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Rolfe Larson provides consulting and training in areas such as strategic planning, market research, feasibility analysis, business planning, marketing and implementation strategies.
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SE: Empowering Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs (Marc Lane)
Marc Lane, arguably the most prolific writer in the social enterprise sector, last year wrote another one of his useful books, entitled: Social Enterprise: Empowering Mission-Drive Entrepreneurs. It’s a good book to glance through, and even more important, to have nearby on your bookshelf for when you have a legal question about social enterprise. For [...]
Life Cycle Financing Options
When you’re looking for financing, it may seem that anything will do. However, depending on the life cycle stage of your venture, some forms of financing are better than others. You want the right kind of capital for the needs of your business at that point in time.
State of Social Enterprise: 2012
Following President Obama’s State of the Union speech last week, we thought this would be a good time to evaluate the state of the social enterprise sector. So here is the npEnterprise Forum’s official, revised* State of the SE Sector 2012 address. Emerging Private Sector SEs Private sector SEs are now gaining momentum and recognition. Truth [...]
Financing Fantasy #1: Angel Investors
Everybody wants to be on the side of the angels. And while angel investors aren’t divine, many social enterprises labor under the mistaken assumption that they represent a ready source of capital. Unfortunately, very few social enterprises secure financing this way, and frankly, even if you could get such funds, in most cases they’re not [...]
Finding Good Venture Ideas (Part 3)
This blog was written by guest writer Jan Cohen. Today we venture up the Risk Chart to explore New Markets for Existing Services or Products. The focus is on researching who else could use, and pay for, what you already provide.
Finding Good Venture Ideas (part 2)
This blog was written by guest writer Jan Cohen. As we discussed last time, when most nonprofit staff and Boards think about earned income, they typically think about doing “something new”. This Risk Chart helps organizations to clearly see how risk increases as they go from “things and people they know” to those they have no [...]
Social Franchises Mostly Fail
A recent discussion on the npEnterprise Forum (the global social enterprise listserv) revealed several key points about social franchises owned by nonprofit organizations. First, and foremost, they rarely succeed in meeting the nonprofit’s goals.
Do Foundations Support Social Enterprise?
Well, yes and no. They all want their grantees to develop “sustainability” strategies, by which they mean they want you to continue into the future without their money. So if social enterprise will help an organization diversity its funding sources and rely less on philanthropic support, they’re all for it. They like reading about it [...]
Do Unions Help (or Hinder) Social Enterprise?
As the social enterprise movement grows, enters new markets, and works with new employees, it’s discovering new partners … and new adversaries. One of those adversaries, according to some practitioners, can be unions. Unions of course exist to balance the excesses of power of management, and seek to protect the jobs and increase the wages [...]
Connect with ~7500 SE fans
Just wanted to mention a listserv devoted exclusively to social enterprise. Its focus is learning more about how organizations can develop successful social enterprise strategies to generate earned income to pursue mission, build capacity and achieve greater sustainability. If you’re interested, you’re invited to join the 7500-subscriber npEnterprise Forum listserv, the official listserv partner of the Social Enterprise Alliance. [...]
