Successful Business Models

A common concern for parents of children with disabilities is what will happen when their children become adults. It’s difficult for adults with disabilities to find employment — not because they aren’t capable, but because they are often exploited or overlooked because employers think they aren’t capable. Increasingly, people with disabilities, or their families, are taking control of their own futures. One Illinois mom is the latest, opening a bakery for her son, and hopefully others with disabilities in the future.

Margaret Cortes told KWQC that she was told her son, Frankie, would never walk or talk when he was a baby. Yet Frankie proved them all wrong. “He can sing, he can dance, he can run, he can jump. He can do so many things,” Cortes said. Yet she was scared of what would happen after he graduated high school. “It was important for me that he didn’t end up just working in a factory or working where he wasn’t getting that exposure to other people,” she explained.

A common concern for parents of children with disabilities is what will happen when their children become adults. It’s difficult for adults with disabilities to find employment — not because they aren’t capable, but because they are often exploited or overlooked because employers think they aren’t capable. Increasingly, people with disabilities, or their families, are taking control of their own futures. One Illinois mom is the latest, opening a bakery for her son, and hopefully others with disabilities in the future.

Margaret Cortes told KWQC that she was told her son, Frankie, would never walk or talk when he was a baby. Yet Frankie proved them all wrong. “He can sing, he can dance, he can run, he can jump. He can do so many things,” Cortes said. Yet she was scared of what would happen after he graduated high school. “It was important for me that he didn’t end up just working in a factory or working where he wasn’t getting that exposure to other people,” she explained.

Special Kneads Bakery was his mother’s answer. Currently a senior in high school, Frankie plans to go to college. But for now, he works at Special Kneads Bakery, interacting with customers. “I just try and treat everyone with respect and make them smile,” Frankie said. “I like serving the community because it makes my heart feel good.”

“It’s amazing to see how far he’s come,” Cortes added.

Cortes’ fears about her son’s future were not unfounded. Amy Wright, who founded the coffee shop Bitty & Beau’s, was named CNN’s Hero of the Year in 2017 for her work providing jobs to people with disabilities. Both of her children, whom her coffee shop is named after, have Down syndrome. She and her husband were already making sure to hire people with disabilities, but when they saw that 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed, she opened Bitty & Beau’s, which now has franchises across the country. It’s also still legal for people with disabilities to be paid less than minimum wage, leading to the possibility of exploitation.

“We try to set an example here that their work is just as worthy as typically-developed people,” she said when she won the award. “And they have dreams they want to work toward. One helped his family put down a payment on a house. Another is saving up for a car.”

Cortes, Wright, and countless others are looking to change the bleak employment outlook by proving that people with disabilities are capable. They are not unable to work or contribute to their communities. It’s long past time for the rest of the world to see that and to give people like Frankie the chance to make a difference.

Source: https://www.liveaction.org/news/mother-bakery-special-needs-son

In the past most startups occurred because a new technology had come along that would provide solution to a problem that could not be solved previously. (As an example, an unmet need was the pain of creating and editing documents. The solution was word processing, and the technological trigger that made this possible was the availability of low cost personal computers.)

The business model innovations fall into two categories:

Brand new business models being created because of the Web which don’t resemble any previous businesses. Examples of these would be companies like Google, PayPal, Gilt, OpenTable, SurveyMonkey, Second Life, eLance, 99Designs, etc. These businesses leverage the incredible power of the web to acquire customers at a low cost, with interesting new ways of monetization.

Areas where there were already existing businesses, where new business models are disrupting the landscape. Examples of this are eCommerce (Amazon disrupting bricks and mortar retailers), Open Source (e.g. JBoss disrupting an existing market dominated by BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere), and SaaS (e.g. Salesforce.com disrupting a market dominated by Siebel and others).

The purpose of this section is to look at the variety of new business models that are being developed, as this appears to be the area of innovation that is leading to some of the most exciting startups.

In many situations a business model breakthrough will have been created by one company and applied to a single area, and there will still exist considerable opportunity for that same business model innovation to be applied to other areas. As an example, Salesforce.com pioneered the SaaS business model, but only applied it to CRM. There are now many other application areas where the SaaS business model could be applied to create new businesses.

