Social Entrepreneurship

An Introduction
Aims of Today’s Workshop

 Introduce the Concepts and Methods of

Social Entrepreneurship
 Demonstrate how these methods can be
used to address issues in Lakewood
What is Social Entrepreneurship?

 Social Entrepreneurship is the use of

business practices such as business
planning, project management,
marketing and sales, for advancing
social causes
Why Social Entrepreneurship?
 These methodologies focus on results that can
be measured enabling a group to see how
successful its work is. Then take corrective
action if the “desired results” are not being
achieved.
 NOTE: Many businesses do not practice to
these methods their loss
 These methodologies work. Speaking from
both research and practical experience,
business methodologies, if implemented
correctly, are extremely effective for getting
things done.
To be Successful A Community
Venture Needs:
 A clearly stated purpose
 A governing structure, knowledgeable advisors
 A solid Business Plan
 Good Project Planning
 A target audience
 A source of money &/ resources to run and expand the
organization
 Good Communications, marketing and sales plan
 Solid Leadership
 A good working relationship with other community
organizations
Clearly Stated Goals
 This is often the single hardest part of the
whole process
 Ambiguous, unrealistic, or ill-defined goals
have ruined many projects
 Start with small, easily-obtained goals and
build on your success.
 Your goals will change as your project evolves
Useful Tool – BODI Method

BODI stands for:

 Benefits
 Other options
 Drawbacks
 Impacts/Consequences
Lakewood Goals

Three Modest Goals with BODI

analysis
Governing structure
 Complexity depends on whether the effort is a
“one-shot” or part of an on-going effort
 There needs to be clear rules
 Co-operative, open decision structures work
best – give people a sense of ownership
 Use arbitration service to resolve disputes in a
situation when people can’t agree
Governing structure

Lakewood
Council of advisors

 In any venture it is easy to lose one’s

perspective
 A council of advisors should be a part of
any major project
 Suggestions: Directors of other non-
profits, small business owners, leading
members of professional organizations
Council of advisors
Business plan
 “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
 How the project is going to pay for itself?
 Where to obtain the initial startup capital?
 Who is the target audience for the system?
 What do we ASS-U-ME?
 What research needs to be done?
 What skills are needed to run the project?
 Have a current contingency plans. What is to be done if
there is a major unforeseen disaster?
 What are the weaknesses in our thinking?
 Do we have enough resources to run and expand the
project?
Business plan

Lakewood
Project Management

Turning Your Ideas into Reality

Steps in Building a Project

 1. Definition of goals
 2. Brainstorming of concepts and ideas
 3. Critique of concepts
 4. Mission statement
 5. Budget, projections, and timeline
 6. Reality check
 7. Project Planning
Project Management Tips

 1) An early plan is good to get started quickly. An early

plan includes a pre-project launch, resource
assignments and a plan to build a detailed project
plan.
 2) Understand the scope of the project requirements
before trying to break it down into specific tasks.
 3) Documentation is vital, especially when more than
one person needs to work on parts of a project.
Project Management Tips (cont)
 4) Communication is very important and it never hurts
to double or even triple check to make sure that you
are properly communicating with your project team.
 5) Find ways to build up your team early, such as
taking them out for dinner. You should have regular
events to bring the team together. Just make sure that
they are not too often.
 6) Meetings, when they occur at all, should be short
and to the point.
 7) Show your leadership. Listen and learn from your
team.
Defining Tasks
 Tasks
After defining your project, the next step is to
break down it into specific tasks. In developing
your task use the S.M.A.R.T method.
S = Specific, concrete objective
M = Measurable indicator of progress
A = Assignable to a specific person
R = Realistic
T = Time (how long the job will take and a
specific date that it will be done by)
Project Planning

Lakewood
Defining a Target Audience

"Try to be all things to all people

and you will end up be nothing to
anyone"
Target audiences

 Does your targets have enough capital

(Money/resources/skills) to support your
project?
 If not you have two choices:
a) Choose other target groups
b) Redesign your project so that it is
affordable by your target groups
What to look for in a target audience

 Enough members in the target who are

interested in your project or are willing to
learn about it
 Resources (monetary or otherwise) to
support it
 Enough members to bring a substantial
number of people the project
 Enough connections to other groups so
that you can grow your market
Target Audience

