sample social entrepreneurship business plan

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Social Enterprise Business Plan

A social enterprise is an activity of a nonprofit that employs entrepreneurial, market-driven strategies for earned income in support of its mission. This outline for a social enterprise business plan is a guide for research, planning, and writing a business plan for nonprofit social enterprises.

A social enterprise is an activity of a nonprofit that employs entrepreneurial, market-driven strategies for earned income in support of their mission. Business plans are a common tool for entrepreneurs when starting or growing a business enterprise. For nonprofits that are starting or growing a social enterprise as a part of their program activities, developing a business plan is an essential step. While social enterprise business plans address all of the questions needed for any business, nonprofits also need to consider the alignment with mission, organizational background and structure, and evaluation of both financial and social impact.

This outline for a business plan is a guide for research, planning, and writing a business plan for nonprofit social enterprises. The sections below are provided as a roadmap for the plan. Most business plans include each of these sections, though the length and amount of detail will vary depending on the nature of the enterprise, the complexity of the organization, and the purpose and audience for the plan.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary provides the most important information for readers that need to understand and support the concept but not necessarily know the detailed plans. This is usually written last.

• Organizational description
• Business concept
• Market description
• Value proposition, or competitive advantage
• Key success factors
• Financial highlights and capital requirements

A social enterprise of a nonprofit organization may contribute directly to achieving mission; may be complementary or supportive of mission; or may be unrelated to mission (with primarily financial goals). The alignment to mission is a critical question.

• Organization mission and/or vision statement
• Relationship of social enterprise to organizational mission, or separate mission for the enterprise

Background and Structure

This section summarizes the organization’s history and programs and how the enterprise will fit in to the larger organization.

Most social enterprises operate as an activity or program within the nonprofit, though some are legally structured as a separate nonprofit, a for-profit subsidiary, or an independent organization.

Form should follow function and the legal structure should support the purpose and activities of the enterprise. Advice from an expert attorney may be needed.

• Brief description of the nonprofit, including context and programs
• How the business venture will be structured in the organization
• Legal structure and governance (Boards, advisory committees, reporting)

Market Analysis

The market analysis is the heart of the business plan and is too often inadequately explored when planning a social enterprise. Solid research is necessary to understand the target customers and how the enterprise will meet a gap and demand in the market. No amount of mission or commitment will overcome a deficiency in market knowledge and a bona fide demand for the product or service.

• Summary of current market situation
• Target market and customers
• Customer characteristics, unmet demands and buying factors

Competitive Analysis

This section describes the competitors, both nonprofit and for-profit, and the value proposition, or market advantage, of the proposed business.

• Primary competitors
• Competitive products/services
• Risks and opportunities in competitive market
• Recent or emerging changes in the industry
• Specific description of competitive advantage/value of proposed product or service

Products/Services

This section is a summary of the product or service that will meet the demand in the market. It does not need to include detailed descriptions, price lists or other materials.

• Product/service description
• Positioning of products/services
• Future products/services

Marketing and Sales

This section will describe how the organization will reach the target market and turn those prospects into paying customer.

• Marketing strategy
• Sales tactics
• Advertising, public relation, and promotions
• Summary of sales forecasts

This is the “how to” section, describing the creation and delivery of the business’ product or service.

• Management structure
• Staffing plan and key personnel – if this includes programmatic elements related to the mission, expand this section
• Production plan or service delivery, including summary of costs of materials and production
• Customer service/support strategy and plan
• Facilities required, including specialized equipment or improvements. If the business is retail, discuss location characteristics

Evaluation and Assessment

Most for-profit businesses measure their success by the financial results. Social enterprises have a double bottom line (or a triple bottom line.) This section describes the factors that will be evaluated to assess the success of each aspect of the enterprise.

• Quantifiable financial goals
• Quantifiable mission goals
• Monitoring and evaluation strategy

Financial Plan and Projections

The financial section includes projections for revenue and expenses for at least three years with a summary narrative of the key assumptions. This section also details the start up costs for capital equipment, inventory, initial marketing and staffing, and subsidy needed to cover losses during the start up period. These capital requirements may be funded from a combination of contribution from the nonprofit, grants for the enterprise, and/or debt financing.

• Start up costs and investments in equipment, technology, or one time costs
• Capital requirements and sources
• Income and expense projection
• Pro forma balance sheet for start up
• Cash flow summary or projection
• Assumptions and comments
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About Propel

Propel Nonprofits is an intermediary organization and federally certified community development financial institution (CDFI). We provide capacity-building services and access to capital to support nonprofits in achieving their missions including the ability to link strategy, governance, and finance and to support nonprofits throughout their organizational lifecycle.

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Social Enterprise Business Plan

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How to Write A Social Enterprise Business Plan?

Writing a social enterprise business plan is a crucial step toward the success of your business. Here are the key steps to consider when writing a business plan:

1. Executive Summary

An executive summary is the first section planned to offer an overview of the entire business plan. However, it is written after the entire business plan is ready and summarizes each section of your plan.

Here are a few key components to include in your executive summary:

Introduce your Business:

Start your executive summary by briefly introducing your business to your readers.

Market Opportunity:

Products and services:.

Highlight the social enterprise services or products you offer your clients. The USPs and differentiators you offer are always a plus.

Marketing & Sales Strategies:

Financial highlights:, call to action:.

Ensure your executive summary is clear, concise, easy to understand, and jargon-free.

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2. Business Overview

The business overview section of your business plan offers detailed information about your business. The details you add will depend on how important they are to your business. Yet, business name, location, business history, and future goals are some of the foundational elements you must consider adding to this section:

Business Description:

Describe your business in this section by providing all the basic information:

Describe what kind of social enterprise business you run and the name of it. You may specialize in one of the following social enterprise businesses:

• Fairtrade organizations
• Community development enterprises
• Socially responsible manufacturing
• Trading social enterprise
• Education and skills development enterprises
• Describe the legal structure of your social enterprise, whether it is a sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or others.
• Explain where your business is located and why you selected the place.

Mission Statement:

Business history:.

If you’re an established social enterprise, briefly describe your business history, like—when it was founded, how it evolved over time, etc.

Future Goals:

This section should provide a thorough understanding of your business, its history, and its future plans. Keep this section engaging, precise, and to the point.

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis section of your business plan should offer a thorough understanding of the industry with the target market, competitors, and growth opportunities. You should include the following components in this section.

Target market:

Start this section by describing your target market. Define your ideal customer and explain what types of services they prefer. Creating a buyer persona will help you easily define your target market to your readers.

Market size and growth potential:

Describe your market size and growth potential and whether you will target a niche or a much broader market.

Competitive Analysis:

Market trends:.

Analyze emerging trends in the industry, such as technology disruptions, changes in customer behavior or preferences, etc. Explain how your business will cope with all the trends.

Regulatory Environment:

Here are a few tips for writing the market analysis section of your social enterprise business plan:

• Conduct market research, industry reports, and surveys to gather data.
• Provide specific and detailed information whenever possible.
• Illustrate your points with charts and graphs.
• Write your business plan keeping your target audience in mind.

4. Products And Services

The product and services section should describe the specific services and products that will be offered to customers. To write this section should include the following:

Describe your services:

Mention the social enterprise products or services your business will offer. This list may include products or services like,

• Eco-friendly household products
• Sustainable fashion items
• Job training
• Healthcare services
• Renewable energy products

Explain the benefits:

Showcase the innovative side:, additional services:.

In short, this section of your social enterprise plan must be informative, precise, and client-focused. By providing a clear and compelling description of your offerings, you can help potential investors and readers understand the value of your business.

5. Sales And Marketing Strategies

Writing the sales and marketing strategies section means a list of strategies you will use to attract and retain your clients. Here are some key elements to include in your sales & marketing plan:

Unique Selling Proposition (USP):

Define your business’s USPs depending on the market you serve, the equipment you use, and the unique services you provide. Identifying USPs will help you plan your marketing strategies.

Pricing Strategy:

Marketing strategies:, sales strategies:, customer retention:.

Overall, this section of your social enterprise business plan should focus on customer acquisition and retention.

Have a specific, realistic, and data-driven approach while planning sales and marketing strategies for your social enterprise business, and be prepared to adapt or make strategic changes in your strategies based on feedback and results.

6. Operations Plan

The operations plan section of your business plan should outline the processes and procedures involved in your business operations, such as staffing requirements and operational processes. Here are a few components to add to your operations plan:

Staffing & Training:

Operational process:, equipment & machinery:.

Include the list of equipment and machinery required for social enterprise, such as manufacturing or production equipment, kitchen & cooking equipment, recycling or waste management, etc.

Adding these components to your operations plan will help you lay out your business operations, which will eventually help you manage your business effectively.

7. Management Team

The management team section provides an overview of your social enterprise business’s management team. This section should provide a detailed description of each manager’s experience and qualifications, as well as their responsibilities and roles.

Founders/CEO:

Key managers:.

Introduce your management and key members of your team, and explain their roles and responsibilities.

Organizational structure:

Compensation plan:, advisors/consultants:.

Mentioning advisors or consultants in your business plans adds credibility to your business idea.

This section should describe the key personnel for your social enterprise services, highlighting how you have the perfect team to succeed.

8. Financial Plan

Your financial plan section should provide a summary of your business’s financial projections for the first few years. Here are some key elements to include in your financial plan:

Profit & loss statement:

Cash flow statement:, balance sheet:, break-even point:.

Determine and mention your business’s break-even point—the point at which your business costs and revenue will be equal.

Financing Needs:

Be realistic with your financial projections, and make sure you offer relevant information and evidence to support your estimates.

9. Appendix

The appendix section of your plan should include any additional information supporting your business plan’s main content, such as market research, legal documentation, financial statements, and other relevant information.

• Add a table of contents for the appendix section to help readers easily find specific information or sections.
• In addition to your financial statements, provide additional financial documents like tax returns, a list of assets within the business, credit history, and more. These statements must be the latest and offer financial projections for at least the first three or five years of business operations.
• Provide data derived from market research, including stats about the industry, user demographics, and industry trends.
• Include any legal documents such as permits, licenses, and contracts.
• Include any additional documentation related to your business plan, such as product brochures, marketing materials, operational procedures, etc.

Use clear headings and labels for each section of the appendix so that readers can easily find the necessary information.

Remember, the appendix section of your social enterprise business plan should only include relevant and important information supporting your plan’s main content.

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This sample social enterprise business plan will provide an idea for writing a successful social enterprise plan, including all the essential components of your business.

After this, if you still need clarification about writing an investment-ready business plan to impress your audience, download our social enterprise business plan pdf .

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Frequently asked questions, why do you need a social enterprise business plan.

A business plan is an essential tool for anyone looking to start or run a successful social enterprise business. It helps to get clarity in your business, secures funding, and identifies potential challenges while starting and growing your business.

Overall, a well-written plan can help you make informed decisions, which can contribute to the long-term success of your social enterprise business.

How to get funding for your social enterprise business?

There are several ways to get funding for your social enterprise business, but self-funding is one of the most efficient and speedy funding options. Other options for funding are:

Small Business Administration (SBA) loan

Crowdfunding, angel investors.

Apart from all these options, there are small business grants available, check for the same in your location and you can apply for it.

Where to find business plan writers for your social enterprise business?

There are many business plan writers available, but no one knows your business and ideas better than you, so we recommend you write your social enterprise business plan and outline your vision as you have in your mind. .

What is the easiest way to write your social enterprise business plan?

A lot of research is necessary for writing a business plan, but you can write your plan most efficiently with the help of any social enterprise business plan example and edit it as per your need. You can also quickly finish your plan in just a few hours or less with the help of our business plan software .

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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Social Enterprise Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Social Enterprise Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 500 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their social enterprise businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a social enterprise business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Social Enterprise Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your social enterprise business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Social Enteprise

If you’re looking to start a social enterprise business, or grow your existing social enterprise business, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your social enterprise business in order to improve your chances of success. Your social enterprise business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Social Enterprise Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a social enterprise business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for social enterprise businesses.

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How to write a business plan for a social enterprise.

If you want to start a social enterprise business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below are links to each section of your social enterprise business plan template:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of social enterprise business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a social enterprise business that you would like to grow, or are you operating social enterprise businesses in multiple markets?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the social enterprise industry. Discuss the type of social enterprise business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of social enterprise business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of social enterprise businesses:

• Trading social enterprise : this type of social enterprise refers to cooperatives, collectives, and other organizations that are worker or employee-owned. This type of ownership structure allows a higher degree of economic resiliency compared to a traditional organization.
• Financial social enterprise: this type of social enterprise includes credit unions, cooperative banks, and revolving loan funds, which are all membership-owned. In other words, the money deposited from a member is used to help other members who may need financial assistance.
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charity social enterprise: this type of social enterprise businesses are usually created to support a specific social, environmental, or political goal. The profits are used to further the social or environmental aims of the organization or to provide salaries for people who provide free services to specific groups of people.

In addition to explaining the type of social enterprise business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of clients served, number of positive reviews, reaching X amount of clients served, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the social enterprise industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the social enterprise industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating. 

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your social enterprise business plan:

• How big is the social enterprise industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your social enterprise business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your social enterprise business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments:non-profits, individuals, social causes, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of social enterprise business you operate. Clearly, social causes would respond to different marketing promotions than individuals needing financial assistance, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other social enterprise companies. 