Business Model Failure

It is also useful for entrepreneurs to understand what business models are not working well, or are less attractive, so they can avoid those.
After my exposure to literally several hundreds of startups, I have begun to realize that one of the most common causes of failure in the startup world is that entrepreneurs are too optimistic about how easy it will be to acquire customers. They assume that because they will build an interesting web site, product, or service, that customers will beat a path to their door. That may happen with the first few customers, but after that, it rapidly becomes an expensive task to attract and win customers, and in many cases the cost of acquiring the customer (CAC) is actually higher than the lifetime value of that customer (LTV).
The observation that you have to be able to acquire your customers for less money than they will generate in value of the lifetime of your relationship with them is stunningly obvious. Yet despite that, I see the vast majority of entrepreneurs failing to pay adequate attention to figuring out a realistic cost of customer acquisition. A very large number of the business plans that I see as a venture capitalist have no thought given to this critical number, and as I work through the topic with the entrepreneur, they often begin to realize that their business model may not work because CAC will be greater than LTV.
Also if you would like to have a capital efficient business, I believe you will find that it is important to recover the cost of acquiring your customers in under 12 months. Wireless carriers and banks break this rule, but they have the luxury of access to cheap capital.

The Essence of a Business Model

A simple way to focus on what matters in the vast majority of business models is look at these two questions:

Can you find a scalable way to acquire customers?
Can you then monetize those customers at a significantly higher level than your cost of acquisition?

There are some businesses such as marketplaces where there are additional components to take into consideration. However thinking about things in such simple terms can be very helpful.

It is also very useful to look at some of the factors that can help drive the balance of the model:

By David Skok

Social enterprise Textale from Lithuania just recently launched an online shop for used, repurposed, vintage and upcycled clothing for both men and women.

Currently, the shop contains over 400 items. The company is pioneering turn in of used clothing by the customers in exchange for discounts on the existing wear.

You can visit the online shop here: http://textale.lt/shop/

WildHearts is a social enterprise in Glasgow, Scotland, that sells office supplies and document management services to large companies. WildHearts use the profits to offer entrepreneurial education and micro-finance for young people in the UK and in the rest of the world.

WildHearts is based on a simple business idea – “social innovation and social change can be created through a paper clip”.

Mick Jackson, who is behind WildHearts, got the idea for the company in 2006, when he was employed as a manager in a large traditional company. Here had seen that many large companies buy for billions of pounds so-called “invisible” goods such as. paper clips, pens, toner for printers, paper, uniforms, furniture etc.. At the same time, the companies are often more or less indifferent to where they get the goods from. Mick Jackson therefore asked his business contacts: “If I can offer these products at a competitive price, if the service is good and where 100% of the profits will go towards creating social change in Scotland and the rest of the world, would you buy from my business?”. The answer he received was a resounding YES.
This was the starting point and since then, it has been the foundation of WildHearts, which today has some of the world’s largest companies as customers.

WildHearts is one of the UK’s leading B2B companies in terms of creating social impact. The company makes it possible for its large customers such as Johnson & Johnson, Zurich, Delloitte, Amey and Serco – to create positive social impact simply by purchasing their office supplies and other services at WildHearts.

WildHearts Office offers more than 35,000 products at competitive prices and at the same time has a good customer service.

Besides office supplies, WildHearts also offers furniture and interiors, printer services, working clothes, data archiving and document management (from transporting documents to storage and labeling). With its many products and services, WildHearts´ many companies allow customers to purchase their office supplies and office services from one provider. This helps make it simple and cost-effective for businesses.

All revenue helps fund the work of the WildHearts Foundation, a registered charity. (Registered Charity SC037072). The Foundation is committed to combating economic inequality and helping vulnerable people in the UK and in the rest of the world.

Basically, WildHearts believes that by supporting the creativity, that many people have, the company can enable them to manage their own lives and become more resilient to the challenges they face. The idea is reflected in all social initiatives of the Foundation ranging from helping female entrepreneurs in Malawi in difficult situations to strengthening young people affected by social immobility in the UK.

WildHeart supports these people through various forms of micro-investment, so they get the chance to become entrepreneurs and start their own small business that can make them self-sufficient.

For example, WildHearts is trying to combat gender inequality, which is a major problem globally, through their StartHer Strategy. WildHearts ‘StartHer’ Strategy supports women and girls in the developing countries through three initiatives: incubation, education and health.

