Andy Horsnell, Founder & Owner
I Love This Work...
I love working collaboratively with teams of people who are passionate about making their communities and world a better place. This has been my passion for over 30 years, working throughout Canada and the US - in big cities, small towns, and rural communities. Click here for my resume. I'm an independent consultant, but I draw upon a deep network of experienced colleagues. Together, we can change the world. Let's get started...
CLIENTS WE SERVE
We work with a range of different organizations, throughout Canada.
COMMUNITY
CHANGE MAKERS
Individual nonprofits and community groups looking to start new or grow existing social enterprises.
OTHER
CONSULTING FIRMS
Other consulting firms and service providers looking to subcontract and add value to their existing services.
THE CHALLENGES WE HELP WITH
We can help you to confidently work through the entire enterprise development cycle...
WE CAN HELP YOU (RE)ASSESS...
We can help you articulate and refine your impact and business goals, assess your enterprise capabilities and (for existing enterprises) your actual performance, and gain fresh insight into your industry and customers.
(RE)DESIGN...
Informed by your assessment, we can help you to identify, develop, and test high-potential opportunities to start a new enterprise or enhance your existing enterprise.
(RE)BUILD...
We can help you to identify the critical next steps to move your new or improved enterprise forward. While this may require developing and pitching an investment-ready business plan, it more likely will involve laying out a simple plan to test your "minimum viable enterprise". In either case, we can help you secure the resources you need, and do what is required to be ready to act with confidence.
AND (RE)LAUNCH YOUR ENTERPRISE.
Recognizing that the plans and preparation are only the beginning, we can support you to launch your enterprise, and make the course corrections that are inevitable. Then, when you're ready, we can help you to go around the development cycle again, starting with assessing your enterprise's performance.
SERVICES WE PROVIDE
We draw upon a comprehensive range of services (listed below)
to create custom solutions that meet the unique needs of each client.
RESEARCH + EXPERT ADVICE
We provide insight and advice, informed by decades of experience and customized research.
COACHING + FACILITATION
We support individuals, teams, and communities to make and act on informed, shared decisions.
TRAINING
We build capacity to launch, grow, and manage enterprises, through practical webinars, workshops, and extended programs.
CUSTOM PROGRAM DESIGN
We design and build custom social enterprise training, coaching, and development programs for intermediary organizations and even other consulting firms.
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
As a professional consultant, I know that we're selling more than just advice to our clients. We're offering a trusting, collaborative working relationship, where we combine our technical expertise with our clients' experience, to create something new and amazing together.
"We worked with Andy over approximately 6 months to develop business and evaluation plans for our social enterprise, A Question of Care. The process felt like a personalised business training course. The plans have since allowed us to confidently make decisions on how to operate our growing program for the last year. Not to mention when something comes up that we don't know how to handle, Andy is only an email away and always quick to help with any questions. He's very organized, smart and patient. A great coach that I highly recommend!"
Jessica Penner, Coordinator, Peterborough Drug Strategy
"Andy helped us to successfully apply for a Community Foundations of Canada Investment Readiness Program grant in 2020. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we needed to re-evaluate our business model and come up with a new strategy to support our operations. We also wanted to increase our capacity to take on larger scale projects and investments. Andy led us through a rigorous, intentional process, enabling us to seek new opportunities to maximize our social impact and financial sustainability. He also helped us to refine our planning and budgeting skills.
He mentored our coordinator to work through a business planning process, and to create a living business plan document that can be modified and used as a tool to enable us to seek investment in our plans for expansion and growth. Perhaps the most valuable service that he provided was to conduct a site visit and help us to identify the true nature of our operations. While we operate as a social enterprise, generating funds to sustain our operations while providing necessary services in the community, our true strength lies in our role as a social enterprise innovation hub, generating new ideas and approaches to identified issues. Andy helped us to envision this and provided us with the knowledge, skills, and tools to help us attain our goals.
He continues to help us and mentor us whenever needed. His on-going commitment and support is much appreciated. Another valuable asset that he brings to the table is his extensive network of contacts. And finally, his extensive national and international experience enables him to provide a 'big picture' view, allowing us to see where our organization fits in the complex and ever-evolving social enterprise landscape.”
