Social Entrepreneurship Network in the Baltic Sea Region
We How does sustainable future 2035 look like from the point of view of various civil society actors? We make transition! project invited a group of change agents from BSR countries to co-create an inspiring sustainability vision and recommendations on empowering the cooperation between local authorities and civil society actors to enhance ecological and social sustainability.
Publication: BSR vision of sustainable life
The Social Enterprise Series is a 10-week in-depth learning program designed to educate future global changemakers about the practical components of establishing or growing a thriving social enterprise. It is completely free of charge and invites everyone willing to learn more to join all or selected workshops from 13th April to 15th June online.
Designated industry experts will walk you through the key components of building an enterprise that has a positive social impact, and citizens residing in Australia can put their new skills to work by crafting a video pitch for the chance to win the Social Enterprise Award: $10,000 to kickstart their project.
The following workshops will take place from 9AM – 11AM EET (4PM – 6PM AEST):
The Social Enterprise Series is organized by Start Some Good in collaboration with Australian Catholic University. The cost is fully subsidized and open to university students, staff and the broader community. Topics are delivered via livestream to a national audience.
More information about the course available HERE.
This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
The European Social Entrepreneur -ESE project coordinated by CO-LABORY
During its implementation, project’s participants produced a high-quality materials and provided the best possible education for trainers, staff of participating organizations, and young people in disadvantaged situations.
As the project results an online platform was developed containing training material on SE, the role of the social entrepreneur, how the funds are obtained, and which concrete tools can be used to launch a social enterprise.
“Operational course for Social Innovation” is a course aiming at the inclusion of diasadvantaged groups in society by acquiring skills and tools that wil assist them and make them valuable members, will gain more ingormation on social entrepreurship and will be able to create their own businesses. These results will be achieved through the developed materials of the course. Each module contains a theoretical and methodological part, to check and ensure the acquisition of knowledge on learners in a more practical way.
The project website also was developed with newsletters, videos, articles, information material, and the Manual on Social Entrepreneurship. Also projects results included the following:
Enrol now and start learning more on Social innovation: online platform
Below a brief summary of the e-course content:
Module 1 – “WHAT IS SOCIAL ENTERPRENEURSHIP” is an introduction on the basic concept of social entrepreneurship that will be followed by an interactive workshop for better understanding of the term.
Module 2 -“WHERE TO FIND FUNDINGS FOR A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE” focuses on the financial aspect of a social business, and provides information on all the funding opportunities assisting learners in their path of creating their own business.
Module 3 -“LAUNCH A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE PLAN” launches the idea of a business plan, points out the significance of a business plan and provides useful guidance on how to prepare one. This effort is strengthened with a practical workshoip for personal reflection.
Module 4 – “BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS”- In addition to the business plan in this section another useful tool is explained, business model canvas.
Module 5 – “WHO IS THE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR”. In this module more information ad tools are shared for better understanding of the term social entrepreneur.
Module 6 – “IMPACT OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISES”-In this module the impact of social entreprises is measured by studying succesful examples of sustainable social enterprises.
All the above modules are focusing on essential topics that will enhance learners’ skills and prepare them better for the business world achieving social inclusion and personal growth
Learn more on project development via the following link:https://socialentrepreneur.eu/
Starting a business is exciting—but also demanding. This article addresses some of the most common startup steps to ensure your company is ready for success.
1. Prepare a business plan
An important first step is preparing a business plan to define your business, products, and services, and outline your goals, operating procedures, and competition. If your company needs funding from a traditional loan or venture capitalists, a business plan will be required. Make sure your plan includes a marketing approach, so people are aware of what you’re selling and how to find you.
2. Create a marketing plan and brand identity for your products and services
Increase the likelihood of success by creating a plan for promoting your products and services to your target market.
Create a business logo, cards, and stationery. These items establish your company’s identity and help potential customers find and remember you.
You will also need a website and social media accounts to establish your brand. This may be the first opportunity you get to make a good impression with customers and prospects.
Lastly don’t forget to create any necessary contracts, service agreements, and invoices so you can easily bill customers, track payments, and keep records.
3. Incorporate or form an LLC
Of course, incorporating your business or forming an LLC with the state is important because it protects your personal assets from business debts and liabilities. Other benefits of forming a corporation or LLC include tax advantages and greater credibility with customers, vendors, and business partners.
4. Select an accountant and attorney
Many small business owners seek advice from accountants and attorneys. As you search for an accountant and attorney, get referrals from friends or family, and look for professionals who have worked with other small business owners or companies in your specific industry.
You will probably want to use software or online tools to keep a close eye on expenses, invoices, income, inventory, and so on.
5. Get necessary tax identification numbers, licenses, and permits
A federal tax identification number (also called an employer identification number or EIN) acts like a social security number and is required for corporations and LLCs that will have employees. It’s used by the IRS to identify your business for all taxation matters Contact your state’s taxation department to learn if a state tax identification number is required in your state.
