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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
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.
Read Full article >2019-05-10 11:47:32
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.
Read Full article >2018-12-06 11:27:24
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.
Read Full article >2016-10-10 17:33:25
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.
Read Full article >2017-12-17 09:21:27
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?
Read Full article >2019-05-09 14:02:58
Key Elements of a Growth Plan
Key considerations to develop a clearly articulated, compelling and comprehensive growth plan for your social enterprise.
Read Full article >2019-01-15 12:35:10
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.
Use tool >2016-09-14 11:23:33
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
Read Full article >2019-05-30 11:44:15
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.
Use tool >2017-02-16 10:14:18
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.
Read Full article >2019-02-15 11:59:46
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.
Use tool >2016-09-13 16:09:01
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.
Read Full article >2017-12-18 10:08:08
Business Owner Interview Guide
This interview guide will help you ask the right questions in your business owner interviews.
Read Full article >2019-05-02 12:45:40
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.
Read Full article >2016-08-30 09:58:14
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.
Read Full article >Talent & HR
2016-02-17 15:06:59
Leadership Components of a High Performance Culture
Six components to support the leader in the development of a high performance social enterprise culture.
Read Full article >2017-01-25 17:20:47
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.
Read Full article >2017-01-26 10:48:48
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.
Read Full article >2017-02-12 14:36:04
Hiring Social Enterprise Management
The pros and cons of hiring candidates with strictly entrepreneurial, management, or client focused expertise.
Read Full article >2017-02-12 14:31:22
Compensation Issues
Can your social enterprise afford to compete with the for-profit companies to get and keep good people?
Read Full article >2016-10-14 12:23:16
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.
Read Full article >2018-04-14 12:22:16
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.
Read Full article >Finance
2018-04-15 13:44:14
Break-Even Analysis
Understand the costs of making your products and the price or the volume that it would require to break-even.
Read learning guide >2016-08-30 10:00:32
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.
Read Full article >2017-12-17 14:28:26
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.
Read Full article >Legal
2017-01-14 16:37:51
Nonprofit or For-Profit?
The choice of a nonprofit or for-profit form does matter – some central issues to consider when choosing a structure.
Read Full article >2016-12-14 10:04:31
Reevaluating Legal Structures: A Case Study
What should you do when your legal structure is preventing growth?
Read Full article >2017-02-21 13:20:39
Case studies on how Evergreen Lodge and Rush Creek Lodge developed corporate governance and legal structures.
Read Full article >Mergers and Acquisitions
2017-02-16 12:34:36
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.
Read Full article >2019-05-02 11:54:22
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.
Read Full article >2017-02-16 11:46:38
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.
Read Full article >Worker's Compensation
2016-11-28 16:11:47
Classification and Reclassification
A case study on the appeals process for workers’ compensation insurance classifications.
Read Full article >2016-11-08 16:36:34
California Workers’ Compensation
The challenges and complexities of California Workers’ Compensation, and tips for navigating the classification process.
Read Full article >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.
Read Full article >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.
Read Full article >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.
Read Full article >
