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Business Management

Learn how to effectively manage the business operations of your social enterprise.

Business Planning

2018-12-20 09:47:24

Article

Venture Criteria

What does “success” look like for your social enterprise? Before starting a new social enterprise venture – whether a new start-up social enterprise or a new business line in an existing social enterprise – it is essential to articulate your goals.

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2019-05-10 11:47:32

Article

Pre-Feasibility Assessment

When planning a new social enterprise business, you will want to eliminate bad business ideas early on in the process. The pre-feasibility analysis helps you do so.

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2018-12-06 11:27:24

Article

Feasibility Assessment

How to decide whether to launch a social enterprise business by performing in-depth analysis of the market, operational, and financial viability for your business ideas.

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2016-10-10 17:33:25

Article

Growing a Social Enterprise: The Vision Stage

How to understand the likely social outcomes, financial resources required, and key levers of profitability before committing to a specific business.

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2017-12-17 09:21:27

Article

The Imperative to Grow

Today’s social entrepreneurs grow their ventures in the name of both financial viability and social impact. What are the risks associated with the pursuit of growth?

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2019-05-09 14:02:58

Article

Key Elements of a Growth Plan

Key considerations to develop a clearly articulated, compelling and comprehensive growth plan for your social enterprise.

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2019-01-15 12:35:10

Tool

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis helps you identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to build strategies that maximize strengths and opportunities while minimizing weaknesses and the risks of potential threats.

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2016-09-14 11:23:33

Article

Life Cycle Analysis for Assessing Social Enterprise Stage

Understanding the life cycle stage of your social enterprise will enable you to determine what type of support you will require and what outcomes you want to see

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2019-05-30 11:44:15

Tool

GOAL: Grid for Organizational Assessment and Learning

To help social enterprises strengthen their capacity to achieve their mission, REDF has developed GOAL (adapted from McKinsey’s Capacity Assessment Tool) to help you measure your organization’s capacity in 6 areas.

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2017-02-16 10:14:18

Article

Industry Assessment Framework

It is important to be thoughtful and deliberate about what industries to move into when starting a social enterprise. This article explores four areas of focus to carefully assess potential promising industries.

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2019-02-15 11:59:46

Tool

Risks & Mitigation Planning

Risks and mitigation planning provides an opportunity to think through possible eventualities and how you will address them. A description of potential developments enables staff and stakeholders to be alert and better prepared for them.

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2016-09-13 16:09:01

Article

Incorporating Lean Start-up Principles

The lean start-up approach is a hypothesis-driven approach to evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities. Learn how social enterprises can use it to create employment opportunities.

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2017-12-18 10:08:08

Article

Business Owner Interview Guide

This interview guide will help you ask the right questions in your business owner interviews.

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2019-05-02 12:45:40

Article

Social Enterprise Replication: Packaging and Replicating a Successful Model

One option for achieving scale is by having others replicate the business model. In this article, we focus on the replicating social enterprise via a franchise-like model.

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2016-08-30 09:58:14

Article

Core Drivers of Success: Audacity

Audacity is a fearless approach to leadership driving new commercial relationships, path-breaking business models, and bold long-term goals.

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Talent & HR

2016-02-17 15:06:59

Article

Leadership Components of a High Performance Culture

Six components to support the leader in the development of a high performance social enterprise culture.

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2017-01-25 17:20:47

Article

Management Strategies

Managers who operate social enterprises will benefit from two types of management strategies – both structural and operational – designed to deal with the dual goals of the business.

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2017-01-26 10:48:48

Article

Three Leading Management Challenges

The operation of a social enterprise provides managers with a complex challenge of bringing together seemingly competitive business goals with a mission of providing jobs to disadvantaged individuals.

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2017-02-12 14:36:04

Article

Hiring Social Enterprise Management

The pros and cons of hiring candidates with strictly entrepreneurial, management, or client focused expertise.

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2017-02-12 14:31:22

Article

Compensation Issues

Can your social enterprise afford to compete with the for-profit companies to get and keep good people?

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2016-10-14 12:23:16

Article

Managing Key Relationships: Consultants

When to call an outside consultant, how to work most effectively with them, and how to get services at the best price.

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2018-04-14 12:22:16

Article

Key considerations when assessing a software solution

Keeping your systems up-to-date is essential. These are the key considerations when assessing a software solution for your social enterprise.

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Finance

2018-04-15 13:44:14

Learning guide

Break-Even Analysis

Understand the costs of making your products and the price or the volume that it would require to break-even.

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2016-08-30 10:00:32

Article

Core Drivers of Success: Anchors

Anchors are the large private and public sector customers that help social enterprises gain a market foothold, develop products, and build operational infrastructure for growth.

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2017-12-17 14:28:26

Article

Setting financial sustainability goals

This article will help you understand what is unique about social enterprise finance and set financial goals and sustainability standards, with the goal of setting up your financial structure to support your financial sustainability goals.

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Legal

2017-01-14 16:37:51

Article

Nonprofit or For-Profit?

The choice of a nonprofit or for-profit form does matter – some central issues to consider when choosing a structure.

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2016-12-14 10:04:31

Article

Reevaluating Legal Structures: A Case Study

What should you do when your legal structure is preventing growth?

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2017-02-21 13:20:39

Case studies on how Evergreen Lodge and Rush Creek Lodge developed corporate governance and legal structures.

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Mergers and Acquisitions

2017-02-16 12:34:36

Article

Mergers and Acquisitions in Social Enterprises

The application of M&A can be a tool to scale social enterprise. This article focuses on some of the motivations for doing so and explores potential considerations for each.

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2019-05-02 11:54:22

Article

How does the process of M&A work?

The overall process of a merger or acquisition is fairly standard, whether for-profit or nonprofit and whether a merger or acquisition is in play. This article provides an overview of the process.

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2017-02-16 11:46:38

Article

Legal Structures and Social Enterprise M&A

Some of the permutations of legal structures and types of partnership for social enterprise M&A, and a few considerations for each.

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Worker's Compensation

2016-11-28 16:11:47

Article

Classification and Reclassification

A case study on the appeals process for workers’ compensation insurance classifications.

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2016-11-08 16:36:34

Article

California Workers’ Compensation

The challenges and complexities of California Workers’ Compensation, and tips for navigating the classification process.

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Profiles

2016-06-30 15:41:59

A case study of Youth Industry’s impact on homeless youth and the organization’s decision to close.

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2017-01-25 17:19:20

President and CEO of Orion Industries, a social enterprise whose business is aerospace manufacturing and contact center services, shares his approach to leadership.

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2017-02-13 14:01:00

Social enterprise Growing Grounds shares how they have evolved their business model over time to better serve their employees’ needs.

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