Also keep in mind that most businesses require licenses and/or permits to operate. Licenses may be required by your city, municipality, county, and/or state. Contact your Secretary of State and local government to ensure you meet any requirements.
6. Insure your business and investigate other requirements
Some industries have specific insurance requirements. Discuss your needs with your insurance agent to get the right type and amount of insurance. Remember to look into any other government tax and insurance requirements that might apply to your business, particularly if you have employees. For example:
7. Open a business bank account
It is crucial to separate business finances from personal ones. Most banks require company details, such as formation date, business type, and owner names and addresses. If your business is not incorporated, most banks will require a DBA (doing business as or fictitious business name). Contact your bank about requirements prior to opening an account.
8. Arrange your business accounting and apply for loans
You may want to use an accountant (see step 4), or handle finances yourself with a small business accounting solution. Either way, properly account for all business disbursements, payments received, invoices, accounts receivable/accounts payable, etc. And if you don’t have enough capital to start a business, this is also the time to seek funding from banks, investors, or through Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs.
9. Establish a business line of credit
This will help reduce the number of times your company prepays for purchased products and services. It also helps establish a strong credit history, which is helpful for vendor and supplier relationships. Getting a Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) DUNS (or D-U-N-S) number for your business is advisable, as it is often used to check business creditworthiness.
10. Ready your workspace
For home-based businesses, ensure you are meeting city zoning requirements for your area. For non-home-based businesses, you’ll likely need to lease office space. Don’t forget to purchase or lease furniture and office equipment to get your business up and running.
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The “Unravel Tomorrow Learning Journey” offers learning resources to support educators, empowering new social entrepreneurs and social innovators to think about and learn from the experiences of changemakers, strengthen skills and develop ideas to take action. This digital course invites Learners to investigate new perspectives, think about what is emerging, be inspired by and learn from the pioneers to imagine and unravel a flourishing and inclusive tomorrow. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) follows six modules each gathering a set of related ideas, challenges, and dreams collected from social innovation pioneers’ experiences:
At the end of the course assessment test and certificate is provided, so do not miss the opportunity to challenge yourself!
Thinking of starting a NEW social community project or an enterprise – visit our FREE online course and explore the “Unravel Tomorrow” regions to investigate new perspectives, think about what is emerging, be inspired by and learn from inspiring pioneers and their social actions. Packed with Videos, blogs, research, case studies and resources and challenges to help you learn new skills.
Are you helping aspiring social entrepreneurs? Why not add our resources to your social enterprise training? The Unravel Tomorrow Learning Journey is a framework and learning resources to support educators empowering new social entrepreneurs in a collaborative economic environment. Download our Journal to investigate perspectives of tomorrow and meet our fantastic case studies in the Gallery:
Other “Unravel Tomorrow” project materials:
Learning journey has been produced within the “Unravel Tomorrow” project with the financial support of Erasmus+ programme. The project is based on previous cooperation and constitutes the continuation of the “Tomorrow’s Land” project. More about “Tomorrow’s Land” can be found on http://www.tomorrowsland.eu/.
The project “Prosoa Rural – Promoting Social Awareness in Rural Area” aims to develop materials that support educators in rural training centers so that they can transmit these values to young people. The materials prepared are based on a methodology focused on the promotion of active participation and social entrepreneurship linked to the conservation of Cultural Heritage and Traditions at local, regional, national and European level.
The project partners have developed training module that aims to promote the initiative and social entrepreneurship of young people based on Cultural Heritage and Traditions Through this module, young people can be trained in and develop entrepreneurial skills, with the aim that they can be people with a greater social initiative, capable of generating activities and / or businesses related to Cultural Heritage, and their conservation. In addition to generating greater high-quality skills for young people, it contributes to a greater possibility of initiatives arising in rural environments that conserve the cultural heritage of small rural municipalities.
The main objectives of this training module:
Source: https://capacitybuildingecocs.eu/news/guide-social-entrepreneurship-and-cultural-events
This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
Are you a social entrepreneur? Jason Aviles, born and raised in The Bronx, tells his inspiring story of working professionally with youth and what lead him to adopting a Yoga lifestyle and transforming his life. While on his journey of service and self discovery, he takes a moment to reflect on the topic of what it means to be a social entrepreneur.
