to develop a business idea and take it forward. Exploration of business potential and market awareness.
Scoping the market & creating a business plan.
Tuesday 18th November 17.30-19.30
Designed for start-up and early stage social businesses, this hands-on workshop guides participants through the essentials of market research and developing your business model.
Financial strategy, basic financial skills & exploring the implications of AI for business
22nd January 2026 6-8pm
A session exploring some of the basic financial skills you need to run your business, including how to create a simple cashflow, bookkeeping and IT systems.
