We have a close affinity with Hunslet Hawks, but we’re not partisan, so we were delighted to have the chance to work with Castleford Tigers when they needed some new equipment.

Re:Work kitted out an office at their ‘Jungle’ on Wheldon Road in Castleford, providing chairs, tables and filing cabinets.

They opted for recycled furniture all the way, which meant we were sourcing most of the furniture they wanted from our showroom here in Hunslet.

We dealt with Dawn, their accounts and lottery assistant, who said: “We were recommended to work with Re:Work from someone who knew them, but I shopped around a lot and didn’t find anyone who could give the same value as they could, at that price.”

Re:Work’s experience and knowledge of office furniture meant that we could pretty much find anything she was looking for.

“I didn’t need to go to the showroom. If there was something I wanted, but it wasn’t on the website, I just rang them and described it, and they’d go and find it for me. We were really pleased with Re:Work’s standard of service.”

Many thanks to Cas Tigers for your custom and your kind comments!

A month ago we were contacted by Alpha Kalay, a local man who was looking to buy some furniture.

Mr Kalay had recently visited some relatives in Sierra Leone, and realised the schools out there were urgently in need of some support. His plan, as it turned out, was simply to dig deep and personally buy a load of school furniture.

So we sorted out the stock he needed and gave him the best price we could, and off went a consignment of exam-style desks and chairs to be packed and made ready for its voyage.

However, this week, it turned out that My Kalay’s original purchase only half-filled the container, which meant it wasn’t suitable for shipping. He solved this problem by digging even deeper until he’d bought enough furniture to fill the container.

Fortunately, we had plenty more school furniture in stock so with a bit of juggling our own plans, we were able to scramble the Re:Work team and got another three truckloads organised to fill up the container.

We hope the desks have a good journey and give a long and productive service in Sierra Leone!

Do you even mark or remember the things you or your team did well, or those days when everything just turned out for the best? Do you ever ‘give yourself snaps’, as we did at the last Goldman Sachs 10,000 Alumni meeting?

I think it’s too easy to get so swamped by what isn’t going our way that we start feeling discouraged and beaten and forget to celebrate the positives. That attitude comes from the belief that things should go our way, so when we have a good day that’s normal, and when we have a bad day, that’s out of order.

The truth is a bit different to that. We came to the conclusion at Re:Work that the world doesn’t owe us a living, and that inevitably, like it or not, things go wrong, quite naturally. To put a business together and make it run successfully is difficult and it’s guaranteed that difficulties will come along to pose challenges. There’s no valid reason why things should go our way all the time – so when they do, you should celebrate it.

Inspired by Legally Blonde 2, my suggestion is that you give yourself snaps. At the last Goldman Sachs alumni get-together I suggested just that, and everyone thought I was daft, just like they did in the film when the character Grace suggested it.

Once the awkward moment was over with, again just like the film, everyone was snapping away every time someone said something positive was going on for them – however small or insignificant it seemed.

We’re living in a dream world if we think everything is going to be okay for us every single day. Some days, just getting out of bed and getting to work should be celebrated. So if you’re struggling with being positive, give yourself some snaps!

• Are there more or less women in social enterprise than private business?
• Are women fairly and proportionally represented in social enterprise?
• Are they, in fact, over-represented? Is it because they are more compassionate?
• Do they receive enough support?

And so on…

There is always going to be a natural tendency for men or women to overpopulate certain sectors or industries. For example, heavy manufacturing is heavy on the men – does that mean it’s a less compassionate industry?

The statistics vary, and there are some who say there aren’t even enough of them and more research on the topic needs to be done. But off the top of the head, it has to be said a lot of the more well known social enterprises, are run by men. Eden Project, Paperworks, Doncaster Refurnish, Fifteen come to mind.

Of course, we were founded and are now managed by a woman. And Caroline never lost out, or in fact gained, through the mere fact of her gender.

Nothing is straightforward when it comes to analysing social trends, especially with gender. Call us simplistic, but the secret to social enterprise success in our view is having the right person with the right passion, drive, and often there’s a bit of being in the right place at the right time. As for lack of opportunity – do you have to be a woman to experience that?

So other than celebrating diversity and embracing different skills, interests and inclinations, what is the relevance of this ‘women in social enterprise’ question?

We are very interested in your thoughts – catch up with us on Twitter or Facebook to talk about it.

To catch up, Salesforce.com is an online software company which decided last year to make moves to trademark the term ‘social enterprise’, for use in the social media sector where they were developing new products.

Cue a campaign led by Social Enterprise UK to protect the term for free use by all, and prevent it being being appropriated by what is, after all, a commercial enterprise. That campaign was won last year when salesforce.com backed down and abandoned its plans.

Following that victory, Celia Richardson, director of campaigns at Social Enterprise UK, wrote an interesting article asking ‘what now?’ for the term ‘social enterprise’. It’s such a broad church that the community has historically resisted any ‘legal parameters’ that might disqualify new ventures.

Social enterprise needs to become a common term that is used very widely by everyone and anyone – in the right context. It’s not a sales tool in and of itself, it needs to mean much more than that.