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes social enterprise companies such as brand awareness companies, community organizations, government programs, etc.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other social enterprises with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be social enterprise businesses located very close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What clients or causes do they serve?
• What type of social enterprise company are they?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide social enterprise services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will your social enterprise business help more people in need?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a social enterprise business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of social enterprise company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to social enterprise services, will you provide access to funding, marketing, counseling, and/or brand awareness, and any other services?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your social enterprise company. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your social enterprise business located near an office complex, a university, an urban setting, or a busy neighborhood, etc. Discuss how your location might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your social enterprise marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Website and SEO marketing
• Community events
• Commercials
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your social enterprise business, including communicating with clients, marketing, accounting, accounts payable, fundraising, and searching for grant opportunities.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to obtain your XXth client, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your social enterprise business to a new location.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your social enterprise business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. 

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing social enterprises. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing a social enterprise business or are connected to a wide network of professional organizations that frequently tend to donate to various causes.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you take on one new service at a time or multiple services ? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your social enterprise business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. 

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a social enterprise business:

• Cost of social enterprise services
• Cost of overhead, marketing, and outreach
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your social enterprise outline of services, types of customer and/or cause you will be targeting, and the areas your social enterprise business will serve.   Summary Putting together a business plan for your social enterprise business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the social enterprise industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful social enterprise business.  

Social Enterprise Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my social enterprise business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Social Enterprise Business Plan.

What is the Goal of a Business Plan's Executive Summary?

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of social enterprise business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a social enterprise business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of social enterprise businesses?

  OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.

Click here to hire someone to write a business plan for you from Growthink’s team.   Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

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Creating a Winning Business Plan for Social Entrepreneurs

MAY.23, 2023

1. What is a Social Entrepreneur Business Plan?

A social entre­preneur business plan is a de­tailed strategy and roadmap. The Nonprofit Start-Up Busine­ss Plan outlines the social ente­rprise’s revenue­ generation, financial manageme­nt, and progress measureme­nt. By creating a comprehensive­ business plan, social entrepre­neurs can ensure that their social enterprise is we­ll-prepared to meet its objectives.

2. Why do we need a social entrepreneur business plan?

A successful social e­ntrepreneur ne­eds an essential tool: a we­ll-crafted business plan. This plan serves multiple purposes. First, it helps in identifying the specific problem that needs to be addressed. Second, it sets clear goals and de­fines the target audience. Third, it devises strategies for achieving these­ objectives. Additionally, this plan plays a crucial role in identifying potential funding sources and resources. It also maps out a timeline for goal attainment.

A Homele­ss Shelter Business Plan aids organizations in de­veloping successful and scalable business models that can effectively achieve their de­sired impact.

3. Sources of funding for social enterprise businesses

Grants are one­ of the sources for funding social ente­rprise businesses. Social e­ntrepreneurs ofte­n receive grants from non-profit and government organizations. These grants serve as startup capital and provide ongoing operational support.

Links to funds for non-profit organizations: Newprofit: https://www.newprofit.org/ Ashoka: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us MassChallenge: https://masschallenge.org/

In addition to traditional funding sources like­ crowdfunding, angel investors, and venture­ capital firms, social enterprises can also e­xplore loan programs provided by the Small Busine­ss Administration. Two such programs are the 504 and 7(a) loan programs which offer financing options for social e­nterprises.

Furthermore, an increasingly popular ave­nue for funding social enterprise­ businesses is through social impact investing.

4. How to write a social enterprise business plan

• Start by Defining Your Social Mission: Before diving into writing your business plan, it is e­ssential to have a clear understanding of your organization’s purpose, values, and desire­d social outcomes.
• Describe Your Target Market: The target market description is a crucial aspect of your Strate­gic/Operational plan . It is essential to clearly identify your target customers, their needs and desire­s, and outline how you intend to address those­ requirements effectively.
• Outline Your Business Model: Then comes outlining your business model. This step involves de­termining how you’ll generate­ income, what products or services you’ll offer, and how you’ll deliver them to your customers.
• Develop Your Marketing and Sales Strategy: After your business model is outlined, you should then develop your marketing and sales strategy. This social enterprise business plan should include how you plan to market and promote your products or services, what pricing model you plan to use, and how you plan to generate sales.
• Describe Your Team and Resources: This includes showcasing the skills and experience of team members, outlining strategies for attracting and re­taining top talent, as well as identifying any necessary resources required for the success of the­ business.
• Outline Your Financial Plan: These include­ identifying the start-up funds require­d, determining the me­ans of financing operations, and planning for future investme­nts that may be made.

5. Executive summary

Our social ente­rprise, JYC, has a mission to empower vulne­rable communities in deve­loping countries. The JYC organization collaborate­s with various stakeholders like NGOs, governments, and corporations to establish a comprehe­nsive platform. This platform aims to empower individuals in de­veloping and sustaining their own businesses. Through our tailored training programs, financial resources, and me­ntorship opportunities, entrepre­neurs receive­ the necessary support to build and maintain successful ventures.

6. Company (Institutional) analysis

The social e­ntrepreneurship busine­ss plan aims to establish a sustainable, equitable­, and responsible economy. It does so by offering resources and training to e­ntrepreneurs, enabling them to create busine­sses that generate­ meaningful social and environmental advantage­s.

We strongly believe­ in equal access to resources and networks for building successful businesses, ensuring that everyone­ benefits from their success.

7. Structure and Background

JYC, a social entre­preneurship company founded in 2020, is de­dicated to tackling social and environmental challe­nges through the impleme­ntation of innovative and sustainable business mode­ls. Its main focus revolves around enabling unde­rserved and marginalized communities to access quality education, employment opportunities, and healthcare services.

Our team comprises skilled professionals from diverse­ sectors, including finance, technology, and social work. Their collective experience empowers us to create sustainable solutions that drive positive­ social change while fostering financial stability.

8. Market (Industry) analysis

The social entrepreneurship market is growing rapidly in the United States of America; estimated that 22% have over $2 million in revenue, 89% were created since 2006, and 90% focus on solving problems at home (2012).

https://www.socialchangecentral.com/social-enterprise-statistics-from-around-the-world/

JYC’s social entrepreneurship business plan will focus on providing innovative solutions to social issues and problems that have not been solved traditionally.

9. Competitor analysis

Our social entrepreneur business plan template competitors are:

• Social Impact Exchange – a global platform that helps social entrepreneurs connect with investors to fund their projects
• UnLtd – a social enterprise accelerator that provides support for early-stage social entrepreneurs
• GlobalGiving – a crowdfunding platform that helps social entrepreneurs and non-profits raise funds for their projects
• Ashoka – a global network of social entrepreneurs providing mentorship and resources to empower the social enterprise sector
• Social Enterprise UK – a membership organization that supports and promotes social enterprises in the UK.

10. Services and Products

Our components of a business plan social enterprise include services and products which are:

• Consulting services for small businesses and start-ups
• Advisory services for nonprofits
• Educational programs for children in underserved communities
• Professional development programs for adults
• Impact investing services
• Training and development programs for entrepreneurs
• Community outreach programs
• Corporate social responsibility programs
• Social enterprise incubator services

11. Sales and Marketing Plan

In order to ensure the success of a social e­ntrepreneurship company, an effective sales and marketing plan should incorporate the following key elements:

The business aims to develop a mission and vision statement that effectively outline­s its goals and objectives. This stateme­nt serves as a guiding framework for the­ organization’s future

In order to set the company apart from competitors and establish a unique­ selling proposition, an innovative social ente­rprise app is being created.

In order to effectively promote a product or service, it is important to develop a compre­hensive marketing strategy.

12. Operational plan

Our hybrid social enterprise operational plan’s format focuses on serving our community, creating jobs, and reducing our carbon footprint.

• Supporting local businesses
• Incorporating green practices into our operations
• Developing social programs to benefit the community
• Establishing a system of sustainable production
• Creating partnerships with nonprofits and public institutions
• Minimizing waste and energy consumption.

13. Evaluation/assessment

• Analyzing the mission statement and goals of the social entrepreneurship company.
• Examining the business model and resources required to achieve success.
• Assessing the impact of the company on the community.
• Examining the company’s financial health and sustainability.
• Evaluating the management team and their ability to execute the plan.
• Analyzing the marketing strategy and its effectiveness.
• Evaluating the potential for growth and scalability.
• Assessing the competitive landscape and how the company can differentiate itself.

14. Management team

Executive Team:

• Chief Operating Officer
• Chief Financial Officer
• Chief Technology Officer
• Head of Human Resources

Advisory Board:

• Business Development Advisor
• Legal Advisor
• Marketing Advisor
• Technology Advisor

15. Projection and Financial Planning

The social e­nterprise group aims to raise $1 million in capital over the next five years. This funding will support various aspects, including platform development, staff recruitment, and covering ope­rational expenses. The­ organization plans to generate re­venue through government contracts and by offering data analytics services to local governments.

Startup Costs

The initial startup costs for this business will be $200,000.

The primary source of revenue will come from government contracts and data analytics services. Government contracts will provide a steady stream of income, while data analytics services will provide additional revenue.

Financial Highlights

The projected financial highlights for the business are as follows:

• Revenue: $1.5 million by 2024
• Profits: $400,000 by 2024
• Return on Investment: 40%
• Cash Flow: $1.2 million by 2024
• Break-even Point: 12 months

16. Discover the Power of Social Entrepreneurship with OGS Capital

Highly efficient service.

Highly Efficient Service! I am incredibly happy with the outcome; Alex and his team are highly efficient professionals with a diverse bank of knowledge.

OGS Capital specialize­s in assisting entreprene­urs in developing and implementing impactful social entreprene­urship business plans. Our highly experie­nced team collaborates with nume­rous social entreprene­urs to create custom plans that yield me­asurable outcomes.

Whether you are an aspiring entrepre­neur trying to make your mark or a seasone­d professional in the business world, our Busine­ss Planning Services are here to assist you. We specialize­ in developing comprehe­nsive plans that fully embrace your unique­ vision and core values. Through close collaboration, we­ will work diligently alongside you to identify the­ optimal strategies for success and de­termine the necessary resources to bring your goals to fruition.

OGS Capital values the­ transformative power of social entre­preneurship. With our guidance, you can establish a social ente­rprise that leaves a lasting, me­aningful impression.

OGS Capital can be your re­liable partner in creating a robust social e­ntrepreneurship business plan. Feel free­ to reach out to us today for assistance.

Q. What are examples of social entrepreneurship businesses?

1. Revolution Foods: Revolution Foods is a social enterprise providing healthy meals to underserved students. https://www.revolutionfoods.com/

2. Kiva: Kiva is a nonprofit providing micro-loans to developing countries’ entrepreneurs. https://www.kiva.org/

3. Ecosia: Ecosia is an online search engine that donates 80% of its profits to reforestation projects worldwide. https://www.ecosia.org/

4. Warby Parker: Warby Parker is an eyewear company that donates a pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair purchased. https://www.warbyparker.com/

5. Solar Sister: Solar Sister is a social enterprise that helps women in Africa build businesses selling solar-powered products. https://solarsister.org/

Q. How do you write a social enterprise business plan?

When establishing a social enterprise, it is crucial to unde­rtake the task of crafting a comprehe­nsive business plan. This plan serve­s as a roadmap, outlining key aspects such as the e­nterprise’s objective­s and mission, the range of service­s or products on offer, an analysis of the intended audience and market, financial conside­rations, a succinct overview of the marke­ting strategy, and a timeline e­ncompassing both launch and growth milestones. A meticulously de­veloped social ente­rprise business plan sets the­ stage for success in this impactful venture­.

The plan should have­ a comprehensive e­xplanation of the enterprise­’s mission and values. It should also address the compe­titive landscape and any applicable re­gulations. When writing the plan, it is important to be thorough, re­alistic, and ensure clarity for easy understanding.

Download Social entrepreneur business plan Template in PDF

OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.

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Social Enterprise Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Social Enterprise Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Social Enterprise business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Social Enterprise businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Social Enterprise business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

EmpowerU is a startup social enterprise located in Ogden, Utah. The business was founded by Matt and Lauren Goodwin, a couple who have personally placed over three hundred job seekers into viable positions of employment over the past ten years by working in a nationally-known employment agency group. Both Matt and Lauren secured thousands of dollars for their employer, who received a payment for every person successfully placed into employment. With outstanding reviews by employers and a large following of those who have been placed by Matt and Lauren, they’ve determined that they can give back to the city of Ogden by opening their social enterprise, EmpowerU.

EmpowerU will provide a full-service employment placement agenda, from the time they first receive a new applicant to the 6-month period after employment when the employer-employee review is completed. Each step of the interview preparation, interviewing process, and employment negotiation is focused on bringing a new employee into a personally upward bound position that will change their life for the better.

Product Offering

The following are the services that EmpowerU will provide for the potential employers:

• Extensive recruitment of job candidates to fulfill employer requests
• Pre-employment training
• Employment assistance in pay package negotiation
• Reasonable on-hire rates with sliding scale of percentages
• Monthly and yearly reviews and assessments of employee to service employer

The following are the services that EmpowerU will provide for the potential employees:

• Personal training leading to interviews and employment
• Testing to determine skills, abilities, temperament-style
• Resume construction
• Personal deportment training
• Interview techniques for a “win”
• Negotiation techniques for employment
• Personal management in an organization
• Time management skills
• After-hire review and further training, if required
• One-year assessment

Customer Focus

EmpowerU will target both potential employers and candidates as potential employees. To do so, they will target medium-to-large businesses within the Ogden area and residents within the Ogden area. EmpowerU will target human resource managers within the Ogden area. EmpowerU will also target community associations and governmental agencies with job training programs.

Management Team

EmpowerU will be co-owned and operated by Matt and Lauren Goodwin. They have recruited their former administrative assistants, Austin Maven, and Jeanie Parker, to help manage the office and operations of EmpowerU.