First of all, WildHearts gives them access to finance. 75% of women in the world do not have access to any kind of funding. This is, in fact, an unparalleled gender discrimination. So in this regard WildHearts’ micro investments makes a huge difference.
Next, WildHearts’ education program gives the women and girls access to tools and the learning they need.

Finally, WildHearts health program ensures that the girls have access to menstrual products and are taught how to use them,  so the girls do not leave school because of problems and shame about menstruation, which is a general problem in many developing countries.

Micro-Tyco

To support entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking, WildHearts has developed the Micro-Tyco program. Micro-Tyco is a month-long entrepreneurial education program that enables participants to practice and practice business at a very basic level and in a safe ‘micro’ environment. Teams from schools, universities and businesses get one pound in initial capital and then get a month to make it grow as much as possible.

The Micro-Tyco program helps to unleash the participants’ latent talents, as well as promoting entrepreneurial thinking, improve skills and teamwork.

Participants in the program are also taught basic business skills by world-class Micro-Tyco mentors, such as Josh Bayliss, director of the Virgin Group and Thérèse Rein, contractor and former First Lady in Australia. They also get access to the ‘Micro-Tyco Method’ an eBook with entrepreneurial guidance.

One of the most creative ideas that Mick Jackson has experienced through the programme was a boy who exchanged his one pound to a 100 shilling pieces, after which he got the local priest to bless them. The blessed shilling piece he then sold for 1 pound each and thus ended up growing his one pound to 100 pounds.

To recognize the participants for their entrepreneurial qualities, wildHearts has created the “Micro-Tyco Excellence Award”, in collaboration with The Social Innovation Lab at Babson College, the world’s leading entrepreneurial school. Micro-Tycos also have the opportunity to further expand their network on Future Talent Forums, Micro-Tyco Master Classes and WildHearts GEL Summits.

All the money created by Micro-Tyco participants is investing by WildHearts in micro loans for poor entrepreneurs in developing countries. In this way the participants in the program experience, that they become entrepreneurs in order to fund another entrepreneur who needs it.

By linking business practices with social impact, the Micro-Tyco program also aims to inspire a new and future kind of leaders that our world needs and deserves.

WildHearts runs the Micro-Tyco program for free for both schools, colleges, universities, community groups.

In relation to companies, Micro-Tyco has proven to be successful in identifying and developing talent, and the programe is now used by the world’s leading companies, such as Deloitte, Johnson and Johnson and Barclays as part of their recruiting and employee development strategies.

 WildHearts´ Impact

WildHearts has created great positive social changes through its work since the start in 2006.
– 45,000 people in 25 countries worldwide have participated in the Micro-Tyco program.
– Positive life changes have been created for 300,000 people
– 7 million pounds have been invested in positive social change.

You can read more about company’s impact here

In addition, WildHearts also works extensively with the UN’s world goals and specifically addresses approx. half of the goals. You can see a more detailed description of WildHearts work with the UN’s world goal here

More about WildHearts at: www.wildheartsgroup.com

Watch interview with WildHearts founder Mick Jackson from TEDx in Glasgow 2016 here

The “Pay-what-you-can” businessmodel is used by both non-profit and for-profit businesses.
In most cases it is used by businesses, that do not need or depend on having a set prices for its products or services. Instead the business can asks its customers to pay what they feel the product or service is worth to them. The model  is  sometimes used synonymously with the “Pay what you want”  or Pay-It-Forward” businessmodels.

All models are variations of the gift economy, and are dependent on reciprocity and trust to succeed.

The basic idea with the “Pay-what-you-can” or “Pay what you want” model, is that the buyers pay the amount they desire for a given gods or service, the prize can also be zero. Some businesses, that use the model, set a minimum price, or a suggested price as guidance for the buyer. The buyer can also pay a higher price than the standard or suggested price for the goods or service, to support the social caurse of the business or organization, that they are buying from.

To see what the model could look like in practice lets have a look at the Pay it Forward Grocery Store – a Canadian example of the model.

Pay it Forward Grocery Store in Toronto, Canada is a social economy grocery store that sells surplus food and where customers can pay whatever they want.