Jason Aviles is CEO of FLYOGI LLC, Executive Director of Wilmington Placemakers Inc., Program Director of Wilmington Green Box and Co-Founder of Artist Ave Station. Jason graduated from consciousness-based institution, Maharishi University of Management (MUM), where he developed an original interdisciplinary course of study in Youth Development and Social Change. While attending MUM, Jason was introduced to Yoga and lost over 60 pounds. Jason later obtained his Yoga instructor certification and after graduating transitioned back to Wilmington, Delaware to launch his Yoga company, FLYOGI, which offers Yoga classes and outreach to schools, community spaces, and corporate workplaces. Since being back in Delaware he has lead several social impact ventures in Wilmington to support the arts and culture under his NPO, Wilmington Placemakers Inc., including programs like Artist Avenue Station and Wilmington Green Box. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
Initially Corporate Impact Analysis Tool was developed for banks and investors to gain a cross-cutting view of the impact status and possibilities of their clients and investee companies. Based on the Positive Impact Initiative’s unique approach, it provides a holistic analysis of companies’ impacts across different sectors and countries.
The tool may be used by corporates themselves as a contribution to strategic planning and business development. The tool is intended to help organisations manage their portfolios, set and meet impact targets, and ultimately become more effective at managing impact-related risks and opportunities in close collaboration with their clients and investee companies. It allows to monitor the progress towards the targets of creating positive impact and reducing any harmful consequences as a result of the business activities.
To complete the assessment, collection of significant amounts of data from both internal and external sources should be done. The Stories For Impact team has developed comprehensive Manual explaining on how to use the data in a proposed tool. It guides through the investigation and learning process, that allows organisations to answer 3 significant questions for impact measurement: “Where?” (Identification), “What?” (Assessment) and “How?” (Monitoring).
The first part of the analysis stands for identification of significant impact areas based on company typology, geography and sectors of activity. After entry of the related data, the tool will tell which geographical and impact areas (according to SDGs) the company influences the most, taking into consideration countries of activity, their income level, generated assets, unemployment rates, other social and environmental challenges (based on rankings and statistics), impact areas associations etc.
The second part assesses the company’s impact performance and impact management capabilities, demonstrating the company’s actual impacts in defined impact areas. The precise metrics need to be chosen by yourself, for instance, with the support of the IRIS catalog of metrics. The methodology and applied classifications are based on The Impact Radar (2018) analysis tool.
Based on entered data, Corporate Impact Analysis Tool demonstrates the status of the company according to the worked-out criteria: “PI” (Positive impact), “PI transition” or “Not PI”. The criteria for receiving “PI” status are the following:
All relations between the social and environmental challenges and the impact company has on their improvement are visualized in Excel spreadsheets, making the analysis as simple and comprehensive as possible.
The Corporate Impact Analysis Tool is open source and freely available – for direct use or for adaptation and integration into proprietary systems.
The Manual: https://storiesforimpact.com/user-manual-of-the-new-corporate-impact-analysis-tool-by-unep-fi/
More about the tool: https://www.unepfi.org/publications/positive-impact-publications/corporate-impact-tool/
This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
As social entrepreneurs we have become quite familiar with the term impact, as it’s the way we bring our mission vision statement to life and create change in society. Across all the different types of organizations and their relevant impact, there are 4 distinct types of impact that can be observed according to the MetaIntegral framework.
The MetaIntegral framework clarifies the 4 types of impact being
Clear Impact
“One of the most common forms of impact is Clear Impact, which measures change in stakeholder performance. Many businesses and organizations include various metrics to assess this area of impact (e.g., skill assessments, analytics, observation tools, and various KPIs). What all these metrics have in common is the focus on objective criteria to track behavior and performance.”
High Impact
“The other main form of impact is High Impact, which measures change in stakeholder systems (e.g., supply chains, cash flow, customer engagement) . Many businesses and organizations include various metrics to assess this area of impact (e.g., environmental impact assessments, financial impact assessments, input indicators, and various KPIs). What all these metrics have in common is the focus on interobjective or systemic criteria to track organizational and market dynamics.”
Wide Impact
“Over the last decade it has become more common for organizations to include Wide Impact, which measures change in stakeholder relationships. With forms of network analysis and social mapping there have emerged various metrics to assess this area of impact (e.g., 360 Assessments, relationship mapping, interviews, and social impact assessments). What all these metrics have in common is the focus on intersubjective criteria to track the quality and quantity of relationships and their influence.”
Deep Impact
“Arguably, one of the most important forms of impact is Deep Impact, which measures change in stakeholder experience. There is a growing awareness among many businesses and organizations that this form of impact needs to be included. Various metrics are used to assess this area of impact (e.g., self-evaluations, psychometrics, satisfaction surveys, and happiness inventories). What all these metrics have in common is the focus on subjective criteria to track somatic, emotional, and psychological dimensions of experience.”
Knowing that there are different kinds of impacts and which your organization is most likely to focus on, enables your organization to be clearer on areas to develop with regards to growth practices as well as what measurements are best to use to track your impact in your given area.
For more information on the MetaIntegral framework and its applications, there are Youtube videos available as well as an online course.
Statements in “ “ are direct quotes from the MetaIntegral website as well as the included images.
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