Matt Goodwin is a graduate of the University of Utah with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. Lauren Goodwin is a graduate of Utah State College, where she earned an Associate’s degree in Social Sciences. Matt and Lauren have been working at an Ogden-based employment recruiter agency for the past ten years. During that time, they observed and practiced the functions of candidate placement into employment positions. They successfully placed over three hundred job-seekers into employment. They now want to help job candidates who need a “hand up” in securing employment by using all their acquired skills to make a change for the good of the city and state.

Austin Maven will become the Office Manager and will oversee all day-to-day office functions. He will manage the accounting and payroll for the social enterprise, as well as the detailed requirements needed to satisfy the social enterprise financials.

Jeanie Parker will become the Operations Manager, assisting in the movement of people resources in and out of the business and overseeing the training and assistance programs.

Success Factors

EmpowerU will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly-qualified team of EmpowerU
• Comprehensive menu of services that benefit both the employers and the job candidates.
• Full support and training for potential employees
• Reviews and assessments of employee during monthly and yearly visits
• As a social enterprise, EmpowerU charges extremely reasonable rates for employee placement, making them the lowest-priced employment service in Ogden.

Financial Highlights

EmpowerU is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its social enterprise business. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Office space build-out: $20,000
• Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph outlines the financial projections for EmpowerU.

Company Overview

Who is empoweru.

EmpowerU is a newly established, full-service job training and placement agency in Ogden, Utah. EmpowerU will be the most reliable, cost-effective, and effective choice for employers in Ogden and the surrounding communities who seek employees who are eager to establish a better personal life for themselves. EmpowerU will provide a comprehensive menu of job training, placement and review services for any job candidate and business to utilize. Their full-service approach includes a comprehensive array of services that benefit both the job candidate and hiring company.

  EmpowerU will be able to provide job candidates for a wide spectrum of potential employers. The team of professionals are highly qualified and experienced in employee placements and training and reviews of those employees. EmpowerU removes all headaches and issues of seeking qualified personnel and ensures all issues are taken care of expeditiously, while delivering the best customer service.

EmpowerU History

EmpowerU is owned and operated by Matt and Lauren Goodwin. Together, they have personally placed over three hundred job seekers into viable positions of employment over the past ten years by working in a nationally-known employment agency group. Both Matt and Lauren secured thousands of dollars for their employer, who received a payment for every person successfully placed into employment. With outstanding reviews by employers and a large following of those who have been placed by Matt and Lauren, they’ve determined that they can give back to the city of Ogden by opening their social enterprise, EmpowerU.

Since incorporation, EmpowerU has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered EmpowerU, LLC to transact business in the state of Utah.
• Have a contract in place for a 10,000 square foot office in a prime downtown building location.
• Have reached out to numerous former associates and people they placed to include EmpowerU any time they search for new employees.
• Began recruiting a staff of three and two office personnel to work at EmpowerU.

EmpowerU Services

Industry analysis.

The social enterprise industry is expected to grow over the next five years to over $1 billion. The growth will be driven by an increased recognition of the need to assist in improving the lives of others within the world. The growth will be driven by an increased desire to serve the world by using talents and time to build social enterprise businesses. The growth will be driven by the popularity of including a “social awareness” facet within corporate mission statements. Costs will likely be reduced as social enterprises seek to reduce profits and increase services. Costs will likely be reduced as businesses increase voluntary funding for social enterprises.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market, customer segmentation.

EmpowerU will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Medium-to-large businesses
• Residents of Ogden
• Human resource managers
• Community associations
• Governmental agencies

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

EmpowerU will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Home Companion Care Services

Home Companion Care Services is a full-service placement agency of caregivers. The primary target market consists of elderly individuals who require in-home care and people with disabilities who need assistance with daily activities. Home Companion Care Services also engages with families seeking compassionate support for their loved ones. While services are not medically related, services may include medication reminders, running errands, purchasing and preparing food, bathing and personal grooming and other essentials for daily living.

Home Companion Care Services was started by Liam Gallagher, who saw a gap in the employment of caregivers when his mother required a caregiver and the availability for one was extremely limited. He also noted that most caregivers were not paid enough to make their lives sustainable. With this in mind, he started Home Companion Care Services as a social enterprise to invest in making the lives of the elderly and disabled better, as well as the lives of the caregivers enriched. With these positives at the forefront, Home Companion Care Services was started six years ago and continues to build momentum at this time. Fees for placement of caregivers is modest and reasonable in comparison to competitors.

Heads-Up Auto Repair

Heads-Up Auto Repair was started in 2020 by Neil Patterson, the owner of an auto repair chain in Utah. When Neil noted that several viable auto repairmen did not have employment due to former prison records, he started the social enterprise, “Heads-Up Auto Repair,” as a way to enrich the lives of these qualified repairmen, while earning a profit that would enrich their lives. The program for job training contains the phrase, “Heads Up,” as in “holding one’s head up high with pride in one’s work and the completion of that work successfully”.

Heads-Up Auto Repair serves customers throughout the state of Utah, where location managers are specially trained to assist repairmen in various aspects of customer service, team-bonding, personal skills and education, English-as-a-second-language training, and other services that increase the likelihood of the individuals continuing to excel in both the repair services they provide, but with an increased confidence in their lives overall, as well.

Animals Gone Wild

Animals Gone Wild is a wildlife viewing business that is a social enterprise located thirty miles from Ogden, Utah. Animals Gone Wild was started in 2010 by Amber Stenson, who determined that wild animals should live in the wild, even if their lives started in an enclosed zoo exhibit or other enclosed experience. Amber began a fundraising campaign to build and maintain the wild existence arenas for several wild animals, encouraging volunteers to serve the animals with her throughout their lives. Animals Gone Wild charges a fee for visitors to ride a trolley through the “villages” where various species of wild animals live. Payments by visitors covers the costs of caring for and feeding the animals, while fundraiser campaigns pay for the structures, buildings and care of the Animals Gone Wild structural needs.

Competitive Advantage

EmpowerU will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

• Comprehensive menu of services that benefit both the employers and the job candidates
• As a social enterprise, EmpowerU charges extremely reasonable rates for employee placement, making them the lowest-priced employment service in Ogden

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

EmpowerU will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Highly-qualified team of skilled employees who are able to provide a comprehensive array of services benefiting employers, employees, and the greater Ogden population
• Intensive training and preparation for job candidates, far beyond those of competitors
• Unique reviews and assessments of employees during monthly and yearly visits

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for EmpowerU is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

EmpowerU has built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to their clients and personal associates. Several former employer clients will follow the Goodwins in their new social enterprise to secure employees and will refer EmpowerU to their associates.

Professional Associations and Networking

EmpowerU will extensively target the professional associations and governmental agencies within the city of Odgen to inform and invite potential employers to seek qualified employees through EmpowerU.

Social Media Outreach

Through several social media channels, prospective employees with a wide variety of skills will be invited to reach out to EmpowerU for job training and placement. Invitations via social media will also invite employers of private companies and governmental agencies, particularly human resources managers, to engage with EmpowerU to place employees into advantageous roles.

Website/SEO Marketing

EmpowerU will fully utilize their website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all the services that EmpowerU provides. The website will also list their contact information and offer an online reservation system for potential employees who would like to talk with or visit the EmpowerU offices. The website will engage SEO marketing tactics so that anytime someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “job recruitment company” or “employment agency near me”, EmpowerU will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of EmpowerU will be moderate and below competitors so employer clients will feel they receive excellent value when engaging new hires as a result of their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for EmpowerU. Operation Functions:

• Matt Goodwin will be the co-owner and President of the company. He will oversee all employer client relations.
• Lauren Goodwin will be the co-owner and Vice President of the company. She will oversee the recruiting of potential job candidates.

Milestones:

EmpowerU will have the following milestones completed in the next six months.

• 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to lease office space
• 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts
• 6/1/202X – Finalize employment contracts for EmpowerU clients
• 6/15/202X – Begin networking at industry events
• 6/22/202X – Begin moving into EmpowerU office
• 7/1/202X – EmpowerU opens its office for business

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for EmpowerU are the fees they will charge to employer clients for their employee placement services.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff EmpowerU. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

EmpowerU is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its social enterprise. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and association memberships. The breakout of the funding is below:

Key Assumptions

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Number of Employer Clients Per Month: 30
• Average Revenue per Month: $60,000
• Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, social enterprise business plan faqs, what is a social enterprise business plan.

A social enterprise business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your social enterprise business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can easily complete your Social Enterprise business plan using our Social Enterprise Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Social Enterprise Businesses? 

There are a number of different kinds of social enterprise businesses , some examples include: Trading social enterprise, Financial social enterprise, and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charity social enterprise.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Social Enterprise Business Plan?

Social Enterprise businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Social Enterprise Business?

Starting a social enterprise business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Social Enterprise Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed social enterprise business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast. 

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your social enterprise business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your social enterprise business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Social Enterprise Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your social enterprise business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws.

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your social enterprise business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary Social Enterprise Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your social enterprise business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your social enterprise business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

• Business Models
• Case studies

Social Enterprise Business Plan

What it is and why you need one.

Say you are an aspiring changemaker. You might have come up with an innovative idea that might solve a compelling social problem . The process to turn that idea into a viable, sustainable social enterprise is long, complex, iterative. Among the different steps you need to take in order to ultimately get your enterprise up and running, defining your business goals and setting a clear roadmap – in other words, a plan – to achieve them becomes crucial. That is why in this article we explore the topic of “business planning” and discuss why having a social enterprise business plan is fundamental for a social enterprise’s success.

Before we start, bear in mind this..

In order for a social enterprise to be successful, founders must define both a business model (BM) and a solid business plan (BP). However, too often these terms are used interchangeably, even though they are two different notions.

As previously discussed , a business model describes the rationale of how a company intends to create, deliver and capture value . Basically, it makes explicit the foundation, the “skeleton” of the whole entrepreneurial initiative. But remember: ultimately, the chosen business model gets further detailed and articulated in the business plan .

A BM focuses the “whys” of a certain entrepreneurial project, whereas a BP describes its “hows”. As a consequence, the business plan builds on the business model, and the two cannot exist without one another. Whenever the business model changes, so must the business plan. Yet, the two terms are not one and the same!

Social Enterprise Business Plan: What it is

So, as we said, business planning builds on business modeling. In fact, it goes deep into the practicality of its implementation. But precisely, what is a social business plan?

A social business plan (SBP) is a detailed document describing the social entrepreneurial initiative. It translates the BM into clear goals, roadmaps, timelines, activities and operations, quantifying the economic/financial implications of the whole project as well as the social outcomes/impacts being pursued. As it is the reference document for planning and managing every activity related to the business, a SBP is comprised of different key sections.

• Executive summary , with a brief introductory description of the social enterprise, its history and background.
• Description of the social problem tackled, as well as the social impact mission of the organization.
• Structure and team , meaning the legal structure, governance and key people in the team.
• Business model , including target customers and core value proposition offered.
• Market analysis , which includes an assessment of market, competitors, trends in the industry and risks/opportunities.
• Marketing and sales , with a precise explanation of marketing strategy, sales tactics, distribution channels, and a summary of sales forecasts.
• Operations , focusing on the “ hows ” of the business model (how it will work and how the sales goals will be achieved) .
• Evaluation and assessment , focusing on both financial goals and impact goals.
• Financials , with clear projections related to capital and investments, costs/revenues, as well as expected cash flow.

Lot of work, right? Sure, but a well needed one. Let’s find out why!

Social Enterprise Business Plan: Why you need one

As seen, crafting a social business plan requires a much greater effort than just defining a business model. So why it is important to have one?

To begin with, a SBP can help you stress, assess and eventually redesign your BM. True, according to Steve Blank “ no business plan ever survived first contact with customers “. Yet, it’s a useful tool to address early on the feasibility and viability of your venture and eventually adjust activities accordingly.

Another reason why it’s a good idea to draft a business plan is because it allows you to identify and prioritize business assumptions to validate. As a matter of fact, assumption mapping is the first step for designing prototypes and running experiments to de-risk the whole project.

Finally, at later stages a SBP can be used internally, as internal management guide by owners, managers and internal staff, as well as externally, to convince investors, partners and stakeholders to get involved in the venture.

In this article, we dug into the main differences between business model and business plan. Also, we discussed what a social enterprise business plan looks like and why it is necessary to draft one early on.

To all aspiring social entrepreneurs out there, we strongly recommend to put time in your diary for business planning. It’s indeed a great tool to stress your business model, assess the viability and feasibility of your venture, identify critical pitfalls and hidden assumptions that might undermine it all.

We hope this brief overview was helpful to get a grasp on the topic, so that you can start move forward with creating your own business plan!

Did you like this article?

If so, then don’t forget to check out for more at Social Business Design .

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Social Enterprise Business Plan Template

A social enterprise is a business that aims to achieve a particular public or community mission (social, environmental, cultural or economic), and reinvests the majority of its profits into achieving that mission. This template can be used to write a business plan for a social enterprise that describes both the positive impact of the social enterprise and the plan to make it a viable business.

Download the Social Enterprise Business Plan template

This template is appropriate when:

• You are writing a business plan for a social enterprise (if you aren’t sure whether you are running a social enterprise have a look at this article ).

This template is NOT appropriate when:

• You are writing a plan for a non-profit that gets most of its revenue through donations or grants.
• You are writing a plan for a for-profit business. However, in this case you could just use the business section of the template.

The Stakeholder Analysis Matrix Template by  tools4dev  is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License . All other content is  © tools4dev .

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Published February 19, 2024

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WRITTEN BY: Katie-Jay Simmons

This article is part of a larger series on Starting a Business .

• 1 Social Entrepreneurship vs Traditional Business Models
• 2 Key Areas of Interest
• 3 Types of Business Models
• 5 Challenges
• 6 Including Social Entrepreneurship in Your Business

8 Social Entrepreneurship Examples

• 10 Bottom Line

Social entrepreneurship is a business approach focused on addressing social, cultural, or environmental issues. At the heart of social entrepreneurship are individuals who harness their entrepreneurial skills and resources to seek out lasting solutions to challenges often overlooked by conventional markets, working within a variety of organizational frameworks to achieve their goals.

