Capital
Small sums, at the right time, on workable terms.
Focus — Livelihoods, Enterprise & Community Prosperity — Small and family-run enterprises
SMALL AND FAMILY-RUN ENTERPRISES
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve the survival and growth of small enterprises for the owners, families, and workers in the business.
Why this area
SMALL AND FAMILY-RUN ENTERPRISES
IN CONTEXT.
Small firms live and die on cash flow and customers. Ideas qualify when the constraint being lifted is the real one.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Customers
Finding and keeping demand.
Operations
Stock, pricing, records, and staffing.
Resilience
Getting through shocks.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A SMALL AND FAMILY-RUN ENTERPRISES
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where the survival and growth of small enterprises fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — revenue, survival rate, jobs, or capital accessed.
- Explains what the owners, families, and workers in the business do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of the survival and growth of small enterprises in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier small business support schemes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the owners, families, and workers in the business, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — enterprises, owners, or a cohort.
- A stated measure of success — revenue, survival rate, jobs, or capital accessed.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves income, employment, and stability for the owners, families, and workers in the business.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named business association, lender, or enterprise support body able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of the survival and growth of small enterprises in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the owners, families, and workers in the business or the business association, lender, or enterprise support body.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about small and family-run enterprises with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
SMALL AND FAMILY-RUN ENTERPRISES IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about the survival and growth of small enterprises that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.