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Case Studies

Kaleyard CIC

Sumayya Usmani started her social enterprise Kaleyard CIC to tackle social isolation, and unhealthy relationships with food by improving peoples’ cooking skills.

After years of experience in the commercial sector Sumayya felt that it was important to ensure you not only love what you do, but that it benefits others as well.

Social enterprises allow youto run a business that you love, with the benefit for the greater good.

What did you find most challenging?

It was tough to get the social enterprise of the ground mainly because I had to make people understand what social enterprises are all about – it was important to me that people bought into what we did as well as our services. 

Do you have any top tips for social entrepreneurs?

Don’t give up – it’s tough setting up a social enterprise because you have to think with two heads on – a business mind, and a social mind. Your social mind needs to make every decision, just as much as your business one. Difficult to juggle initially but if you stay true to your reasons for starting a social enterprise, everything flows in the right direction.

What are your future plans?

Kaleyard hopes to grow into a self-sufficient cook school and with the support of my Build It Award I can focus on growing the business and getting some help along the way!

You can find out more about our Build It award here.

Visit the Kaleyard website and social media.