Purple Shoots

01/09/2026

A guarantee of work should not assume that every job begins with an employer.

The Government’s new Jobs Guarantee is a substantial and welcome commitment. It aims to create more than 90,000 fully funded jobs for young people who have been receiving Universal Credit and seeking work for 18 months.

But there appears to be something missing from the current model: a route into self-employment.

At Purple Shoots, we meet people for whom conventional employment has not worked. Sometimes that is because of caring responsibilities, health conditions, a lack of formal qualifications or simply a labour market that has repeatedly overlooked what they can offer.

Many of them are not short of ability or ambition. They have an idea, a skill and a determination to build something for themselves. With the right support, that can become a viable business, a sustainable income and, in time, employment for other people too.

That does not mean encouraging vulnerable young people to take on inappropriate debt. It means giving them a genuine choice: enterprise assessment, supported test-trading, practical mentoring and access to patient, responsible finance only when it is affordable and appropriate.

Paid placements will be the right answer for many young people. For others, self-employment could provide the flexibility, independence and opportunity that conventional employment has not.

The ambition behind the Jobs Guarantee is significant. It could become even stronger if enterprise were built into it from the beginning, rather than treated as an afterthought.

Because sometimes the right job for somebody is the one they create themselves.

Government announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/governments-jobs-guarantee-turns-promise-into-paycheques-for-young-people

26/08/2026

🌱 Small loans. Big impact.

We’re delighted to share that Purple Shoots has now almost fully invested a £41,000 Evergreen Grant provided by BCRS Business Loans into entrepreneurs and small businesses across the West Midlands.

This is exactly the kind of investment we believe in.

So far, the funding has enabled us to make 10 loans totalling £39,600, supporting 7 entrepreneurs with individual investments ranging from just £600 to £7,000.

These are genuinely small businesses and are too often overlooked by mainstream finance despite the enormous difference a relatively small amount of capital can make. The fund has reached a wonderfully diverse group of borrowers with:

👩 71% of the entrepreneurs are women
🌍 43% are from ethnically diverse backgrounds
📍 43% live in the three most deprived IMD deciles
🤝 43% were receiving benefits when we lent to them
🏠 100% are renters rather than homeowners
🚪 The majority had already been rejected by other lenders

They’re building businesses in retail, food, technology, wellbeing, health, horticulture, construction and more.

The potential impact goes much further than the original £41,000.

Our wider economic modelling suggests that every £1 Purple Shoots lends has the potential to generate around £4.20 for HM Treasury and £14.25 in wider economic benefit.

Applied to the £39,600 invested so far, that's the potential for around £166,000 in Exchequer returns and more than £564,000 of wider economic benefit.

Best of all? As these loans are repaid, the money can be recycled and invested into another entrepreneur. And then another.

That's the beauty of investing in people. A huge thank you to BCRS Business Loans for believing in what we do and helping us put capital into the hands of entrepreneurs who might otherwise struggle to get that opportunity.
£41,000. Seven entrepreneurs. Ten loans. And an impact that can keep growing. 💜🌱

24/08/2026

When jobs are harder to find, enterprise matters more.

The latest ONS figures show 78,000 fewer payrolled employees than a year earlier and 707,000 vacancies, the lowest level outside the pandemic since 2014.

For some people, self-employment is a positive choice. For others, it becomes a necessary route forward when paid employment simply is not available.

But telling someone to start a business is not enough.

People with savings, security and established networks can often absorb the cost and uncertainty of getting started. Those receiving benefits or living in lower-income communities may have just as much talent and determination, but far less room for error.

At Purple Shoots, we provide fair loans of up to £5,000 alongside the patient, personal support people need to build something of their own.

As the labour market becomes more uncertain, access to inclusive enterprise finance becomes more important, not less.

People need a fair chance to start.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/august2026

21/08/2026

You can't plan for 2050 when you're surviving until Friday.

After a summer of record-breaking temperatures, repeated heatwaves and wildfires, we've been thinking about climate change from the perspective of the people Purple Shoots works alongside every day.

We all have a part to play in the green transition, but making greener choices requires something we don't talk about enough - Capacity.

Around 67% of the people we support are receiving benefits when they come to us. More than 43% of our lending goes to people living in the two most deprived deciles, and almost 60% of our borrowers had previously been rejected by another lender.

So what does "going green" look like when you're a gardener relying on a ten-year-old diesel van? How do you invest in greener equipment when mainstream lenders won't lend you £3,000 to start your business in the first place? How much capacity do you have to think about decisions for 2050 when you're worrying about whether there's enough money in the account this Friday?

This isn't about people not caring about climate change. It's about whether they have the capacity to do something about it and there's a cruel irony here: those with the least capacity to adapt are often also those with the least capacity to absorb the consequences of climate change.

Perhaps tackling financial exclusion isn't separate from tackling climate change...Perhaps it's part of it. Read our latest Substack as we explore this further!

