How to do Social Enterprise

I'm training to be a Business Adviser to social enterprises and spent yesterday looking at finances and funding options.
This was the best bit for me so far, on a course which I started in September and takes about 15 months to complete. It's a broad ranging business advisers course with the specific skew towards issues about social enterprise. It includes on about seven days attendance and a lot of assessed work, including reflection on actual advice sessions.
I learned about the use of capital raised from investors and sources of some unsecured loans specially set aside for social enterprises.
As ever with these days I spent a large part of the day relating this to my work in SCIP, as well as other social enterprises I'm aware of.
One of the most striking things is the idea that an organisation needs to achieve a minimum size to be sustainable - anything from at least £250k turnover to keep running and be stable, to at least £1 million to win government contracts and not be too reliant on one supplier.
We talked a lot as well about how social enterprise is a favourite third way hobby horse of Government and supported equally by the Tories. Ed Milliband and the Office of the Third Sector is a big [ideological] fan and it's seen as safer ground for public sector reform than allowing in private companies.
On a local level there's a groundswell of interest, particularly being developed through the work of Brighton & Hove Business Community Partnership.
There is a lot of useful information around about social enterprises - one of the best places to start is Social Enterprise Coalition