Pay it Forward Grodcery Store has no price tags for its goods, but uses a so-called “Pay-what-you-can” model and is North America’s first of its kind. “Pay-what-you-can” means that customers pay what they want, and that also means that people who find it difficult to afford food can take the goods with free and do not pay.
To ensure that the store continues to have goods in stock, families are encouraged to only take food for one day at a time. They can also choose to get a pre-packed box with food and recipes every other week. People who think they have financial profits can choose to pay for other people’s groceries (hence the name – “Pay it forward”).

Chef Jagger Gorden is the person behind the idea for Toronto’s first food waste supermarket. He is a well-known Canadian advocate for reducing food waste and to help people, who have difficulty purchasing enough food to avoid hunger.

He came up with the idea in 2014, when he was running his own catering company, he experienced a first-hand impression of how much food is wasted when events are held. SO he opened pop-up restaurants throughout Toronto, where he used the foo, that was left over from catering to events.

In 2016, he served over 600 hot meals for hungry Toronto residents on Christmas Eve.

In May 2017, he opened a soup bar that became the first pay-what-you-can restaurant in Toronto, and in the fall of 2018 he opened the Pay it Forward Grocery Store, which also includes a pay-what-you-can bakery and cafe.

All the initiatives are gathered in Gordon’s non-profit company Feed It Forward.

Feed It Forward Grocery Store sells foods that major merchant chains, which the stores do not want to or can not sell. It could be fruit and vegetables that have a “wrong shape” or are slightly damaged or bumped. It can also be goods, that are close to the last sale date or goods where the packaging is damaged. Finally it can also be goods, that larger merchant chains do not have storage space for.

Feed It Forward Grocery Stores has agreements with supermarkets, manufacturing companies and bakeries throughout the Toronto region to ensure, that there is always fresh items on the shelves. The store has a variety of products on the assortment from flour and sugar to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

With its efforts, the company helps to ensure that up to 450 kg of food is not wasted and ends up in the pilot site.

If the company gives a profit, it is returned to the store and covers costs such as rent and transport and provisions. More than 600 volunteers help in the business, and Gordon complements the revenue of fundraising events, donations and revenue from his catering business.

To Gordon, it is important that no food is wasted. So when it occasionally happens that Feed It Forward Grocery Store have surplus food, Gordon and his volunteers go to the street and share the food or send it to the local homeless center. Although the new pay-what-you-can grocery store is welcomed by many, there are also some who question the model’s long-term sustainability.

However, Gordon himself believes in the model and that people with money will cover for those who cannot pay for the goods in the store. His experience after eight months of operating a pay-what-you-can restaurant is that the accounts are roughly balanced in the end.

He expects to cover an overhead through fundraising, online donations and revenue from his catering business, Jagger Gordon Catering. In all circumstances, the operation of Feed It Forward Grocery Store has very low operating costs, because the food is donated free and the labor force is mostly voluntary and unpaid.

Read more about Pay it Forward Grocery Store at: https://feeditforward.ca

Pay-what-you-can-model

The pay-what-you-can model is used in various locations around the world with some variations.

The Good Food

The Good Food supermarket in Cologne, Germany, uses the same model as the Pay It Forward Grocery Store in Toronto. Here the model could be called “pay-what-you-think”

Read more about The Good Food at: www.the-good-food.de

Panera Cares Community Cafe

Not all examples of the pay-what-you-can model have been succesfull. The big American bakery chain Panera Bread has been running special stores in various locations in the United States under the name “Panera Cares Community Cafe. The last store in Boston, however, closes in early 2019, and Panera ceases to use the concept because they no longer think it is profitable of financially sound. Panera Cares Community Cafe had the same selsction as other Panera Bread stores. The only difference was the Panera Cares Community Cafe was a non-profit bakery that was run on donations where the guests paid what they could. When the guests were to pay ,they were suggested a price for the meal, and at this point they could decide whether they would pay the suggested amount, pay more or less or whether they would pay for a future customer who might not be able to afford (it is also called called pay-it-forward. Anyone who was unable to donate money could volunteer at the café for an hour in exchange for their meal.

You can still read about Panera at: www.paneracares.org

SAME Cafe

SAME Café in Denver, USA, has successfully run the cafe the last 13 using the pay-what-you-can model. SAME stands for So All May Eat and the first thing you see on the cafe’s website is that “everyone, regardless of their financial status, deserves the opportunity to eat healthy food and to be treated with dignity.” SAME Cafe takes these words seriously. They serve daily meals made from fresh, organic ingredients and there is no requirement for visitors to pay.
The café has no cash register, only a donation box. Unlike Panera, the people behind SAME Café believe that the  café is a success, because they have had more focus on the mission, namely to provide food for vulnerable people who would otherwise have to starve. The money has been second and lots of volunteer hours have been spent driving the café.

