|
Your organization is thinking about starting a social purpose enterprise. Here are three booklets that will help you think through starting a social purpose enterprise. 1) The Toronto Enterprise Fund has produced a primer called "Doing Well While Doing Good" which shares our insights as to why some organizations are more successful than others at developing viable social purpose enterprises. To download a PDF version, please click on Doing_Well_Doing_Good.pdf (583 kb) 2) The Ontario Council of Alternative Businesses (OCAB) is an organization that advocates for employment opportunities for psychiatric consumer/survivors and operates three Alternative (survivor run) Businesses in Toronto: the Raging Spoon Catering Company and Cafe, Out of This World Café & Espresso Bar and Parkdale Green Thumb Enterprises. OCAB has written a guide to starting an Alternative businesses called "Working for a Change: A Handbook for Alternative Business Development." A free copy can be requested from Pat Fowler. 3) Canadian Social Enterprise Guide is an extensive and conprehensive resource, tool kit and collection of social enterprise stories in Canada. It is published by Enterprising Non-Profits. For more information, click here. To download a PDF version of the complete guide, click on Canadian Social Enterprise Guide (1141 kb). In this section of the website, we have presented questions your organization needs to ask to determine whether or not you should start an enterprise and worksheets to use as you move forward. Feasibility Study Before you start developing your comprehensive business plan, you should have completed a feasibility study that includes an assessment of your idea at the organizational, business and social level. 1. Organizational
This section assesses the fit of the business with your organization. Key questions are: - Does the business idea fit within the parent organization’s core competencies?
- Is the Board of Directors and senior management aware and supportive of this venture? Have they discussed the risks involved?
- What are the risks to the organization?
- What degree of flexibility, control and responsibility will be given to the business? (eg will it have a separate bank account and financial reporting systems?)
- How will the business be structured within the parent organization to optimize the working relationship between the business and the organization?
- What are the decision-making and reporting processes?
2. Business
This section assesses the potential of your business idea to generate significant sales revenue, and achieve business breakeven (referred to as “100% business cost recovery” by TEF) after three years. Key questions are: - What expertise do you have in this business/sector to guide your business start-up planning process?
- What expertise can you recruit? How will go about it?
- What infrastructure and capital investments will be required to start the enterprise?
- How specific can you be about the product or service you are offering (description, market niche, pricing)?
- What customers or clients will buy your product or service, and why? How will they find them?
- Who are your competitors?
- What information/research leads you to believe that this market niche is viable?
Formal market research is a critical part of the business feasibility assessment. Click here for information and tools on why and how to do market research. 3. Social
This section assesses whether your enterprise is likely to succeed in helping participants build a sustainable livelihood, and in particular (i) earn additional income as a direct result of working in the enterprise, and (ii) connect to permanent employment opportunities. Key questions are: - What is your specific target group?
- What are the social outcomes you plan to achieve?
- What work will participants be expected to perform in your business?
- Do participants’ existing skill sets fit with this work?
- Will participant/employees be working full or part-time?
- What pay will participants/employees receive?
- Is this work intended to supplement or replace social assistance benefits?
- How to you expect your initiative to support the ongoing transition to mainstream work?
- For what type/level of jobs will this experience prepare your participants?
- At the end of their involvement with your business are participants going to be qualified to perform the jobs you are linking them to?
- Are these jobs available in the mainstream market?
|
