A message from Karen Maskall, Founder of Friendship Matters Social Enterprise

I know times are are unprecedently challenging for all of us small businesses but I’m hoping that just a few of you can help us to raise the funds to cover 2 months wages in advance for 6-8 local youth which we have applied for to employ via the Govt KickStart Scheme. The govt fund their wages in full for 6 months so at the end of this period we get all of our funds paid back to us “in arrears” which in turn could indeed create another job.

The youth jobs will be self sustaining in a short period of time as they create unique pieces of art from donated furnishings with an aim to retail at least 2-3 per week per individual creator.

So what I’m hoping and asking, is that your business will invest into some advertising in the wall spaces within our “Friendship Hub” which is based just on the outskirts of Chester, SEALAND, on the Cheshire/Flintshire border.

As a new Social Enterprise it has been an immense challenge to get off the ground in 2021, but we are now all seeing that much needed light at the end of the tunnel and we can hopefully ALL begin to rebuild and grow from strength to strength.

In our ” Friendship Hub” we invite people to come along and share in the fun of saving things from landfill (up-cycling) and this is particularly valuable for those who may be experiencing loneliness, anxiety or depression.  Many of these upcycled furnishings can then also be sold on to bring in some very much need retail turnover to cover our overheads.

About the advertising space.

We have lots of empty wall space which can be filled with A1 (2ft x 3ft) size posters promoting small businesses. When folks visit us they have a very natural tendancy to start looking around and we find there is always lots of things that actually become discussion points. With business posters all around that would be an amazing discussion point and we can encourage folks to scan them all over to see if there is any that they might recognise.

We will be sure to say that each business we consider to be our sponsor as the money they invested is a HUGE help provide very much needed jobs for our youth.

Of course things don’t have to end there.

As well as a poster on our walls we can add your biz onto our website, do several shares on social media for you, perhaps you’d like to offer a promotional discount with our code, put your poster as a backdrop into one of our videos or photos we share,  and any other thing that we can think about between us.  We’re open to all suggestions.

You would need to provide us with your poster. A1 size is quite large and it may be that you have to pay online to a printer who can print something of this size.  I would imagine something in the region of £15-£30 depending on the amount of colours you use too.

So what will your investment be with us for a large poster on our wall?

I’m hoping you’ll agree that £100 for a whole year is a pretty fair deal.

We have capacity for around 40 biz posters on our walls which will help us to move on nicely (and of course we truly want your biz to succeed too). As I’ve previously mentioned we’re currently raising much needed funds to provide jobs for 6-8 of our youth via Govt KickStart Scheme and it’s no mean feat finding two months wages in advance as you can imagine.

So.. will you invest in your business and create that positive social impact with us?

I really really hope so.

Just follow this link to our crowdfunder with small biz to find out more

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou in anticipation of your investment.