More at: www.soallmayeat.org

Save the Date Café

Save the Date Café In London works to fight food waste by making healthy meals of surplus food and serving them as pay-what-you-want meals. The café also operates a pay-what-you-feel supermarket.
More at: www.savethedate.london

Karma Kitchen

Karma Kitchen is a unique attempt to run a restaurant using a gift economy system. When customers have finished eating at one of Karma Kitchen restaurants, they receive a 0.00 dollars bill with a message saying “Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. To keep the chain of gifts going, we invite you to pay for those who eat after you “. Guests can pay what they want, either with money or with their working hours. Karma Kitchen has restaurants in several places in the US, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, UK, Japan, France, Spain and Dubai

More at: www.karmakitchen.org

Lentil As Anything

Lentil As Anything in Melbourne, Australia, serves healthy vegetarian meals based on a pay-what-you-want model. The restaurants have been run by the model since 2003 and have helped give everyone, regardless of financial capacity, access to healthy and nutritious meals by taking money out of the equation.

More at: www.lentilasanything.com

Der Wiener Deewan

Der Wiener Deewan is a popular Pakistani restaurant in Vienna, serving a delicious buffet for anyone wishing to enjoy Pakistani food. All-you-can-eat and pay-what-you-want buffet offers five different curry dishes, three vegetarian dishes and two meat dishes. Unlike many other restaurants, Wiener Deewan is open 23 hours every day except on Sundays. The restaurant also runs a play-as-you-wish jam session on the first Monday of the month.

More at: www.deewan.at

JBJ Soul Kitchen

JBJ Soul Kitchen, a non-profit initiative started by rock star Jon Bon Jovi, is not exactly a pay-what-you-want restaurant, but the three-course meal served only costs 20 dollars and tip is not allowed. The payment is considered a donation and the money goes back to the community to help offer fresh, organic food to people in need. If people cannot pay for the meal, they can volunteer at the restaurant for one hour as payment. One hour of volunteer work covers the cost of a meal for the volunteer as well as for meals for up to four family members. JBJ Soul Kitchen has restaurants in two locations on the East Coast of the United States in New Jersey in the Toms River.

Read more at: www.jbjsoulkitchen.org

Source: The Guardian and Road Affair

We highly recommend this text on social entrepreneurship business models by Danielle Sutton on Acumen website. This content is delivered to you in the framework of the SEBS2 project co-funded by the Erasmus+, as our aim is to popularize social business and social entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region.

Social enterprise business models for inspiration. If your customers’ limited ability to pay is limiting your impact, take a look at these examples.

We frequently hear the question: “What if the people who need and use my products or services can’t pay?” If you think that the customers who will most benefit from your social enterprise’s services may not be able to afford them, it can feel like an insurmountable hurdle.

While it’s true that some customers have real barriers to paying, don’t be too quick to assume users will not pay for basic goods and services that add essential value to their lives.

Read more:

https://www.plusacumen.org/journal/creative-social-enterprise-business-model-ideas-10-ways-address-affordability

My Dream Now is a social enterprise which provides mentorship-programs with students. The organization inspires student to believe in themselves. “The belief in others and belief in himself is what makes change possible”, is how the the culture is developed around the people, with values incorporating openness, community, responsibility.

Volunteers class coaches from work and inspire college students to see their opportunities, find ways to future job and work toward their own short-term goals. Together with employers we help young people to look ahead and start dreaming. No dream is too big or too small. The most important thing is that they are yours.

My Dream Now, creates inspiring collaboration between school and work. Their vision is that all young people should know their value in society and find their own paths to jobs and dreams. And their goal is to hit 10,000 students in 3 years and 1 million students in 10 years in several countries and be able to see measurable positive effect.

Employer

 

We give partners a concrete opportunity to engage employees.They see the value of business-driven sustainability work: long-term competence, employer branding at the university, more engaged employees with different backgrounds and strong brand.