Lakewood
Sources of Money &/ Resources

 Very detailed plans of where the

resources are coming from and how they
will be used
 An experienced financial person should
be involved to handle the monetary side
 Need to have a very high confidence that
resources will be available
 “Plan to Fail”? Must have a ongoing
detailed contingency plan.
Planning To Fail

 What if few of your expected resources

come through?
 Your “target audience” is un-interested in
your project
 Another competing project comes along
& steals your thunder
 Your project idea is simply to strange for
people to understand
Planning To Fail (cont)
 The project requires far too much time &
energy than you can give to it
 In order for the project to succeed it requires
far more resources than originally anticipated
 Due to a major economic downturn, funds
become tight for you target audience
 Times change & people’s interests shift to
other projects
Sources of Capital/Resources

Lakewood
Planning To Fail

Lakewood
Communications/Marketing/Sales

 Communications: PR functions (i.e.

inform of upcoming events)
 Marketing: get people to “buy into” your
project
 Sales: get people & organizations to give
resources to your project
Communication Rules

 KISS – Keep it Simple ...

 Keep it relevant to your project & to your
target audience
 Make it professional
 Make sure the message you are sending
is consistent with the project
Communications

Lakewood
Marketing Strategy

 Who are your target audiences?

 What exactly are you trying to get those
target audiences to do?
 How can you make a message that
these target audiences are most likely to
respond to?
 What are the best mediums to reach
your target audiences?
Marketing Mediums

 News Kits and News Releases

 Sales Letters
 Sales and Marketing Brochures
 Advertisements
 Web Sites
 Speciality Items
Marketing Mediums (cont)

 Sale Proposals
 Goodwill Materials
 Promotional Materials
 Sales Kits
 News Letters
 Speeches
 Your Imagination
Marketing

Lakewood
Sales – Basic Steps
 Find prospects (part of target audience)
 Research prospects
 Gain their attention
 Build trust
 Determine Common Ground, if any
 Demonstrate understanding of prospect needs
 Show how project can meet prospect needs
 Moving from prospect to customer
 Keeping commitments
Sales

Lakewood
Leadership

 Good Leaders
 Bad Leaders
 What are some of the traits of a good
leader?
 What are some of traits of a bad leader?
Skilful Leadership

 Without good leadership a great project

can fail
 With good leadership a weak project can
often succeed
 Leaders are made, not born
 Anyone can become a leader if they are
willing to learn
Features of Great Leaders

(from Kouzes & Posner)

 Challenge the Process
 Inspire a Shared Vision
 Enable Others to Act
 Model the Way
 Encourage the Heart
Features of Bad Leaders

 Threaten
 Indecisive
 Refuse to listen to the people around
them
 Keep all the power for themselves
 Refuse to learn or change
Leadership

Lakewood
 Working other community
organizations
 Try and coordinate your effort with
existing groups
 Approach existing groups to see if there
are ways of working together
 Build up a network among community
groups and be willing to help them with
their projects
 “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”
Community Organizations

Lakewood
Software Tools

 Open Source Groupware:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/hipergate/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tutos/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/moregroup
ware/

 Warning: While these tools are very

powerful and are free they require a great
deal a technical expertise to set up.
Available Professional Services

 My associates and I can offer,

Consulting and Training in all of the
areas discussed in this presentation
 I can provide, Computer Consulting if
you should decide to install any of the
groupware listed in the previous slide
Recommended Reading
 “Don’t Get Caught In Risky Business” by
Steve Bareham (ISDN: 0-07-560814-6)

 “Effective Project Management: How to

Plan, Manage, and Deliver Projects on
Time and within Budget” by Robert K.
Wysocki et al. ISBN: 0-471-11521-5.
Recommended Reading

 “Smart Marketing on a Small Budget” by

S.J. Ross (ISBN 0-07-560469-8)
 “The Sales Advantage” by J. Oliver
Crom and Michael Crom (ISBN 0-7432-
1591-5)
 “The Leadership Challenge” by James
M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (ISBN 0-
7879-0860-6)
How to Contact Tim Inkpen

E-Mail: tinkpen@sympatico.ca
Skype: tinkpen
Phone: (613) 241-7394
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