Integrating social missions into business models offers a path to positive impact and consumer appeal. In this article, we cover how social entrepreneurship works, real-world examples, and steps to get started.

Social Entrepreneurship vs Traditional Business Models

Social entrepreneurship stands apart from traditional business models by prioritizing meaningful social impact as much as, or even more than, financial profit.

The key distinction of social entrepreneurship is how success is measured. Rather than focusing solely on financial returns, social enterprises evaluate their success based on the effectiveness and reach of their social impact. This approach does not disregard financial sustainability, but seeks a balance between economic goals and the mission to contribute positively to society.

Social Entrepreneurship: Key Areas of Interest

While many social entrepreneurs take part in multiple initiatives across various sectors throughout their careers, a social venture typically revolves around specific societal challenges. Some key areas that social entrepreneurs and their businesses might address include:

• Economic Development: Boosting job creation and financial opportunities in underprivileged communities through microfinance, business support, and employment platforms.
• Education: Enhancing access to quality education with innovative tools and programs, especially in underserved areas.
• Community Development: Strengthening communities through infrastructure development, social programs, and local engagement initiatives.
• Social Justice: Addressing inequalities and promoting rights and fairness in society.
• Gender Equality: Working to close the gender gap by promoting equal opportunities in education, employment, and leadership.
• Healthcare: Improving healthcare access and outcomes with affordable solutions, preventive care, and health education initiatives.
• Mental Health: Increasing awareness, access, and support for mental health services and initiatives.
• Agriculture: Supporting sustainable farming practices, improving food security, and increasing incomes for smallholder farmers.
• Environmental Sustainability: Focusing on conservation efforts, waste reduction, and promoting sustainable living practices.
• Renewable Energy: Developing and implementing affordable, clean energy solutions to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and combat climate change.
• Animal Welfare: Protecting and improving the lives of animals through rescue operations, habitat conservation, and advocating for ethical treatment practices.

Types of Social Entrepreneurship Business Models

Social entrepreneurship can take the form of various business models to address social issues while ensuring long-term financial viability. These common models reflect the diverse goals of social entrepreneurs, from prioritizing profit to focusing solely on social impact.

The primary focus of these organizations is a social, cultural, or environmental mission. Any profits generated are not distributed to owners or shareholders, but are instead reinvested into their mission-focused projects. They may be eligible for tax-exempt status, reducing financial burdens and enhancing their ability to serve their mission.

Nonprofits often rely heavily on external funding sources such as donations, grants, and philanthropic contributions, as well as volunteer support to carry out their operations. They may engage in a variety of activities—including educational programs, health services, and environmental conservation efforts, aiming to bring about positive change without the motive of personal financial gain.

For-profit with Social Missions

These businesses aim for profit while prioritizing a social or environmental mission alongside financial objectives. They allocate a portion of their profits to social causes and can benefit from tax incentives for certain socially beneficial activities.

The model allows them to tap into the traditional capital markets and revenue streams while making a dedicated effort to make a positive change in the world. Examples include companies that donate a product for every product purchased or that employ underserved communities at fair wages.

Hybrid models are an innovative approach to social entrepreneurship, blending the financial goals of for-profits with the social objectives of nonprofits. These businesses operate with a dual mission: to achieve financial sustainability and to make a significant social impact.

Hybrids have the flexibility to generate income through traditional business activities, services, or products, while also qualifying for grants and donations to support their social initiatives. This model allows them to diversify their funding sources and strategies, ensuring a more sustainable operation. A common form of hybrid organization is a social enterprise that may have a for-profit arm for revenue generation and a nonprofit arm for mission-focused activities.

Benefits of Social Entrepreneurship

Beyond making a positive impact, some of the main advantages of social entrepreneurship include:

Challenges in Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship is a unique field with its own set of challenges, including:

Including Social Entrepreneurship in Your Business

Whether you’re aiming to start a new social enterprise or just finding ways for your business to benefit the community, integrating social entrepreneurship involves these key steps:

Integrating Social Causes Into Your Business

For existing businesses wishing to incorporate social entrepreneurship as a partial focus, it begins with ethical practices that align with your values and resonate with today’s consumer concerns. Start by evaluating your supply chain for adherence to high social and environmental standards, and plan a phased transition to ethical sourcing.

Beyond that, you can commit a defined portion of profits to support social causes aligned with your business mission, reinforcing your societal contribution and building consumer trust through transparency.

Promoting sustainability is another area where businesses can make strides. You can work toward enhancing sustainability by pinpointing and improving areas like packaging, energy usage, and materials.

Involving employees through volunteer days, social impact initiatives, or incentives for supporting the company’s ethical mission not only enhances team spirit but also increases the business’s positive societal impact.

Starting a Social Entrepreneurship Journey

Starting a business within social entrepreneurship involves first identifying a cause that aligns with both personal values and business interests. Using resources like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals can help pinpoint a relevant and impactful cause.

Next, choosing the right business model is essential. This includes determining how your offerings will address the chosen cause, with options ranging from nonprofit models focusing on social impact and funded by donations and grants, to for-profit models that balance earning with contributing, and hybrid models that blend the strengths of both for diverse funding and operational flexibility.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals website is a helpful resource for identifying global causes and actionable ways to address them.

Developing Engagement

Create a comprehensive plan to communicate your social enterprise’s mission and impact. Use a mix of channels—social media, email newsletters, your business website, etc.—to share compelling stories about your cause, the difference your business aims to make, and how stakeholders can get involved.

Your engagement efforts are crucial for capturing the attention of consumers, potential investors, employees, and applicants. But engagement isn’t just about sharing information; it’s about building a community around your mission.

Nonprofit organizations like the American Red Cross leverage social media to share success stories, awareness campaigns, and volunteer opportunities.

Navigating Networks & Funding

Joining networks is a great way to get started. Look for local or industry-specific social entrepreneurship networks, such as the Social Enterprise Alliance , Social Enterprise World Forum , or online forums like Next Billion . Engaging in their events or webinars allows you to learn from and connect with fellow entrepreneurs. These networks can provide valuable insights, share best practices, and offer resources.

Seek partnerships by collaborating with other businesses, nonprofits, and governmental organizations that can help guide your business journey and amplify your impact. Partnerships can also open up new markets and opportunities.

To access funding, look into grants available for social enterprises (like Small Business Innovation Research grants ) and consider pitching to impact investors. Additionally, explore startup growth accelerators like Ashoka or Echoing Green that offer support to social entrepreneurs. Platforms like Kickstarter can also be used to launch products with a social mission.

Beyond this, pursuing certifications like B Corp can help validate and communicate your commitment to social responsibility. These certifications not only boost your credibility but also align you with a global community of businesses dedicated to making a positive impact.

Small Business Innovation Research’s ‘roadmap’ explains the steps involved in the application process to receive a grant. (Source: United States Government)

Social Entrepreneurship Tips

When diving into social entrepreneurship, these tips can serve as guiding principles for creating meaningful change while starting a successful venture:

• Build Your Brand: Establish a strong brand identity through visual elements like logos, color schemes, and consistent messaging that reflects your social mission.
• Document Your Journey: Keep a record of your progress, challenges, and impact. This documentation can be highly valuable for storytelling in marketing or awareness campaigns, attracting investors, and refining your strategy.
• Stay Informed: Regularly read up on social entrepreneurship trends and case studies. Resources like the Stanford Social Innovation Review and the Harvard Business Review can provide useful insights.
• Measure Your Impact: Develop a framework for measuring your social impact from the start. This can include both quantitative and qualitative performance metrics tailored to your specific mission. Examples include school attendance rates in underserved communities, gallons of clean water provided, or percentage increase in local employment.
• Prioritize Transparency: Be open about your business practices, sourcing, and the allocation of profits toward your social mission. Transparency builds trust with your customers, employees, and partners, reinforcing your commitment to ethical practices.
• Engage Your Community: Actively involve your community in your mission. This can be through interactive events, social media engagement, or community projects.

Exploring the paths of successful social enterprises reveals how innovative models can drive both business success and significant social impact. These companies are great examples of the possibilities and diverse strategies of social entrepreneurship.

(Source: IKEA)

Since 2012, IKEA has partnered with social entrepreneurs globally, focusing on creating jobs and tackling environmental challenges. This collaboration includes working with organizations like the Jordan River Foundation to develop unique products that support sustainable livelihoods for artisans, including refugees.

(Source: TOMS)

TOMS introduced the one-for-one giving model, donating shoes for each purchase, inspired by children’s needs. This unique approach set TOMS apart in a crowded market, highlighting its social commitment. The company later expanded its focus to address additional community needs like mental health, access to opportunity, and ending gun violence.

Warby Parker

(Source: Warby Parker)

Similar to TOMS, Warby Parker was founded with a clear social mission to ensure that a pair of glasses would be donated for each pair bought. This model addressed the issue of impaired vision affecting people’s ability to learn and work, particularly in low-income communities. Over time, Warby Parker honed its strategy by collaborating with nonprofit partners to directly deliver glasses to those in greatest need, increasing the impact of its donations.

Ben & Jerry’s

(Source: Harvard Business Review)

Since 1985, Ben & Jerry’s has led in social entrepreneurship by donating 7.5% of pretax profits to social causes, focusing on justice and environmental conservation. It also works to reduce emissions, notably through the use of solar power at its Vermont factory, and is recognized as a B Corp for its commitment to social and environmental issues. The brand effectively uses social media to combine product promotion with social activism, engaging a broad audience with its mission.

(Source: Merit Goodness)

Merit combines high-quality clothing with a mission to support education, dedicating 20% of its profits to a program that aids Detroit-area students in preparing for college. Beyond financial support, Merit enriches students’ experience with mentorship, tools, and guidance, and engages 10th graders in capstone projects where they design and produce their own product collections.

The Ocean Cleanup

(Source: The Ocean Cleanup)

The Ocean Cleanup, founded by Boyan Slat at the age of 18, is a nonprofit aiming to reduce ocean plastic by 90% by 2040. Starting with a focus on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, they’ve deployed innovative systems to capture and remove plastic waste, including river-cleaning initiatives. These efforts mark significant progress in combating ocean plastic pollution.

(Source: Benetech)

Benetech is a nonprofit that uses technology to improve education for underserved groups, such as those with learning differences. Their Bookshare initiative offers customizable e-books, while Service Net facilitates data sharing among social service organizations. With these efforts, Benetech has empowered over 1.5 million individuals worldwide.

(Source: Goodwill Industries International)

Well-known thrift retailer Goodwill Industries International empowers individuals through employment opportunities, offering job training and placement services. Its network spans the US, Canada, and 13 other countries, adapting to local needs. As a hybrid organization, Goodwill bridges business and social change, creating impactful community solutions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some questions we frequently encounter about social entrepreneurship.

How do you become a social entrepreneur?

Becoming a social entrepreneur starts by identifying a social or environmental issue you’re passionate about. The next steps are developing a sustainable business model that addresses this mission while generating revenue, building a network, and leveraging resources like grants or impact investments.

How do social entrepreneurs make money?

Social entrepreneurs make money through various ways, including selling products or services, receiving grants or donations, and generating revenue from partnerships or collaborations. They often reinvest profits into their social mission, ensuring long-term sustainability while addressing societal challenges.

Why is social entrepreneurship important?

Social entrepreneurship matters because it addresses pressing social issues, generates economic value, catalyzes positive social change, and inspires others to take action for the greater good.

Do social entrepreneurs make money?

Yes, social entrepreneurs can make money. Although their main focus may be on their mission, they can still generate revenue through various means. For-profit social enterprises can earn money through product sales, service fees, or other income-generating activities. Additionally, founders of nonprofits may be able to pay themselves a salary within certain legal and ethical boundaries.

Bottom Line

Social entrepreneurship empowers businesses to drive profit while making a positive impact on society. By identifying a mission, using the right business model or strategy, and engaging the community, businesses can create a more sustainable and equitable future while generating financial sustainability and consumer appeal.

About the Author

Find Katie-Jay On LinkedIn

Katie-Jay Simmons

Katie-Jay Simmons aims to put answers in the hands of small business owners by leveraging more than 10 years of retail and hospitality experience. Informed by a background in jewelry and gemology, she specializes in ecommerce with a focus on fulfillment and global sourcing. Her scope of expertise ranges from traditional brick-and-mortar businesses to innovative, high-volume ecommerce operations.

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Foreign Investment in 2024: Fueling Global Growth in Tight Markets

Join us as we share crucial insights into the anticipated shifts and emerging trends that will define the funding ecosystem in 2024.

Business plans for social enterprises (SE) and social businesses

Writing a business plan helps to ensure you focus on the core of your business. You must concentrate on key deliverables in a resource-constrained organization and communicate effectively with your stakeholders, including your funders or investors, customers, community, board, employees and volunteers.

The value of social enterprise business planning

Business planning will help any social enterprise (SE) or social purpose business (SPB) to:

• Attract investment
• Identify risks
• Measure social or environmental outcomes
• Demonstrate that you are using a business approach
• Showcase the management team
• Build alliances
• Check thinking
• Determine feasibility

In a business plan, you must clearly articulate:

• The mission of your social enterprise
• The outline of specific actions to achieve your goals and objectives
• Establish targets for planning, measuring and improving performance
• Project the necessary resources, costs and revenues of your program

Sample business plan templates

Many business plan templates exist in the public domain, including this one .

The elements are best used as prompts by social entrepreneurs to build their own plan, assessing along the way whether or not the question (or element) is relevant for the Social Enterprise or the social business.