17/08/2026

We were delighted to see Purple Shoots recognised as one of the The Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs Trust's six outstanding beneficiaries for 2026! 💜

Our very own Emma Musgrave was also thrilled to attend the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs’ Election Court Banquet, and we were incredibly grateful for the invitation and the opportunity to celebrate alongside the other organisations recognised this year.

For us, this support reflects a shared belief that entrepreneurship should be open to everyone. Too often, entrepreneurship is talked about in terms of high growth, investment and scale. We see another side of it every day: people rebuilding confidence, discovering what they can do, turning skills and ideas into income, and communities creating opportunities for themselves.

The support from the Entrepreneurs Trust will help us establish a new Self-Reliant Group in Treherbert, bringing people together to build confidence, develop ideas, strengthen financial resilience and create new opportunities within their community. We’re enormously grateful to the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs Trust for their support, and to the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs for such a warm welcome at the Election Court Banquet.

At Purple Shoots, we’ve always believed that talent and potential are everywhere. Opportunity isn’t, and sometimes, a relatively small amount of support can be the beginning of something much bigger. 💜

Read more about the six organisations recognised by the Trust, and the fantastic work being supported here 👇
https://lnkd.in/eck2uwrz

11/08/2026

Potential doesn’t come with a credit score, but far too often, opportunity does.

The people we meet at Purple Shoots are not short of ideas, determination or ability. What they are short of is access: to fair finance, to patient capital and to somebody prepared to look beyond a difficult few years or a number generated by an automated system.

Mainstream finance is very good at identifying people who already look safe. It is far less good at recognising what somebody could become if they were given a genuine chance.

When a promising entrepreneur is turned away, we don’t just lose one business. We lose income entering a household, jobs being created locally, money circulating through a community and the confidence that grows when somebody is trusted to build something of their own.

At Purple Shoots, we do the slower, more human work. We ask questions. We listen. We understand the business. We look at affordability, behaviour, character and potential, not simply the credit score.

Again and again, people who looked “unbankable” on paper prove perfectly capable of building, trading and repaying when finance is designed around real life.

If our financial system only backs people who already look safe, it isn’t discovering enterprise. It’s rewarding advantage.

Potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.

07/08/2026

We've spent thirteen years lending to people that other lenders wouldn't.

An obvious question is:

Were we right to?

Over the past few weeks, we've analysed every loan made under our new lending model since 2024. We wanted to put our beliefs to the test and understand whether the evidence really supported what we've always felt to be true.

The results have been encouraging, humbling and, at times, surprising.

They've reinforced something we've believed since Purple Shoots was founded:

Financial exclusion isn't financial failure.

When people are given access to affordable finance, practical business support and someone who believes in them, they don't just build businesses. They build income, confidence, independence and stronger communities.

We've written about what our loanbook has taught us, why enterprise matters as a tool for social justice, and why we believe we need to rethink how we support people who have been excluded from mainstream finance.

The article is here: https://purpleshoots.substack.com/p/financial-exclusion-isnt-financial?r=334jev&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

We'd love to hear your thoughts!

05/08/2026

Business of the week!

This week we are shining a light on Susie Mackie and her business Susie Mackie Life!

When Susie decided in her fifties to rebuild her life after abusive relationships and bankruptcy, regular banks refused her the loan that she needed to start her own mentoring business. Purple Shoots stepped in and with our support, Susie was able to launch Susie Mackie Life! - offering transformative ‘resilience shifts,’ and an online programme for women over 50.

As well as offering mentoring, coaching and speaking at events, Susie is a published author with two anthologies: ‘Women of Spirit’, real-life stories about resilience and overcoming adversity. Susie's work has been recognised with various awards including the ‘Resilience Warrior 2022’ by Single Mum’s Business Network.

Susie recently gave a testimonial about her experience of being supported by Purple Shoots:

"When I was refused a loan by a bank's computer system - a loan I desperately needed to grow my business and improve my life - Purple Shoots came to my rescue. Their form of ethical lending is absolutely vital for people who cannot access funding elsewhere. It helps set people free from the barriers that hold them back from building the businesses they dream of and creating the lives they want.

The loans I received from Purple Shoots enabled me to grow and develop my business in ways that would simply not have been possible otherwise. I genuinely do not know how I would have managed without them."

Congratulations on all your success Susie, we look forward to hearing what you achieve next!

04/08/2026

What if we've been thinking about financial exclusion all wrong?

For the past few weeks, we've been analysing every loan made under our new lending system since 2024.

The findings have challenged one of the biggest assumptions in finance.

People who have been excluded from mainstream finance are not lacking in capability. They're lacking in access.

More than half of our borrowers live in the 30% most deprived communities in the UK. Many were unemployed, receiving benefits or had already been rejected by other lenders before coming to Purple Shoots.

Yet, when given the right combination of affordable finance, practical support and belief, they build businesses, generate income and create lasting economic value.

This is why we do what we do.

We're not just lending money.

We're investing in people.

🌱 Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing more from our loanbook analysis and our vision for scaling this impact through the Purple Shoots Opportunity Fund.

29/07/2026