School

 

We offer several different programs for secondary schools that give students the motivation to achieve the objectives of the school. The aim is to inspire students to believe in themselves, to understand their opportunities at work, searching own dreams and roads there.

Municipality

My Dream Now have a working model for a long-term co-funded school-working leading to more young people get jobs. In the first phase, the municipality is helping to finance the work.

 

Volunteer

Do you want to help young people to understand their opportunities in employment, find their dream and the way to exciting job? Do you want to inspire students and share with your job and study experience?With us there are many opportunities to work as a volunteer.

Retoy is one of the growing social entrepreneurship initiative in Sweden that is a classic business case study. Retoy is an organization works with education and awareness about climate and social issues. Target group is kids.

Inclusive Business Sweden serves as a platform for creating awareness of inclusive business, facilitating collaboration between organisations, as well as for connecting and supporting organisations to create opportunities associated with the BoP.

Purpose

Inclusive Business Sweden is the Swedish national center for the advancement of inclusive business initiatives with the “Base of the Pyramid” (BoP) – the 4,5 billion individuals living on under $8 a day. These 4,5 billion represent an immense economic opportunity, entrepreneurial capacity, untapped source of business growth and exciting opportunity for business to contribute to global development goals and poverty alleviation.

The BoP is also used to describe a business strategy that focuses on meeting this segment’s basic needs by engaging them as consumers, producers and entrepreneurs – this is often termed “inclusive business”.

Growth Mechanism

As growth in mature markets begins to stagnate, many businesses are now turning to the BoP market as an untapped source of growth. Even for basic-needs products and services such as food, water, energy, health, IT and transportation, the market potential has been estimated at a value of $5 trillion³.

The telecommunications and micro-finance industries have been the first to see tremendous success from these ventures. Many large businesses are leveraging their BoP strategies to simultaneously grow their businesses while playing a role as good corporate citizens by helping to meet the basic needs of the BoP. Firms such as Unilever, Danone, Microsoft, Vodafone, Nokia, Schneider Electric and Philips have been quite successful in applying these strategies.

Concept of Inclusive Business

The concept of Inclusive Business with the BoP was originally described by C.K Prahalad, in the book The Fortune At The Bottom of the Pyramid. According to Bill Gates, this model “provides an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NetsLE44vsA

Stowarzyszenia na Rzecz Rozwoju Gminy Bałtów „Bałt”
(The Association for the development of the municipality Bałtów “Bałt”)

Social goal

1. The development of tourism and economic in the municipality of Bałtów.
2. Increasing the number of jobs, the development of local entrepreneurship and turistic and gastronomy infrastructure.
3. Integration and activation of Bałtów citizens.
   

History of the social enterprises creation

The municipality of Bałtów has around 4 thousand inhabitants and is located in Southeast part of Poland. Due to political and economical transformation in 90’s in this small town level of unemployment reached almost 40%. The local authorities did not manage well the municipality: there was no water supply, sewage system or mobile phone. There was no local zoning plan. Unregulated ownership issues discourage potential investors. The authorities were not interested in reaching for pre-accession funds that could help to improve the infrastructure. The result of inefficiency of local government were poverty, apathy residents, breakdown of social ties.

Everything changed unprecedented social “spurt” of the inhabitants of Bałtów, who in 2001 decided that Bałtów need a change. In the meeting organized by the initiative group came 120 people, local entrepreneurs, teachers, farmers and artisans who in the beggining of 2001 established The Association for the development of the municipality Bałtów “Bałt”.

They started to look for a way to use the landscape values, which could attract tourists and revive the community. Some of the ideas seemed absurd – for example organizing rafting on the river Kamienna (which was then a collective garbage dump) or creation of the first in Poland Jurassic Park. However exactly those ideas, determination, perseverance and the will of changes made the miracle: unemployment in the municipality is minimal, and Balyów is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.

The establishment of The Association “Bałt” was just a beggining, in next five years few more social enterprises was establish to enrich turistic offers of Bałtów and create The Bałtów Turistic Complex containing: Jurassic Park, Rafting on The River Kamienna, Ski Slope, Hourse Riding Center, Mini Zoo and Allozaur (service and maintenance of tourist infrastructure).