Social enterprise business plans versus non-profit plans

Description of the business/mission statement.

The social mission and the importance of meeting both the financial and social goals should be discussed in this section.

Management and organization

Financing the capacity of the organization is as important as supporting the programs. Include an assessment of the current organization, planned additions and/or changes as well as the cost of building the team’s capacity in order to achieve the projected growth. Demonstrate that the staff has both programmatic and business skills.

Market assessment and marketing plan

The plan should focus on delivering market-driven products or services as opposed to program-driven products or services to the target customer .

You will also need to articulate how to promote your social objectives along with the product and service.  Partnerships and collaborations extend the reach of the social venture.  Highlight your partnership strategy in this section.

Your marketing plan includes the strategies and tactics to reach your customers, partners and the community.  Outline the public relations, media relations, and advertising that will be required to meet your objectives. The marketing plan should be linked in with your financial plan and your overall strategy.

A solid financial position will allow you to pursue your mission with flexibility and high-quality service, beyond mere stability.  Investors must feel confident their investment will be used effectively to achieve both the social mission and financial results that will enable your organization to thrive and achieve continued growth.

The financial plan provides the framework for social entrepreneurs to forecast the resources they need to create and sustain social and economic value. Commercial entrepreneurs prepare business plans to show why they need money and how they will use it.  Social entrepreneurs should use the same approach and not worry about the limited resources currently available.

Social Enterprise Investors

Investors and funders alike want to know the cost to develop, start up, offer and deliver services or products, whether or not any one user or payer is willing to cover it. When interacting with potential funders or investors, you need a detailed budget and projection of required outside investment tied in with a plan to reach the desired market position.

Investors want returns, typically a blend of financial and social. Your plan must describe the potential “return” on investment for investors and the desired social outcomes, and provide a framework for assessing social performance .

Remember that a social purpose business is similar to any other for-profit business, but the organization will likely raise financing from investors who are interested in a double bottom line. Social enterprises in the non-profit environment will typically raise funding from traditional fundraising, loans and other forms of social finance.

Dees, J.G., Emerson, J., & Economy, P. (2001).  Enterprising Nonprofits: A Toolkit for Social Entrepreneurs . Toronto: John Wiley & Sons.

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Grow Ensemble

Build a Better World, Together

50 Inspiring Examples of Social Entrepreneurship in Practice

If you’re looking for a comprehensive introduction and explanation of social entrepreneurship, download our Social Entrepreneurship 101 Guide before you dive into our conversations with leaders in the space.

In early 2019, we launched The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast, where each week we release an episode featuring both established and emerging leaders in the social impact and socially responsible business space. 

We’ve covered a variety of topics with social entrepreneurs and innovators from a wide range of industries—tour companies, medtech, agencies, hospitality, and many, many more. 

Each conversation provides our Grow Ensemble team with endless discussion of new information and interesting viewpoints we glean from our guests. In this post (and the two-part podcast episode that goes along with it) we want to highlight (a few) of those lessons and insights.

Whether you want to hear from the CEOs of some of the world’s most successful sustainable businesses , small business leaders making massive waves in their industry, or Executive Directors from entrepreneurial nonprofit organizations influencing widespread positive change, the gang’s all here!

The  businesses you’ll see (or hear) here, aren’t just running a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program to check the boxes on “social good.” These businesses and business people have integrated positive social change and impact into their core of how they do business and how they show up in the world. 

Their business methods and philosophies are inspiring for the change-maker and entrepreneur alike, making it clear that not only are those two identities compatible, but they should be inextricably entwined. What a pleasure it’s been to sit down with so many generous and successful social entrepreneurs and innovators thus far! 

Excited for many more inspiring conversations and connections to come.

What is Social Entrepreneurship?

Before we jump into a list of some of our favorite social entrepreneurs, it’s worth a brief mention of what social entrepreneurship is in the first place.

Social entrepreneurship, as a movement and term, is moving aggressively into the mainstream. And with this rise in popularity, more and more change agents are racing to the scene, as well as racing to define what social entrepreneurship is and who social entrepreneurs are. 

In brief, social entrepreneurs are business people who use their business to create social value. These do-gooders are not funneled into the public sector, but in fact make up an increasing portion of the private sector. In addition to earning a profit, and equally if not more importantly, their businesses respond to social issues or social needs they see in the world around them. 

When the status quo isn’t good enough, these change-makers take action and show us (and the world) that when businesses understand social value creation as central to their company’s purpose, that can lead to large-scale solutions to local and global problems.

Check out our Social Entrepreneurship 101 Guide for a more comprehensive definition of social entrepreneurship where you’ll get a more in-depth look at how a few different people are defining it, where social entrepreneurship came from, and what its role in society might be now and in the future. You can also take a loot at our list of social entrepreneurs books for more resources.

Clothing & Fashion

1. alex husted, founder & ceo of helpsy, on the consumer’s role in the sustainable future of fashion.

As informed by Alex and the Helpsy team, 95% of all clothing, shoes and other textiles can be given a second life. Sadly, over 85% just ends up in the trash! 

In our podcast recording, Alex dove deeper into this issue, reducing, reusing, and recycling textiles and clothing, and explained how the consumer can and should be making an impact on this massive waste issue. 

“The R’s come in order for a reason, right? So reduce is first because that’s the best thing you can do is just use less and then, reuse and recycle. Reuse is kind of where we do the playing, we’re trying to get as much reuse as possible, and then, recycle what can’t be reused.  So for folks like you [or your listeners] who I can’t tell to go to one of our bins and drop their old stuff in there, find someone close by that will take them. Any place you put it other than the garbage can is a whole lot better than putting it in the trash because if the life of those things gets stretched out in a number of ways that most people just don’t realize.  Everybody thinks that I don’t want it, so why would anybody else want it? I never want to see this pair of jeans again, I’ve worn them a hundred times. Why would anybody else want to wear this pair of jeans? It’s just not true. We’re trying to get that across.” 

Want to hear more from Alex on Helpy’s vision for a sustainable future of fashion? Listen here.

2. Manish Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of Matr Boomie, on Empowering Communities Through Trade

Manish Gupta and the Matr Boomie team have been able to connect and empower over 20,000 artisans in 40 partner communities in India since their founding in 2006. 

It was Manish’s goal in starting Matr Boomie to use the power of trade to empower these Indian communities, provide them with resources and sustainable living , and hopefully, move the needle on lifting many of these communities out of chronic poverty. 

“I have seen firsthand how powerful trade is and anything that we want is available to us. That’s quite amazing. Things from around the world are at our fingertips and that’s an amazing system. But at the same time I’ve seen how if trade is not done responsibly, it can exploit communities.  We’ve all heard examples of challenges in Bangladesh and small communities where there is so much chemical pollution that is ruining their rivers and farming. So we all know how trade, if it’s irresponsible, can exploit communities. But I also believe that if trade is done responsibly, it can empower communities.  It truly has the potential to eradicate poverty in the world. And that’s what I want to do is use trade as a tool for positive change.

To hear more from Manish about Matr Boomie and their continued mission to empower Indian artisans, listen here.

3. Hannah Davis, Founder & President of BANGS Shoes, on Advice for the First Year Social Entrepreneur

Hannah Davis’ and the BANGS Shoes team sell shoes to invest in entrepreneurs all over the world. And this was the mission that Hannah set out with when starting BANGS shortly after starting college. 

A young entrepreneur, the start of her company seemed to revolve around all hustle, with little of the “success” she was seeking. However, with some significant personal development and key turning points, the growth of BANGS completely changed with BANGS now getting closer to a decade old, Hannah shared her advice for a social entrepreneur who might find themselves in their ‘year one.’ 

“I would say to relax a little bit. I think that’s a big thing to not overreact with emotion when things appear to not be going well, but just again, [think] what are your options and solve the problem.  And the other thing I would say…is don’t try to reinvent the wheel. It’s very, very rare that anyone has an extremely 100% unique idea. Look for somebody that’s done what you’re doing, but maybe a little bit better and possibly slightly differently and get their feedback and use technology to do the work for you because there’s so many apps and different resources and I just would encourage people to take advantage of those.  [I]t takes research and patience to understand what the possibilities are. But it is a really wonderful, beautiful time to be an entrepreneur.”

For more from Hannah on tips from her (and BANGS’) entrepreneurial journey, listen here.

4. Colleen Clines, CEO of the Anchal Project, on Building a Social Enterprise Success Story

The Clines sisters, Maggie and Colleen, have built a thriving social enterprise in the Anchal Project. What started in 2011 as a nonprofit being built and run out of their parents’ basement, now employs over 150 artisans throughout India and the Clines’ hometown of Louisville, KY. 

In our episode with the sisters, we dove into their now nine-year trajectory from humble beginnings and hustle, to what is now a clear social enterprise success story. 

Colleen shared a little insight into how, even with few resources, the Clines sisters still managed to build the confidence to continue in the early years of Anchal: 

“A real turning point for us was one, the confidence we built through those first few years, but really the impact, it’s about taking action regardless of whatever you don’t have.  Once we had a few years, two years I’d say of artisans that we had been working with, seeing the little impact that we had in their daily life at the time, and then products to show for it. That’s when people started slowly getting on board.”

For more from Colleen & Maggie on the building of a social enterprise from the ground up, listen here.

5. Laura Wittig, Founder of Brightly, on the Importance of Closeness with Your Customer to Move Conscious Consumerism Forward

Laura Wittig and the Brightly team have created a centralized platform for consumers to engage with ethical fashion, beauty, and homegoods brands. They’ve created a great alternative to Amazon for these products!

What started as a desire to facilitate the search for sustainable fashion brands, Laura had this idea for Brightly to be the one-stop-shop for the  conscious consumer  to find sustainable clothing brands and connect with others interested in the same. 

In our episode, Laura shared how her experiences in Amazon, Google, and Adobe as a product manager influenced the modern and open culture she’s driven to create with Brightly. 

“[I]n order to [project manage], to successfully do that, you have to make sure that you are adequately convincing people across the company as to what you’re doing. So you do a lot of pitching, you do a lot of negotiations across teams to make sure that you’ve got the resources that you need.  And for me it’s been trying to understand, as I’m growing this team is how do I make sure that I am always fostering a culture of openness, mindfulness, and then also a culture of being really, really connected to our customer.  Because that is what always sticks out in product development at least, is the closer you are to the customer and to the actual problem, the better off you’re going to be.” [14:17 – 15:30]

For more from Laura on the influences that brought her to creating an ethical shopping marketplace, listen here.

Food & Drink

6. allison gibson, from paintbox catering & bistro, on a b corporation business culture that puts its people first.

I first connected with Allison at the 2018 B Corporation Champions Retreat in New Orleans.

From the moment we met, it was wildly clear Allison had a passion both for the work she did and the community she and the Paintbox team had cultivated in Regent Park, a historically disadvantaged neighborhood in Toronto. 

Allison was generous enough to join me for a recording to talk more about this culture at Paintbox, with a specific example of how that culture allowed her to lean on her team when she had to manage the challenging personal experience of a parent passing. 

“I’m super, super grateful for the team that I have and for the opportunity to work for and with a business that puts its people first. Had I been working anywhere else, I definitely would have been fired or laid off…Despite going through what I was going through with my mom, my personal needs did not change, my rent was still due the first of the month, all of the people that depended on me still depended on me…  I needed to really trust my team and give people more opportunities. So at that period when I was away, I would take certain servers from the restaurant and ask, “I know you don’t normally do bar inventory for example, but can you please do that while I’m gone?” And, they would rise to the occasion and do an amazing job.   So I really took away that if you challenge your team or give them opportunities and they rise to the occasion, great—keep giving them responsibilities, keep going to them to help problem solve. I also really, really valued that I work at a business that cared because it wasn’t just that they sent me cards, they were sending food to my house, people would just call me, come by. I would come home to flowers on my doorstep almost daily. It was insane.”

For more from Allison, and a business culture that creates community, click here to listen.

7. Yoni Medhin, CEO of Grain4Grain, on the Desire to “Give Back” with Business

Almost serendipitously, Yoni and I connected at a local farmer’s market here in San Antonio. Using his spent grain pancake mix, Yoni was flipping cakes for passers by, and I, a sucker for a good “one for one” model (and a free pancake), was drawn to hear more about their work. 

This struck a friendship and an ensuing podcast interview from the comfort of my San Antonio living room, where Yoni shared with me his motivations and values in starting Grain4Grain with his friend and business partner, Matt Metchly. 

“Really the taste came when I went overseas to Poland to teach English. And then in college, I went to Nicaragua to help build an orphan home for kids that suffer with addiction… But essentially that kind of feeling that I had, and purpose, of just giving somebody my all, somebody that I did not know, a stranger, and then them actually receiving something of value, because we always hear about all these companies that just give money and kind of wipe their hands and say, “Hey, we did our thing.”  But for us, it was…and for me, personally, this is something that’s just true to my heart—building company that intimately gives back . This just has flourished into now what is Grain4Grain.”

Want to hear more about Yoni & Grain4Grain’s “give back” model? Click here to listen.

8. Paul Hargreaves, CEO of Cotswold Fayre, on the Only Reason to be “in Business”

Paul Hargreaves is a leader and staunch advocate within the certified B Corporation community in the UK and Europe. In March of 2019, Paul published his book,  Forces for Good: Creating a better world through purpose-driven businesses . 

In it his book and our interview he elaborated on his journey through purpose-driven business, from  starting a nonprofit organization  in inner-city London to now leading Cotswold Fayre, one of the founding B Corporations in the UK and leading specialty food and drink wholesale distributors in the region. 

