I
magine yourself on a zero-hours contract, leaving home early in the morning to deliver a sports therapy session. By the time you’ve spent several hours traveling to the place which booked the session – at your own expense – it’s been cancelled. And you don’t get paid.
Now imagine making that journey in a wheelchair. Carrying a heavy bag in your teeth. And imagine when the session is not cancelled and you do deliver it, your transformative work is valued by participants, but not by your employer.
Frustrations like these led Louis Speight, a former European-record-holder in the 800 metre T33 Wheelchair Sprint, and a colleague to leave the organisation they worked for and launch their own social enterprise, Omnis Circumvado CIC. Louis was recently named one of the finalists in the 2020 Citi Microentrepreneursip Awards.
In this podcast interview Louis describes:
- the profound impact sport made in his life, from competing internationally to taking a sports science degree in which he specialised in clinical rehabilitation, before he started giving sports coaching,
- how Omnis works with children and young people in SEN (Special Educational Needs) schools and with elderly people in day centres, and the impact of their work,
- why “the house will set on fire,” when launching a social enterprise,
- succession planning and whether business growth is the right thing to do.
- why Omnis worked with Key Fund, a responsible finance provider, and how this helped the organisation.
- And much more. Here’s the episode to play or download; you can also find it in Apple Podcasts / iTunes.
What next?
- Visit Omnis Circumvado and Key Fund.
- Read about topics covered and listen to previous episodes on our website or in Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes).
- Please share the podcast, tell others about it, and ideally leave a rating or review so other people can learn about the work and impact of responsible finance providers.
- Find your nearest responsible finance provider: www.findingfinance.org.uk
- And if you’re a responsible finance provider or a client and you’d like to put yourself forward to be on the show, get in touch – email podcast producer, Jamie Veitch.