Offered products and services

Jurassic Park – Scientists found in Bałtów dinosaur footprints and members of The Association “Bałt” decided to use it as a tourist attraction. At the end of 2003 they formed the “Delta” Association, which in 2004 acceded to build a Jurassic park on the former site of a sawmill. Currently, the park leads trail showing another era in the history of the earth, enriched with colored plates with descriptions of animals and plants. The main attraction is the more than 70 life-size dinosaur models. Above the winding stream hover mock dragonflies and birds before 300 million years. Before entering the park there is a large square, which is set souvenir stalls.

Rafting on The River Kamienna – since 2003 turists can try 4 kilometers long rafting on a raft with experience rafter.

Ski Slope – it was open in 2007 on private land, leased by the “Delta” Association. The creation of a ski slope lengthened the turistic season and ensured the continuity of employment for more than 120 people working in Jurassic Park and Rafting (eg. Winter rafters floating down the river Stone deal with the operation and maintenance of the slope).

Horse-riding Center: Land of Horses – The resort has been operating since 2005 as an additional attraction for tourists.

Mini Zoo in Bałtów – the wildlife refuge, available since 2007. During ekosafari customers can see alpacas, llamas, ostriches, fallow deer and exotic birds. All the animals come from Polish farms.

„Allozaur” – in 2006 new social enterprise (non-profit limited liability company) was established to provide services and maintenance of tourist infrastructure in the whole Bałtów Turistic Complex but also additionally to work for municipality and whole community: care of the municipal greenery, cleans hiking trails, parks and river banks. The enterprise also organizes entertainment events and produces souvenirs.

Read more: http://www.baltow.info/

information source: www.baltow.info, http://www.ekonomiaspoleczna.pl/x/671704

Bielskie Stowarzyszenie Artystyczne “Teatr Grodzki”
(The Bielsko Artistic Association Grodzki Theatre)

Social goal

Social and vocational activation of people with disabilities.

History of the social enterprise creation

The association was founded in 1999 in the town of Bielsko-Biala (southern part of Poland) and gathered artists, pedagogues and culture promoters engaged in artistic work with children, teenagers, adults and the elderly from the socially excluded groups. The latter include physically and mentally disabled persons, people with learning disabilities, children and youths from families at risk, young offenders, victims of alcohol and drug addictions, senior citizens, and all those alienated from the mainstream of social and cultural life.

In 2004 Association created The Occupational Therapy Workshops (arts and life-skills day centre) for 30 people with disabilities and first Vocational Therapy Unit were participants of The occupational therapy workshops go one step forward and start regular job. With a time Association in a close cooperation with local municipalities open second Vocational Therapy Unit – The Resort, Conferance and Rehabilitation Centre in small town Lalili.

Offered products and services:

Printing House and Bookbindery in Bielsko-Biała (http://www.poligrafia.bielsko.pl/) – was created in 2004 as Vocational Therapy Unit (shelered enterprize) , it has 3 different laboratories:
• Computer graphics laboratory – preparation for printing (editting, developing graphic design, direct order fulfillment), digital printing (printing of business cards, letterhead, calendars, recipes, postcards, brochures, etc.).
• Printing laboratory – offset printing (printing of newspapers, posters, books, etc.).
• Binding laboratory – manufacture of ecological bags and briefcases, hardcover and paperback books, records, reports, master’s theses. Handmade  greeting cards, postcards, decorated bags and boxes etc. 
The printing house employs 40 people with disabilities.

The Resort, Conference and Rehabilitation Centre in Laliki, village in Beskidy Mountains (http://www.laliki.com.pl/) – was created in 2008 again as Vocational Therapy Unit (sheltered enterprize). The hotel can host 60 guests in a one time and is the most modern in the Silesian province center of sports rehabilitation and rehabilitation of the locomotor system. The resort offers guests 21 elegant rooms and a dining room, conference room, lounge rehabilitation, gym, sauna and offeres a rental of Nordic walking sticks.
The hotel employs  30 people, 22 of them are disabled persons with movement disabilities and / or mental illness.

Read more: http://www.teatrgrodzki.pl/en/

information source: www.teatrgrodzki.pl and http://www.ekonomiaspoleczna.pl/x/671707

Fundacja Rozwoju Przedsiębiorczości Społecznej “Być Razem” from Cieszyn
(Foundation of Social Entrepreneurship Development “Be Together”)

Social Goals:

1. The activation of the unemployed and persons at risk of social exclusion through work and education. Creating new jobs in the run by Foundation social enterprise in the same time supporting reintegration of people threatened with marginalization.
2. Supporting social cooperatives, other social enterprises even regular companies also focused on the activities of a social nature, associations, and other forms of social activity built on the values of solidarity, reciprocity and cooperation.