Paul’s passion for using business as a force for good is starkly clear, and that shines through in his perspective shared throughout his book and our conversation. It seems to all boil down to one point for Paul:

“If people are happy and fulfilled working for me, then I’ve done my part to make the world a better place. It’s the whole reason I’m in business.”

For more from Paul on the culture of Cotswold Fayre and the power of business as a force for good, listen here.

9. Max Rivest, CEO & Co-Founder of Wize Monkey, on Why Passion Creates the Persistence to Succeed

Max Rivest is the CEO and Co-Founder of Wize Monkey, a Vancouver-based tea company that “resurrected” a coffee leaf tea, which helps stabilize the coffee industry for long-term socio-economic growth. 

His business plan that started as a master’s thesis in business school became a social enterprise business model. Max & Wize Monkey have created a need for year-round work for coffee farmers (and those who harvest the berries) who have previously been victims to seasonality. 

Max, a very passionate and creative entrepreneur, came on the podcast to elaborate on his pursuit of his own passions and his recommendations for others doing the same.

“If you’re working on something that you don’t care about, you’ll never be good at it because you just won’t have an innate instinct to just get better at it. And it’s just irrelevant to you if you keep forcing yourself to do that. No one ever wants to learn something by force. No one ever wants to do something by force. It doesn’t work like that.  Humans, especially, millennials now because we’re kind of in a different mindset than prior generations, we really have to find what we care about and try to break into that space and carve out your own niche within that space. Eventually, once you get good enough at it, you’re going to bring value to somebody and that’s when you start getting a paycheck.”

For more from Max, the Founding of Wize Monkey, and pursuing passion, listen here.

10. Paul Bain, Tea Captain (& CEO) of Justea, on the Impact Equity Can Make in Their Family Owned Tea Business

Paul and the JusTea team, based in Vancouver B.C., have partnered directly with Kenyan tea farmers to provide ethical, antioxidant-rich, and sustainably produced fair trade tea. 

What started with a 2012 trip to Africa with his Dad, has turned into over 200 jobs for women and young people in rural Kenya and the founding of the first-ever small scale, farmer-owned artisanal tea factory in the country. 

On the podcast, Paul shared much to the ‘story behind the tea,’ with a particularly striking story as to the impact this sense of (and literal) equity had on the community of Kenyan farmers. 

“We were doing these trainings on how to handcraft teas [in Kenya]. So at the very simple level of just using hand picked leaves, hand rolling, and then sun drying. And when we first tasted this tea we thought, “Hey, this is an amazing cup of tea.” It was really delicious and not like other teas that we’ve had from Kenya before.  When these farmers tasted it, they were really excited and we didn’t know why. We thought it was just because of the taste, but then they started just chatting in Swahili to each other and so I asked someone who was taking us around, “What are they saying?”  And he said, “They’re so excited because this is the first time they are tasting the tea that they grow.” So they’ve been growing this tea for decades, and they never actually tasted it…from the weighing station to the factory, to the broker to the auction, they never got a taste of the tea that they’d been bending their backs over, trying to pick every day for their whole life.  And so when they finally tasted, it was such a great sense of ownership and pride and really special moment for us and them.”

For more from JusTea’s Tea Captain, Paul, and the using trade versus aid to support developing countries, listen here.

11. Mark Cuddigan, CEO of Ella’s Kitchen, On Redefining What “Great” in Business Means

Mark Cuddigan is the CEO of Ella’s Kitchen, the number one baby food company in the United Kingdom. He’s also the Head of Sustainability for the Hain Celestial Group and a staunch advocate of using business as a force for good, as a member of the UK’s B Corporation Community. 

On the podcast Mark shared why it isn’t enough for a business to be “great,” and that “great” in business isn’t what it always was. 

“It’s not good enough now to say you’re a great company. It’s not acceptable. I don’t think a CEO can get away with saying, “I run a great company.” My thought would be, “Great, what you want? Do you want a medal? Do you want a pat on the back?” No. Your responsibility if you’re running a great company is to inspire other companies to follow your lead.  We’re in a whole world of trouble, literally, with global warming. We’re not going to get out of it by people being selfish or looking after themselves. We need to help other companies and we need to inspire other companies.”

For more from Mark on redefining business greatness and the importance of a social mission, listen here.

12. Logan Christopher, Founder of Lost Empire Herbs, On The Power of Seeking Impact Partners

Logan Christopher is the Founder of Lost Empire Herbs.

On our podcast recording, Logan shared with me the “why” behind his decision to enroll Lost Empire Herbs in the 1% for the Plant commitment and what it’s meant thus far. 

“Glad to have made the decision. When I came across 1% for the Planet, I thought, “That’s just an amazing thing, we should definitely do that.” It was kind of a fast decision… We’re proud to be part of that. We support a number of different charities through doing that. One of which that I’ve worked with personally, the Pachamama Alliance. I ended up traveling down to the Amazon rainforest with them. It’s been great to really dive into that world and understand the bigger picture of all these other things going on. The planet’s not going anywhere, but if things keep continuing the same direction with where we are going, we could end up going somewhere else. So being able to find the charities that can really make a strong impact in these different areas is important.”

For more from Logan & Lost Empire Herbs’ commitment to the planet, listen here.

Home, Health, & Lifestyle

13.  thomas querton, ceo & co-founder of atlasgo, on why you don’t need all the answers .

Thomas Querton is a young, hungry entrepreneur from Belgium, now based in San Francisco, CA working with the AtlasGo team as they cultivate a community of ‘sweaty change-makers.’ 

In our recording, Thomas shared a lot of wisdom, despite his relatively recent development into an entrepreneur. He discussed the importance of having a clear focus, strategy, and taking time away to analyze successes/failures, as well as the truly critical component of reminding yourself you don’t need all the answers. 

“As a Founder, especially if you read Steve Jobs’ biography and you’re kind of naive and stupid like I am, you think that you need the answers to everything, right? You think you need to have the vision, right? People talk about this vision that you have to have. And that puts so much pressure on you.  [Often] you’re just a kid and you don’t know too much…but you really need to ask good questions. And then, with that ability to ask, it’s really simple, right?  Asking your users what they want, asking your clients what they want and really paying attention to what they say and continuously asking more questions. They have the answers. So it makes everything easier, right?”

For more from Thomas on learning as a young entrepreneur & AtlasGo’s mission to move and make change, listen here.

14.  Kate Jakubas, Founder of Meliora Cleaning Products, On Business as a Tool to Solve Social & Environmental Problems

Kate Jakubas is an environmental engineer by trade. Growing up as one of the kids who had a “rock collection” instead of a lemonade stand (as she put it), she hadn’t considered herself at any point destined to be a business person. 

However, with her care for the environment and her engineering drive to solve problems, she became inspired to determine what potential toxic and environmentally harmful chemicals she could remove from her own personal consumption. This then turned her onto household products and led to the founding of Meliora Cleaning Products, which she runs with her husband, Mike. 

Kate came on the podcast to talk zero-waste production and shared how she found the connection to business as a tool for good from her engineering background.

“As engineers we solve problems. It’s basically everything that engineering is, you find something that’s broken and you fix it or you find something that you think you could make better and you make it better. And that’s ultimately what I like to do.  …As I got more work experience, I noticed that, it’s not just a hammer, it’s not just a piece of duct tape that you can use to solve a problem. You can actually use business itself as a tool. And that was really interesting to me. …I really liked the idea of using business as a tool and focusing it on a social problem or an environmental problem.”

For more from Kate & using her business as a tool to solve the environmental problem of wasteful and toxic household products, listen here.

15. Dave Spandorfer, CEO of Janji, On Using Running to Start a Business that Affects Positive Change

Dave Co-Founded Janji in 2012 when he was a college student with one of his teammates on the cross country team. Reflecting on the fulfillment each of these two had received from the sport of running, they wanted to start a business that kept them connected with the sport and shared the joy they’ve received from it with others. 

With the risks involved in starting a business, both Dave and his Co-Founder believed they might as well do something bigger to make it worth it: make an impact. They decided to take a chance on creating a business that seemed truest to them, and with the greatest integrity. 

Now one of the producers of the “Best Running Shorts of the Year,” as they were named by Runners World, Dave came on the show to share with me this journey with Janji and some of his thoughts early on as they were formulating the business’s ‘do good’ DNA.

“You see all these stats of the rates of failure for people who start businesses. If we are going to start something, we knew we had to do something that would affect positive change in the world. We wanted to find a way to use running as a power to make the world a better place because it had been this power to make our own lives better.”

For more from Dave on the origins of doing good through Janji, and their success and growth trajectory, listen here.

16. Jim Osgood, CEO & President of Klean Kanteen, On The Importance of Being Clear on Your Mission & North Star 

Klean Kanteen has been a model of a “triple bottom line business” since the beginning, with their focus being on creating and offering solutions to eliminating single-use plastics. It was in 2011 when Jim Osgood joined the ‘Klean Team’ to help elevate that mission to the next level. 

In Jim’s time with the Klean Kanteen team, Klean Kanteen became a certified B Corporation in 2012, and they have continued to make massive contributions to  1% for the Planet , all the while tripling sales and dramatically increasing profits. 

Jim attributes this largely to Klean Kanteen’s focus on maturation as an organization with a key element of that growth being their commitment to strategic planning and getting clear on their “why.” 

Since our chat, Jim has embarked on a new business adventure, but as CEO of Klean Kanteen, he provided great insight into Klean Kanteen’s emphasis on mission and strategic planning.

“Being clear on your North Star, clear on your mission, clear on the fundamentals, they key priorities, [that] makes [strategic] decisions pretty easy when you’re true to your values, true to your ethos.  …When you are true to your values, true to your ethos, the big, gnarly decisions actually become easy. It’s the little knick-knacky things that we get wound up on every day that are pretty inconsequential.”

For more from Jim on Klean’s strategic planning and ambitions to rid the world of single-use plastic, listen here.

17. Peter Dering, Founder & CEO from Peak Design, on the Formula for Balancing Business Growth with Environmental & Social Sustainability

Peter Dering launched Peak Design nearly a decade ago through Kickstarter, with a product called the “ Capture Camera Clip .”It became the second most funded project on Kickstarter of all time. Since then, Peter and the Peak team have continued on with one major Kickstarter campaign per year, and in 2019 they were on pace to do $100M in sales when we spoke for the podcast. 

But, a conservationist at heart, Peter has made sustainable practices and environmental action a core to the way that Peak does business. And, Peter shared with me Peak’s “formula” for giving back and mitigating their environmental impact to combat climate change. 

“Here’s our formula. We’ve joined 1% for the Planet. 1% of sales is frankly a totally arbitrary amount of money, right? It doesn’t look at profitability, it doesn’t look at what type of business you’re in. It’s just this arbitrary line in the sand that says “1% of sales.” It happens to be for us a both reasonable and meaningful amount of money to give. So we start there and from within that budget we then figure out how to best affect positive change. …Then you’ve got to look at your supply chain and the most important things that you can do are reduce what you can, right? Use the least carbon-intensive protocols you can. It starts there, but you’ve got to understand full well that changing the entire worldwide supply chain is not going to happen over night. So while you absolutely should take vigorous efforts to reduce your carbon footprint, be very well aware that you’re going to have a lot left over. Secondly is to adopt social policies specifically in the factories where you’re doing the majority of your work that allow for happy and healthy and satisfied lives of the people who are doing that very, very hard work. That is another rung, right? Thirdly is don’t choose materials and processes that are chemically unsafe, like be as conscientious as you can. …And then the last step is offsetting that carbon footprint . And this is a whole other very big conversation, but we went through that journey of measuring our entire footprint all the way back to the extraction of raw materials to produce aluminum and refine it. All of that. We found our footprint was 20,000 tons in 2017 we also found that the average cost of a carbon offset at that time was three bucks a ton. So for one fifth of our 1% for the planet budget, we were able to offset the entirety of our carbon footprint. And that is both interesting and really begs the question of — if carbon offsets are that cheap right now, shouldn’t everybody be offsetting their entire carbon footprint as a baseline for responsibility?”

Learn more from Peter, Peak Design, and their commitment to creating high-quality products and environmental conservation.

18. Madeleine Shaw, Founder of Lunapads & Nestworks, On How to Find Your Entrepreneurial Counterpart 

Madeleine Shaw is best known for founding the extremely successful mission-driven company , Lunapads (now Aisle), which specializes in providing reusable and sustainable solutions for periods. Madeleine has since been extremely active as a social entrepreneur and member of her Vancouver community, founding an event series for adolescent girls called G Day and now, a parent-friendly co-working space, called Nestworks. 

Madeleine was quick to admit that her success as a social entrepreneur would have not been remotely possible without her counterpart and business partner, Suzanne Siemens. 

Madeleine shared how other entrepreneurs might be able to find a “Suzanne” of their own.

“The way you find them is you tell them a great story about what you’re trying to create. Then they fall in love with it. You’re super nice to them, and you’re respectful of them, and you listen to them. You make them part of it, and you allow them to be part of it, and you build it together.”

Want to hear more from Madeleine on social entrepreneurial success and work life integration? Listen here.

19. Chris Chancey, CEO of Amplio Recruiting, On the Power of “Playing a Part” in a Compelling Story

Chris Chancey is the CEO of Amplio Recruiting, a staffing agency that places refugees into jobs with U.S. companies. Chris started Amplio after he and his wife moved to a refugee community outside of Atlanta, GA and familiarized themselves with the stories of their new neighbors. 

Hoping to find a way to help, in a means that would be sustainable, Chris’ staffing agency, Amplio Recruiting was born. 

While the success of Amplio thus far could be surely attributed to providing an excellent solution to U.S. companies’ chronic problems (finding good people), Chris also believes that Amplio’s growth can be attributed to them being a part of such a compelling and engaging story given the issues that are facing us locally and globally. 