Joan Cranston, Coordinator,
Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital Heritage Corporation
"We were organizing our first in-person all-staff retreat since the start of the pandemic. The majority of attendees had never met in person. We knew that we needed to make our time together count. Working with our retreat organizing committee, Andy was able to help us design - and then himself facilitate - a multi-day session that was engaging, meaningful, and led to tremendously positive - and concrete - outcomes. Throughout the process, Andy demonstrated immense wisdom and patience. He also showed how deftly he can change gears and improvise when a client throws him curve balls!"
Colin MacDougall, Managing Director,
SSG | Sustainability Solutions Group
CONSULTING ASSOCIATES
Over the years, I have developed strong working relationships with a diverse network of peers - other independent consultants, whose expertise and experience complements my own. I am able to flexibly work with or refer to my colleagues, as required by my clients' needs and priorities.
AUTHENTICITY CONSULTING, LLC
Authenticity Consulting, LLC, is a world-leader in customizing highly collaborative group coaching programs in which participants guide and support each other to learn coaching skills, solve complex problems and cultivate deep networks. The company also provides state-of-the-art nonprofit capacity building in all aspects of nonprofit organizations.
RICHARD BRIDGE
Richard is a lawyer based in Nova Scotia. He was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1991 and the Nova Scotia Bar in 2006, after he and his family relocated from Vancouver Island. He is a sole practitioner focusing on four fields: charity and non-profit law, public sector organizations and issues, First Nations issues, and teaching and training. Richard’s clients are a wide range of charitable organizations, foundations, non-profit organizations, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, First Nations organizations and communities and public bodies across Canada.
LAURIE COOK
Laurie brings to her work over 20 years experience in community development as a community developer, facilitator / coach, and co-founder of several community initiatives in her home community of Musquodoboit Harbour. She specializes in community engagement, board governance and strategic planning. She also led a project for United Way Halifax on neighbourhood hubs, and is particularly interested in place-based approaches to building more inclusive and resilient communities.
WENDY KEATS
Wendy Keats has been involved in co-op and community economic development nearly 40 years. She was a founding member of the Co-operative Enterprise Council of New Brunswick (CECNB) in 2007 and was its first Executive Director - a position she held until early 2021. Wendy has worked with hundreds of community groups in organizational development, strategic planning, governance, management, performance measurement, and a wide range of other areas related to the development of successful business and social impact ventures.
DAVE PARKER
"Over the past 25+ years I’ve been a newspaper columnist, founded a digital marketing agency, a neighborhood coffee shop (voted best coffee shop in Columbus, Ohio two years running!), a consulting firm that I recently sold, and I have been an Executive Director of a national USA-based nonprofit organization. Based on these experiences, I’ve found my sweet spot: helping mission-driven organizations, large and small, become more innovative and entrepreneurial to create more and better results. Visit my LinkedIn profile for more about me and my work."
THIRD SECTOR ENHANCEMENT LTD.
Third Sector Enhancement is a multi-generational family business with works with clients to identify their goals and create plans to achieve them. Third Sector focuses their work on strategic planning, program and policy development, and stakeholder engagement to support strategic decision making.
JONATHAN WADE
For over a decade, Jonathan Wade has worked closely with hundreds of organizations and individuals providing hands-on practical approaches for early stage ideation, social enterprise training, governance models, market research, business planning, financing strategies, marketing approaches, and social impact measurement. He brings particular skills to early stage development and incorporation decisions, effective marketing and branding, and strategies to renew and invigorate social enterprises that have seen reduced sales or social impact. Jonathan is the principal at Social Delta, a consulting business based in Ottawa providing support to social entrepreneurs across Canada.
PETER HOUGH
Peter has over 30 years of experience as a developer, member, manager, director, and/or officer of various types of co-operatives both locally and nationally. His passion for co-operatives comes from his direct experience of their capacity to support personal and community development. He has assisted with numerous cooperative start-ups, completing feasibility studies, business plans, developing bylaws, conducting training programs, as well as providing post start-up mentoring.
Andy is a proud, founding member of Flourish Community Development Co-operative Ltd., which brings together five independent consultants to tackle large-scale community economic development projects.
CONTACT ME
Have a particular challenge you’re trying to deal with? Contact me today and see what we can do for you.
902 300 9725
Kempt Shore, Nova Scotia
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