History of the social enterprise creation

The members of Stowarzyszenie Pomocy Wzajemnej “Być Razem” (The Common Help Association “Be Together”) who are working with many socially excluded groups like youth, children from pathological families, victims of valance, homeless people, permanently unemployed or former prisoners, from the very begging of their activity was sure that one of the basic condition for their beneficiaries to start a new, worthy life is helping them in finding a job.
The Association activities from the very beginning was supported by The Municipality of Cieszyn, which in 2004 passed to The Association with hand free operation huge former factory halls, which became a place of social reintegration of the Association beneficiaries.
Over time and gained experienced the idea, of creating a safe and proper for The Association’s beneficiaries working place turned into reality.
The Cieszyn Municipality included the projects of creating The Social Enterprise in Cieszyn to its development Strategy. The Municipality in partnership with The Association applied for a special grant from The Integrated Operational Program for Regional Development and they won the contest. The whole investment took 1,5 year and consumed the amount of 6 million PLN (around from 1,5 million EUR) but definitely was successful.
In 2007 The Association established a new legal entity – social enterprise called: Fundacja Rozwoju Przedsiębiorczości Społecznej “Być Razem”.

Offered services and products:

Brand WellDone® Dobre Rzeczy – mostly wooden products made from natural materials, simple, witty, intelligent and useful items, perfect for gifts. They were designed by young designers and produced by persons returning to the labour market, supported by the Foundation “Be Together”.

Laundry provides professional and comprehensive laundry services for institutional clients, such as hotels, hostels, guest houses, restaurants, spas. As one of the few laundries in the region offers both the water and chemical cleaning.

Joinery is engaged in manufacturing wood products, specializing particularly in packaging, interior decoration and furniture and other unusual woodwork, carpentry combining the traditional with the modern carpentry.

Ironworks is offering various products made from stainless and black steel and black for example: railings, gates, grilles, fences, building . The workshop is also providing services like: welding, cutting, milling etc.

Gastronomy – catering and eating house services are offered by Social Cooperative “Super Smak” (Super Taste) which is based in the Foundation buildings. Five ladies running the Social Cooperative are preparing meals for employees of the foundation and people from the outside and supporting trainings, conferences, banquets, receptions, business meetings, family celebrations, balls, proms and many other events. The Social Cooperative was establish with financial and non-financial support of The Foundation and The Association SWR with full support of local municipality.

Training courses – professional training courses and workshops in 2 main areas: social economy and social competences. The training courses curriculum are based on experiences of The Foundation staff in terms of: creating comprehensive and innovative support programs; revitalization of the ruins of the building in order to create homes, day centres and twenty-four hour; conducting workshops, teaching work and production and service; initiating and creating social cooperatives.

Study visits – services dedicated especially to public administration and third sector representatives who are interested in establish or supporting the development of social economy entities in their region. During the study visit participants can visit all workshops, speak with employees and management team.

Read more: http://www.fundacjabycrazem.pl

Mamu muge (Moms’ Market) is a social enterprise from Vilnius, Lithuania. The company has been established in 2012 with primary purpose to support young families by optimising sale and donation of second hand clothing for children and other related goods, like cribs, footwear etc. Besides it also promotes sustainability and volunteering. Goods are sold several times a year in large warehouses. Over 25000 families have benefited from the activities of the enterprise annually.

Business model – Moms’ Market has created a software that enables anybody to print out labels and mark sellable children goods. Once the stuff arrives at the warehouse, the volunteers and staff of the company unpackages and hangs all the items for display. Once the market starts – it becomes the largest store of children related goods for the next 3 days in Lithuania. Markets are organised in Kaunas and Vilnius couple times a year. The company is scalable.

The revenues are being shared by the company which keeps the commission from every item sold to cover running costs, the owner of the stuff sold and a portion of revenues as well as some unsold items are given to the socially vulnerable families and single moms.

Moms’ Market is looking for partners in the neighbouring countries that would like  to franchise it’s business model and use already existing software to facilitate the whole process.

The team:

Website: http://musumuges.lt/