“As people learn more about what’s happening in the world around the refugee crisis, and especially as the U.S. and our government make certain policies that in the case right now are not very beneficial, not very in favor of the refugee community, there are companies that are now educated about who a refugee is, their legal status, and their ability to work. Companies call us, saying, ‘We would love to be a part of their story.”

Want to hear more from Chris and Amplio’s innovative solution to finding work for resettling refugees? Listen here.

20. Casey Ames, Founder of Harkla, On Why His Company Seeks Out to Make Mistakes

Casey Ames, my brother, is the Founder of Harkla, an e-commerce company that manufactures and sells products that support families with children who are living with special needs. Three years since its founding, Harkla hit over $1M in revenue—achieving extremely rapid growth. 

In our episode, Casey dove deep into his and Harkla’s systemic approach to building their company, and how that approach influences their thoughts on making mistakes. 

“I always try and instill the mindset in my employees that it’s perfectly okay to make mistakes, but we can’t make the same mistake twice. It’s only an issue if we don’t learn from the mistake. And so we make mistakes all the time and it’s perfectly fine because they’re fail-safe.  We try and do pre-mortems before we do a big experiment of how could this go terribly. And then we try and cap our downsides.  But while we are systematic, we’re always trying to make mistakes and then go back and fix the system. So [we ask ourselves], “Where did this break down? What didn’t work?” It’s taking a scientific method approach to your company— coming up with a hypothesis, then let’s test it.”

For more from Casey and Harkla’s approach to building a company serving those living with special needs, listen here.

21. Henry Burgess-Marshall, Director of Marketing with Canniloq, On Where a Call to Influence Change Comes From

Henry Burgess-Marshall and the Canniloq team manufacture high-end stash containers for the safe consumption and storage of cannabis. At the core of Canniloq’s operations is the social mission of righting what seems to be the moral wrongs grossly revealing themselves as marijuana is legalized throughout the United States. 

Alex Husted founded Helpsy in 2017 with a group of friends with the environmental mission of reducing textile waste by creating greater convenience to recycle  old clothes . Since its inception, Helpsy has placed 1,800 collection containers throughout the Northeast U.S., and in the last year, they collected over 25 million pounds of clothes.

This was the impetus for Canniloq’s “Unloq the Truth” campaign where they are dedicating themselves to raising awareness, support, and resources for those who have suffered or are suffering from antiquated drug laws, while a newly legal industry booms. 

In our podcast recording, we talk about the origins of Henry’s interest and care for this issue of drug incarcerations, and the clear discrepancy as this issue affects people of color disproportionately more than others. 

“The real catalyst [for me] was getting informed and educated. Some people have read the book, the new Jim Crow, maybe they’ve seen the Netflix documentary, 13th, about the 13th Amendment and the mass incarceration of people of color in this country. I was working at an addiction treatment center here in Seattle, and it was for youth boys ages 13 to 18.  It was really a deferment from youth jail. They go through the four month treatment and if they make it through there, they don’t have to serve any time for whatever drug charges they had. I saw a lot of people of color and not very many white people. I knew from growing up, that white people were using drugs at very similar, if not more often rates.  That really got me thinking, as I was learning all this information too. I was applying it to what I was seeing. And then I was not always the perfect standup citizen, and as I made mistakes, I kept getting let off the hook and given second chances in life while people who didn’t look like me weren’t.”

For more from Henry and consciousness in the cannabis industry, listen here.

22. Andy Freedman, Co-Founder of Miles4Migrants, On the Need & Approach for Smart People to Solve Massive Problems

Andy Freedman is the Co-Founder of Miles4Migrants, a nonprofit that takes donated airline miles and flies migrants and refugees wherever they need to go to be reunited with their families. 

What started as a one-time project with some airline miles enthusiasts has turned into the full-blown nonprofit that you see with Miles4Migrants. As of the end of 2019, the Miles4Migrants team has booked over 2,000 flights to reunite refugees with their families—with many more to come. 

Andy gave us some guidance on how others can go about finding “their problem to solve.”

“For me, it was supporting refugees and asylum seekers, but I think whatever the passion is, there is a need for smart people to be thinking about these massive problems.  My other advice is to not try to solve the entire problem, because you will fail miserably. There is a reason they [these problems] are massive.  And so find, a piece of the problem that you feel like you are best suited for or have an idea that you think could help and start there.”

Want to hear more from Andy on how Miles4Migrants is playing their part in refugee resettlement? Listen here.

23.  Andrew Glazier, CEO & President of Defy Ventures, on Why Social Justice Movements Must Start with Connection

Andrew Glazier and the Defy Ventures team offer entrepreneurship and job training programs for currently and formerly incarcerated men and women in seven states across the United States. They have enrolled over 5,000 EITs (entrepreneurs in training) in prison, and in their post-release program. 

This work has led to phenomenal results, with a one-year recidivism rate at 7.2% compared to the national average of 30% and their employment rate for post-graduates of their program is at 82%. 

In our podcast recording, Andrew talked about the success of Defy, and the successes (although with a long road ahead) of this social justice movement as a whole. 

“I believe that no social justice movement can be successful without person-to-person interaction and people having that human experience. And that’s why we work really hard at making this issue accessible to people, particularly in the business community, to come with us and see what we’re doing.  And more importantly, sit across from somebody who is incarcerated or formerly incarcerated and recognize that we’re not that different.  And when you’re able to make those connections and cut through that sort of fear and emotion, you can start to have a rational conversation about it to say, “look, if someone’s completed the Defy program and they’ve gone through seven months of work and 1200 pages of curriculum in 10 to 15 hours a week, and at the end of it they were able to stand up in front of volunteers and pitch their business.  That’s hard to do.  And maybe we should be thinking about what a fair chance looks like for somebody who has really shown the wherewithal to turn their life around and transform themselves.”

Listen to Andrew to learn how Defy Ventures is addressing the issue of mass incarceration and  reducing recidivism .

24. Lindsey McCoy, CEO of Plaine Products, on How Their ‘No Plastic’ Personal Care Business has Taken Off 

Visit Plaine Products’ home page and you’ll be greeted with the phrase, ‘Personal Care Without All The Plastic.’ Founded in 2017, by Lindsey McCoy and her sister Alison, Plaine Products offers shampoos, conditioners, and more in refillable containers to keep single-use plastic out of your bathroom. 

At the time of our initial podcast recording, Plaine Products were on pace to hit over $2M in sales and divert over 100,000 plastic bottles from landfills—in 2019 alone! 

Lindsey was gracious enough to join me for a recording and share with the Grow Ensemble listeners what she felt has contributed to their rapid growth. You can also check out our Plaine Products review for even more insight into the company.

“I think, one, is that we are legitimately solving a problem for some people, we were able to move into a space where providing a convenient alternative to single-use plastic with good quality products, there’s just not a lot of people doing it so I think that has helped. There’s not a lot of people searching for refillable shampoo, or at least there wasn’t when we got into it. But for sure, having something that sets us apart from our competitors has been helpful.  Having a mission has been helpful. I think people are much more willing to help us spread the word, tell their friends about us because we have a purpose and because we’re trying to do good.  We really have not had a lot of funds to put into marketing. We’ve had incredible word of mouth…”

Want to hear more from Lindsey and how Plaine Products has made the impact it has? Click here to listen.

25. Liza Moiseeva, CMO & Co-Founder of GlobeIn, on Focusing on Building a Community to Scale the Good Your Business Does

Liza Moiseeva is the Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of GlobeIn, a social business that offers a monthly subscription “artisan” box that specializes in fair trade and ethical products to empower artisans in the developing world. 

Originally from Russia, collegiate swimming brought Liza to the United States. She’s continued to channel that competitive spirit for her appetite and ambition to use business not just make money but also solve significant social problems.

Liza is very generous and open with her insights and advice for other ethical brands and shared her expertise on our podcast urging new brands to focus on building a community around their niche. 

“If I were a new brand, and this is what I tell new brands right now, start building a community before you start selling.  That’s how all of the big successful brands’ stories are, like Glossier, it started as just a blog. You build a community, you build your expertise and then you sell it.  Maybe you don’t want to be an influencer yourself, But [in whatever way, on whatever platform] even before you have a product, start building a community of followers…So when you have a product you already have someone who will be interested in that.”

For more from Liza on launching a new ethical brand & scaling impact, listen here.

Our Social Entrepreneurship 101 Guide will provide great contextual background for the tips and inspiration our podcasts guests have provided. Check it out!

26. Tim Lara, Owner of Hawaiian Paddle Sports, on How Guides Can Turn Tourists into Advocates

Tim Lara is the Owner of Hawaiian Paddle Sports, an Eco-Tour certified B Corporation located on the island of Maui. Tim has a tremendous passion and respect for the natural life, and culture of Maui as well as an engine that just won’t stop. 

Tim listed the many activities he’s involved himself in, in Maui, in our podcast, as well, he shared what seems to be both an opportunity and duty for his guides as they take visitors on tours of the natural areas in Maui.  

“We have this captive audience, if you will, where we have them for a period of time. And so if we can use that time to help them have a deeper appreciation and understanding of the marine world and Hawaiian culture, then that’s really what we’re looking to do.  Jacques Rousseau said people protect what they love, right? And so if we can help people fall in love with these things, then they’re going to grow up and help protect them.”

To hear more from Tim on running an Eco-Tour company & advocating for the environment, listen here.

27. Adrianne Chandra-Huff, of Bodhi Surf + Yoga on the Need for Environmental Stewardship in the Tourism Industry

Bodhi Surf + Yoga is a  certified B Corporation  based in Uvita, Costa Rica. They teach their guests how to surf, practice yoga, and help them learn about their local area in Costa Rica. 

Adrianne, who I connected with at the B Corporation Champions Retreat in 2018, joined me for an episode where she shared the trajectory of Bodhi’s growth and evolution as a model for sustainable tourism , and her understanding of the obligation all businesses in the tourism industry have to mind and preserve the local region they benefit from…

“As a tourism company, you are benefiting from the very resources that draw people to you in the first place. So, that’s to say, if it were to become super polluted down here, people probably won’t come anymore.  So we have, I think, a moral and fiduciary imperative to take care of those very entities that we benefit from. But also, I just think it’s cool that we do, you know, because we live here and we’re benefiting from it more than just as individuals, we’re benefiting from it as a business.”

For more from Adrianne on the obligations of the tourism industry (and more) click here.

Professional Services

28. russ stoddard, founder of oliver russell, on success in social entrepreneurship & the sense of urgency to do good.

I first came across Russ through his book,  Rise Up: How to Build a Socially Conscious Business , where he introduces the concept of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship. In late 2018, I visited Russ at his office in Boise, Idaho for a podcast recording. Russ’ wisdom, generosity, and advocacy for the sustainable and social business model shined throughout our chat. 

Russ explained why a positive impact is more appropriate compensation than just a paycheck and shared how he manages his ever-growing portfolio of business and impact involvement.

“I guess some of the compensation I derive from the business is actually the meaning I’m able to create through it. Whether it’s with the folks who work here at Oliver Russell, whether it’s in the community with stakeholders, for me it’s just like earning a paycheck, making money is not enough for me. And making money is actually for me, kind of a consequence of doing good in the world, I wanted to create a business that would actually make our community a better place and do that intentionally so.” [As for managing priorities]: Constant challenge. Focus. Some days I’m good at it, other days I’m not, I kind of operate with the universe in mind. Oftentimes it creates opportunities that come up very opportunistically and I will jump into those not unlike creating Oliver Russell. So, I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m the best at managing my own time, I feel a sense of urgency to accomplish a lot and hopefully be an initiator or co-collaborator where I can and leverage other people’s efforts in the world.  A co-founder of a benefit corporation here in town, it’s funny, a couple of weeks ago, we’re both in the bathroom together, standing at the urinals and he said, “Russ, how in the hell do you get everything done that you tackle?” I said, “Not very well…” So you know, I’m not regimented in many ways. I get up at four, I go to hard until nine some days I’m, as I said, I’m focused and other days I’m kind of scattered. I’ll take action over just thoughtful planning any day, that’s what I’m built for.”

Want to hear more from Russ on his social entrepreneurial success? Listen here.

29. Jessica Kellner, from Bark Media, on Building Community & Support Around Your Organization Through Authentic Storytelling

I briefly connected with Jessica at my first B Corporation Champions Retreat in New Orleans.

Jessica and other folks from leadership on the Bark Media team hosted a wonderfully insightful breakout session where they shared strategies for other B Corporations to get started telling their own stories and collaborate with others in the B Corp community to do so. Luckily for us, following this social impact conference Jessica joined me for an early episode of the podcast. 

Jessica dove deeper into these topics of storytelling and community-building and connecting with “your” people in our chat, 

“We really believe in authentic storytelling and we believe that the way to build a community, to build support around yourself as an organization or as a movement is to tell that authentic story. And frankly, that only works if you have an authentic, interesting story to tell. …there are a lot of people out there in the world that want to support work that is making a difference , that want to support companies that are running themselves in certain ways that want to support movements to improve our world. It’s telling your authentic story so that you can find the right people who are going to support you because they’re out there. It’s just that they don’t know about you right now.”

Want more on authentic storytelling and community building? Listen to Jessica’s episode here.

30. Chris Hutchinson, CEO of the Trebuchet Group, on the Rewards of Personal Development

My conversation with Chris was inspiring—a true example of a self-aware, reflective leader.  Chris and the Trebuchet Group are deeply committed to personal development and expanding the leadership capacities of individuals and organizations and that came through in our recording. 

We talked about leaders who create other leaders, the self-awareness that’s required to be a leader, and Chris’ experience writing his complete leadership “playbook,”  Ripple: A Field Manual for Leadership that Works .

Early on, Chris opened up about the rewards of focusing on developing yourself.