We need to find a new way to protect the public understanding of ‘social enterprise’. A business that trades ethically is great, but it’s not necessarily a social enterprise. Admittedly, this is a different issue to the one surrounding Salesforce.com, who were using the term for something completely unrelated to social enterprise, but it sill seems to me the main risk. If a private company claims it’s social, it’s still all about making profits for shareholders or owners and that is its main drive. Which is different to social enterprises who, by definition, put their profits to community benefit.

Something like the Social Enterprise Mark is very useful, because it means you pin your colours to the mast. It’s our wish that soon, the term ‘Social Enterprise’ will be bought into by the public in the same way that ‘Fairtrade’ has been. That depends on a network of Fairtrade labelling organisations who still work without an internationally recognised legal definition. So it can be done.

What they’re getting up to, as it turned out at the Social Enterprise Exchange at the SECC, is that the Scottish social enterprise scene is buzzing, and excelling at both community and commercial support.

Caroline said: “What stood out was the fact that the Scottish society has a strong sense of social commitment in general, which obviously lends itself very well to the social enterprise sector.

“The opening address from John Swinney MSP, [Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and SustainableGrowth] got across very well how the Scottish government are so supportive of the sector.”

There was a real eclectic mix of exhibitors. Caroline came home with a beautiful Northern Lights candle made by a social enterprise in Northern Ireland.

She also found a kindred spirit in Ace Recycling, a Falkirk waste recycling social enterprise. Ace’s young representative, who had joined the company on a placement (apologies, we didn’t get your name) was so articulate, impressive and passionate about the organisation, that if he’d lived nearer she might have poached him for Re:Work.

Everything at the Scottish Enterprise Exchange was about putting your money where your mouth is, right down to the lunches, which were provided by four local catering social enterprises. (The chilli was delicious!)

In Yorkshire, and the North of England, we’re very busy getting on with running our own businesses. It’s hard to find the time to look up and see how our fellow social enterprises are doing, and how we can get together and support one another.

But what we’ve learned from the Scottish Enterprise Exchange is that getting out there and getting together to celebrate and support social enterprise in principle and practice, is fully worthwhile.

It is the most rigorous and reliable certification scheme to help social enterprises demonstrate to their buyers that they are putting their money where their mouth is.

Currently, just about anyone can say they are a social enterprise, or claim they trade socially and ethically. If they truly are doing it, then that’s great. We have no qualms about private companies making those claims, so long as they are truthful and can be backed up with evidence.

However, if they are making spurious claims simply to win the ‘ethical shopper’ pound then that is not so great. Unfortunately that does happen, and it means genuine social enterprises have to make sure they stand well apart from those practices.

How do we do that? With the Social Enterprise Mark.

It validates our claims to be socially and environmentally helpful, and gives reassurance to our buyers that these claims have been checked out and proved solid enough to warrant the Mark.

Caroline, our chief exec, says she buys into the mark because it is a mark of trust, for us, our customers and our market. It’s an efficient way for us to say what we’re about, and to reinforce the values of social enterprise in general.

We would urge more social enterprises to consider the Social Enterprise Mark. The more people buy into it, the more powerful it will become, and increase the voice and strength of the Social Enterprise community as a whole.

It’s operating nationally, so it will hopefully be recognised further and wider as more organisations take it up. Re:Work will be with it as it grows – will you?

MB Marketing have been tasked with giving us a bit of a makeover. The gorgeous green branding we know and love will not be changed, it’s simply an update, to hopefully give an even better presentation of what we’re offering now.

Since the last rebrand we’ve launched our hugely successful stationery and office supplies arm, and we’re offering more and more removals, too, so we’re trying to keep up with that in our online presence. We don’t want anyone to be unaware of a service or product we have that could be of use to them!

For example, everyone knows we do used furniture – but were you aware we did new furniture, too? Not to mention the fact that’ll we’ll take away your old furniture and ensure it’s disposed of ethically and responsibly. Also, the website will be a great showcase for our ‘Swop it & Save’ service, offering customers part exchange on their old furniture. It’s coming soon, so again: keep watching this space.

We’re very excited about this redesign. It’s a bit early to give too many details, but we know it’s going to give us an even better way of communicating with our customers, and offering them a really smooth experience of navigating the website which is, after all, our most important tool in helping customers find what they need.

Undaunted by the post-Christmas shivers and gloom, our customers very kindly kept us very busy throughout the month, and our delivery and installation guys battled their way through the snow to fulfil the orders and make deliveries all over Yorkshire and beyond. A big well done to the entire Re:Work team who have worked really hard this month.

Don’t forget we’ve got an ever-growing list of products and services to help customers with whatever you need. In addition to recycling your furniture, we have brand new furniture from quality recycled materials at great prices, stationery and general office supplies, and we can even help with office clearance and removals. Send us an email if you’d like to be added to our regular newsletter, with great offers available on the Deal of the Week. And remember, every time you choose to buy from Re:Work, you’re making a solidly ethical choice that helps us look after people and the planet.

And thanks to our customers who are willing to try us out, recommend us and keep coming back. Here’s to a great February, too!