Do you feel the Government does enough to support the cause of homelessness in the UK?

I think the Government is doing too much of the wrong thing - the Government operates
a yearly budget and I feel that they find it very difficult to think outside of the box, as
after all the Government are only as good as their advisors.
If you actually analyse how you get people out of homelessness, it takes much more
than a bed, something to eat and a bit of money - which is what a lot of people who
live in hostels are given. They need psychological and social help as well as
education and cultural rebuilding. Up to 95% of Government money goes on
emergencies in coping rather than a cure, only 5% of the remaining money goes on
the cure itself. It’s a bit like going to hospital because the doctor tells you that you’re ill, until one day you are told that you’re leaving, to which you reply that you’re ill and need an operation.
You are then told that they can’t afford to give you a cure. If hospitals were run like
that they would close down, because why would you want the treatment with no cure?
The Big Issue should be full of social workers and psychological help, as that is
where the problems lie.

Do you feel your business skills were developed through practical life experiences?

Yes definitely, I had to learn to be a businessman very quickly because I was making too many mistakes. I’m a great believer that to be an entrepreneur means that you are somebody that sometimes gets it right. People don’t realise how risky it is to be an
entrepreneur and the importance of making mistakes in the process. When a venture or
project does not work out you need to take that knowledge, those mistakes, so that
when you try again you will do much better, and eventually you’ll get there! One or two
people may get there right away but that’s very rare, as even business giants like Richard Branson follow this process of moving backwards and forwards in business.

Social Enterprise is often heavily dependent of Government subsidy - how can a social business become successful commercially?

Well, the Big Issue is commercial, as we do not get any form of subsidies from the Government. The Big Issue has never taken any Government money; the reason for this
is that we have always made our money by selling our magazine to homeless people,
who in turn sell it on the streets to the public, and of course by selling advertising.
If you want a social enterprise to be successful commercially, you must have a
strong commercial product. For example, we want to sell hundreds of thousands of copies
of our publication, we don’t want to sell the perfect magazine to only 5,000 people and
therefore not give a job to the homeless. When I was in the States I was repeatedly
picked on by people who said we should give homeless people a voice. I don’t want
to give the homeless a voice, but instead to give them an exit out of the homelessness -
to give them the means to make their own money, so they no longer have to beg.

It's extraordinary that some people want to create a totally homeless magazine that the
public would not buy, all about how hard it is to be homeless. The general public may
read one or two issues but I doubt the third. The public wants entertainment - not to be
saturated with homeless issues.

Social enterprise plays an important part in the regeneration of our society - what can small businesses or individuals do to put something back into the community?

Local businesses can support the effects of social enterprise through Corporate Social
Responsibility and so on. I think in the end, the future lies in social enterprise – doing
something that is useful to the community, which will make that community work better,
therefore providing value for money. If you run a small local business and your
only contribution is putting your hand in your pocket for those in crisis, then ultimately all
you’re doing is passing off your guilt money onto others – but if that organisation, group
or social company is making the community work better then you’re putting something
back. In relation to this I am currently working on something called the Wedge Card, which is a community loyalty discount card. When you buy the card for £20 half of that money will be spent directly on local and social projects, the other half will be spent to encourage merchants to give you discounts in-store, so you get 5% or 10% off in a shop. When using the card in small local businesses you will get your money back via the form of discounts, whilst at the same time help local projects, improve the community and help the small local
businesses fight back against the big boys! For me that’s the next stage that I want to
see happen – we’ve done The Big Issue so now I want to see something else. We are
launching the Wedge Card on the 1st December at the Lambs Conduit Street Winter Festival near Russell Square.

Do you feel that the opportunities presented by social enterprise are widely recognised?

No, not at all, but if through social enterprise you could give somebody work, then you are
probably beginning to sort a lot of their problems out. If you can get people off a
dependency on social security and so on, it’s a magnificent thing to do.
There is very little encouragement for groups of social entrepreneurs. We need a new kind of Richard Branson, who is there to create a business that produces a shed load of money for the investors and staff, whilst at the same time helping those in need to become independent.

Your book - ‘Some Luck’ - details your own life, serving as a practical demonstration of life transformation. What do you feel aspiring entrepreneurs could learn from your experiences?

It took more than me to turn my life around and I had some luck. Luck is the meeting of opportunity and preparation, which means that if you’ve done the necessary work or
apprenticeship then when presented with the right opportunity you will excel.

Christmas is approaching and money seems to be at the forefront of everyones mind, - how can we support the homeless at this time of year?

If you want to support the homeless through money, you should find out about the organisations that are actually helping the homeless off the streets and help those organisations. You should support the organisations and people who are curing the homeless rather than just maintaining them. I think unfortunately there are too many misconceptions regarding homelessness and what it takes for people to get out of it. People seem to expect that a magic wand approach to homelessness will work, but of course it takes a lot more than most people think.
I think every Christmas we should almost have a breakdown because for another year people will be out on the streets, in poverty and dying of neglect - it seems that every year we just kind of accept it. People give away a little money to a person sitting in a doorway or beside a cash machine on the way home from our office Christmas parties, all sympathetic and soppy, but those people are not there in the cold days of January.

As an author, editor, and social entrepreneur what advice could you give our readers to form their own social enterprise?

I think that ultimately you have to be driven by money. The first thing to consider is to create something that is sustainable. A lot of so-called social enterprises are just looking for a handout, or someone to rescue them. A social enterprise has to be sustainable, you can’t build an organisation on handouts if the aim of that organisation is to move people away from dependency. You need to put your own money up if you have it, you need to take your own risks, and you’ve got to be driven by the bottom line. When you have the bottom line firmly fixed, you can then start to work out what kind of contribution you can make. I think there’s a real contribution to be made by giving young people out of prison or care real work and responsibility. Training and education is also needed to help create
or recreate a culture that is not about offending or low self esteem. Entrepreneurs need to know that it’s okay to be in it for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you realise that one of the best ways of achieving what you want is to build up a group of strong loyal people behind you.sustainable. A lot of so-called social enterprises are just looking for a handout, or someone to rescue them. A social enterprise has to be sustainable, you can’t build an organisation on handouts if the aim of that organisation
is to move people away from dependency. You need to put your own money up if you have it, you need to take your own risks, and you’ve got to be driven by the bottom line. When you have the bottom line firmly fixed, you can then start to work out what kind of contribution you can make. I think there’s a real contribution to be made by giving young
people out of prison or care real work and responsibility. Training and education is also needed to help create or recreate a culture that is not about offending or low self esteem. Entrepreneurs need to know that it’s okay to be in it for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you realise that one of the best ways of achieving what you want is to build up a group of strong loyal people behind you.

What are your plans for the future?

I’m very interested in starting my own magazine, titled Literary Briefs, largely because I’m pissed off with all the long material that we are currently given to read. I’m a sound-byte person - I want to read a review of a book, or film, or short essay in say one hundred words. The magazine will be called Literary Briefs as it will also be full of pictures of women’s underwear.
I’m not joking; the reasoning behind this is that in the 60’s in America, one of the largest magazines was Playboy. Playboy was full of images of women but amongst this it had some of the best essays and stories by people such as Norman Mailer. The magazine used the images to draw people in, which it did, whilst creating a place where you could read serious criticism of American politics. So I thought if I have a magazine which is full of images of briefs this would attract both men and women, attracting an audience of about
90% of the population, a readership anyone would be proud of.
I’m also interested in creating a financial magazine called Wedge which
will discuss the ways of saving change and making change.