“Working on yourself first is the most rewarding work you’re going to do. Not only for you, but for everyone around you.”

Want to hear more about developing leadership skills & self-awareness? Listen here.

31. Dave Fortson, CEO of LOACOM, on the Importance of Passion & Persistence to “Stay in the Game”

Dave, his business partner Eric, and the entire LOA team, have a true passion for the work they do, and they have a good time doing it. LOACOM is an agency in Santa Barbara, CA with expertise in building movements. They support organizations who want to improve the world to develop better products, services, and fully express their mission. 

I’ve had the great privilege to partner with these folks, working to amplify the mission of example better businesses like All Good Products, and they’ve continued to impress with their passion, strong and flexible company culture, and commitment to serve their client partners. 

On our podcast, Dave revealed some of the core ethos of LOA as a company by sharing some reflections as to how LOA initially survived, and now thrives with a specific position in the social business market space. 

“Passion for what you do will pull you through the worst times. If you love it, it really doesn’t matter if the economy tanks or if you’re having a bad week or if you lose a client or your product sucks or whatever. You’ll just keep innovating and creating until you find the groove that’s best for you. But that is defined by passion.  Persistence, I think is in the same vein as passion. You’re going to run into a bunch of walls and you’ve got to go around, above, below or through…Sometimes you’ve got it and sometimes you don’t. Similarly, I think it’s related to both passion and persistence is that, a lot of times, it’s who’s left.  And if you really love what you’re doing, and you continue to believe in your work and you continue to innovate and evolve and be open to that, then oftentimes you’ll be the last person standing and you’ll see kind of market growth around what you do just because of that.”

Hear more about this passion, persistence, and how you can build a movement around your brand by clicking here.

32. Ryan Honeyman, Partner at the LIFT Economy, on Why Our Work Should Focus on the Most Marginalized to Make Systemic Change

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner & Worker/Owner at the LIFT Economy, an impact consulting firm based in San Francisco. In April of 2019, in partnership with Dr. Tiffany Jana (from TMI Consulting), Ryan released  The B Corp Handbook, Second Edition: How You Can Use Business as a Force for Good . 

Ryan joined me on the podcast to chat about the new inclusions in the book and this new determined focus members of the B Corporation and social innovation and social business communities should take towards focusing their work on the most marginalized people, if we want to actually effect systemic change. 

“If you center the most marginalized people in your work, then everyone benefits, because if you are always thinking about how does this affect the most marginalized, then inherently you’ll be considering all the folks above the most marginalized.  And so we’ve been putting this question to ourselves, if we focused on benefiting low income communities of color with our work, what would that change about how we do consulting, how we think about business, and I think that’s a question that’s going to be spreading more in our space. If we’re not centering folks who are part of the most marginalized communities in the U.S. and globally, then we’re always going to be doing something that’s not quite as effective at meeting those people’s needs or everyone’s needs.  I think with B Corps, that’s one conversation we’re trying to bring in as how can we really center these groups in all of our decision making and bringing them into the decision making process. Otherwise, we’re just going to be guessing what people might want and the impacts will be marginal as compared to what could be.”

For more from Ryan on the writing of this second handbook and what businesses can do to make the greatest impact, listen here.

33. Emily Lonigro, President & Founder of LimeRed, on Doubling Down on Community to Succeed with Purpose-Driven Business

Emily Longiro Founded LimeRed with a dedication to use her skills and expertise in design for good. And, now 15 plus years in business, she and the LimeRed team have done just that. Serving not just nonprofits, but social enterprises, and mission-driven businesses of all kinds, they strive to use design to make tangible change. 

But, of course, that’s not easy for anybody. Business and impact pose an inherent greater challenge than just business, right? For Emily, it’s been community that’s allowed her to be a part of “writing this new rule book” of purpose-driven business since 2004.  

“A few years ago when I was at a retreat for  conscious business  leaders, that was something that came up a couple of times[, the added stress of integrating purpose in your company]. We were not talking about our own mental health and the stress we put on ourselves to do this thing that is so nebulous without rules, and we are all here writing this rule book together.  …And the only thing that I’ve ever figured out so far to do, is to really double down into my community and get really involved and to make really, really true and honest relationships with other business owners…So yeah, it’s a different experience and I think that we’re all trying to figure out how to do it together and well, and I don’t think we’ve quite figured that out yet. But. I am very optimistic.”

To hear more from Emily on community and using design to make an impact, listen here.

34. Tim Frick, CEO of Mightybytes, on How Digital Agencies Can Think About Making Positive Change

Tim Frick and his Certified B Corporation Digital Agency, Mightybytes, are exemplars of what it means to be an “agency of change” (a term Tim coined in some of his writing featured on the B the Change blog). 

From tools to measure the environmental impact of your website, to their list of better brand and nonprofit clients, Mightybytes has built an exceptional portfolio of examples where they’ve influenced positive change. While this may look easy, it’s not—and we were grateful when Tim joined me on the show to talk about this “balancing act” of finding what is the good you can do, at a sustainable clip. 

“We learned through the  B Impact Assessment  what we could do with it and got super excited. For example, you’re asked a lot of questions about your supply chain as an agency. Your supply chain [as a digital agency] is pretty much pixels and people so you have to really rethink what that means. …right around that same time we were learning that the internet had a larger environmental impact than the airline industry. And that was the thing that we built for a living. And so because of that, it was really eye opening to say, “Okay, all websites require electricity to run and the majority of our electricity in the United States doesn’t come from renewable sources. So what can we do at least for one step to find green hosting?” And so we started experimenting with a bunch of different green hosting providers. Turns out that wasn’t easy. And that ended up taking like four or five years of us going through a bunch of different hosting providers and seeing if we could find the right fit.  …every one of these things is a little bit of a balancing act of doing what you can do with your resources and trying to spot as many potential red flags as possible while also staying focused on providing good work. You’re only as good as your last project in our world. So making sure that your last project was as awesome as it could be is always a challenge.”

For more from Tim on Mightybytes’ and their agenda for change, listen here.

35. Sarah Woolsey, Founder of The Impact Guild, on the Importance of Small Celebrations on Your Way to Manifesting a Vision

Very grateful to have connected with Sarah Woolsey and The Impact Guild community in my current city, San Antonio. A co-working space I’ve periodically called my office, The Impact Guild is a beautiful community space that Sarah founded with the intent to orient around ethical and sustainable community development. 

In our podcast recording, we talk about the origin story for Sarah’s community space, from the inception of the idea to opening the doors, and everything in between. While they’ve made significant progress, in our chat Sarah reminded us of the importance of celebrating small “wins” on your way to manifesting your much larger vision. 

“I can tend to look at that 10-year vision and see the gaps of everything that hasn’t happened yet and live way more in that space, which puts this internal pressure to go, go, go.  And that is one wonderful takeaway I think of doing this thing in community, and in the community that we’re building, is other people pointing out and saying, “Hold on, pause, celebrate this thing, this goal, this outcome, this thing that was a part of the vision that has been achieved. And yeah, there’s more and that’s going to be great and wonderful but slow down for a second and sit in the space to look back and be reflective. And that is a practice that I am learning right now and it is really fun to see.”

For more from Sarah and her experience building a community of change-makers in San Antonio, listen here.

36. Amy Looper, Co-Founder & COO of One Seventeen Media, On Endurance & Passion In The Social Entrepreneurial Journey

Amy Looper, and her partner Beth Carls, run One Seventeen Media, a Certified B Corporation in Austin, TX, deep in the world of Artificial Intelligence Medical Technologies. 

Together, they’ve created reThinkIt!—an app that helps kids process difficult emotions in real time. reThinkIt! Has been responsible for preventing a school shooting, boosting school attendance, saving schools precious budgetary resources. An experienced entrepreneur, Amy reflected on virtues and successful characteristics of her impact focused entrepreneurial career. 

“We know there’s a lot of opportunity that we want to take advantage of and I think it’s been a slow burn. And, this is just part of the entrepreneurial journey, right? With all of us that are about solving an impact problem, whether it’s social, emotional, or environmental, it is going to take a little bit longer burn rate to some extent. But it is really true if this is your passion , if you find something that you’re passionate about and you can lock on it and stay with it, because there’s certainly been days when we’ve wanted to question, “What are we doing?” Somebody the other day said, hey gosh, this is really cool. You guys are getting ready to take off. And I was like, “Yeah, it’s been a 19-year overnight success!”

Want to hear more from Amy on the “Social Entrepreneurial Journey?” Listen here.

37. Michèle Soregaroli, Founder & CEO of Transformation Catalyst, on How Your Values & Vision Differentiate You in the Marketplace

Michèle Soregaroli is a business coach with a specialty in differentiation, based in Vancouver B.C., helping entrepreneurs and business founders discover greater value, purpose, and mission in their work in efforts to separate them from their competition in the marketplace. 

In our podcast episode, we covered Michèle’s origins into differentiation coaching, the importance of learning as an entrepreneur through trial and error, and business as a force for good. Michèle shared some of her secrets normally reserved from clients, on the keys to differentiation in the marketplace: 

“The key to differentiation was not just about making noise and being loud and getting noticed, but the opportunity for a business to differentiate is the same way a human being would differentiate in terms of what’s important to that business and why it’s in business and what its mission is and what its vision of a better future would be.”

Want to hear more from Michèle on differentiation and the importance of values in business? Listen here.

38. Chris Sparks, Founder of The Forcing Function, on Pushing Forward Every Single Day

Chris Founded the Forcing Function with the objective to empower the next generation of entrepreneur. Through coaching, resources, and retreats, Chris helps entrepreneurs to prioritize, become more effective in their day to day, and achieve significant professional and personal goals. 

In our episode, Chris shared what he believed to be the most important message for anyone listening in.

“If I could give anyone a message from this, find some way to make some amount of small progress every single day… Understand what is important. Make sure that it happens regularly. Protect it. Have a way to track if what you are doing is leading to the results you want. If it’s not, change course.”

For more from Chris on Productivity & the Next Generation of Entrepreneurship, listen here.

39. Claire Booth, Founder & CEO of Lux Insights, on Values Being a “Guiding Light”

Claire Booth is the Founder & CEO of Lux Insights, a market research agency based in Vancouver, B.C., and the author of  Achiever Fever Cure  a book about the balance between seeking healthy achievement and achievement that fills an emotional void. 

In our podcast recording, both Claire and the President of Lux Insights, Hanson Lok, joined to talk about the culture they’ve created which led to Lux receiving the 2019 Best Employer Award from British Columbia’s Small Business Awards. Claire drew the focus to their values.

“Our values were decided upon based on who we are as people. When we hire people who align with our values, they align with us, which is what allows us to deepen those relationships. We also find clients who align with those values tend to be the deepest relationships and the long-standing accounts we have been able to hold on to over the years.”

For more from Claire and Hanson on Creating an “Award-Winning” Culture, listen here.

40. Tara-Nicholle Nelson, CEO of Soul Tour, on Giving Yourself Permission to Not Do Something

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is the Founder & CEO of SoulTour, a company that focuses on spiritual growth for entrepreneurs, specifically high-achieving women running purpose-driven organizations. 

Tara considers herself to be “deeply obedient to the callings of her soul,” and encourages her clients to be the same. Our podcast recording was enlightening, and the clarity with which Tara operates and understands herself is compelling. 

In speaking to the true clarity we all have already within us, Tara calls it an issue of permission…

“People are less confused about what they don’t want to do than they give themselves permission to be.”

To hear more from Tara and the importance of paying attention to your own callings, listen here.

41. Julia Chung, CEO of Admin Slayer, On Managing Your Emotional Health for the Sake of Team Success

Julia Chung is the CEO of two companies (yes, TWO companies), Spring Financial Planning and Admin Slayer. In asking Julia how she happens to manage all that, she’ll humbly tell you: relationships, relationships, relationships. 

And in our podcast recording together, Julia dove into just that, how critical the key relationships and partnerships have been in her success both personally and professionally, and how she goes about managing both herself and those relationships in a healthy manner. 

“Every piece of baggage that you have not only gets carried into your personal relationships, but it also comes to work with you. If you can’t figure out what’s going on in here, you will be absolutely pointless and useless to your team.”

For more from Julia on the relationship between your emotional health and the success of your team, listen here.

42 . Giselle Waters, Content Strategist with Mad Fish Digital, On Why Work Can’t Exist Without Purpose

Giselle Waters is an expert content strategist with Mad Fish Digital, a Certified B Corporation marketing agency in Portland, OR. Giselle championed the B Corporation certification for Mad Fish and has been passionate about using her skills and energy for impact before she joined their team. 

On the podcast, Giselle and I talked about business and work with purpose and how it’s been an essential piece to how she exerts herself professionally:

“I felt like I need to love what I do and love where I work every day and I need to love it for more reasons than just, you know, a paycheck or even the people I’m working with. Like I need to feel like what I do has meaning and impact beyond myself.”

For more from Giselle on B Corporation Certification & Building a Content Strategy, listen here.

43. Becci Gould, Associate Director at Kin&Co, On Why All Employers Need to Take Well-Being Seriously

Becci Gould and the Kin&Co team are award-winning culture and behavior change consultants located in the United Kingdom. A Certified B Corporation as well, these folks have become thought leaders and sit on the cutting edge for reinvigorating organizations with a thriving company culture and purpose. 

From shorter workweeks to Wednesday “ofternoons,” the Kin&Co team and Becci are running experiments on everything that can positively affect employees’ well-being and thus their performance on the job. 

In our episode Becci talks about this topic with urgency, stressing all employers need to give their staff’s well-being focus. 

“I think every employer should be doing something to maintain the wellbeing, the work-life balance, and prevent burnout of its staff. But it depends on what works for that organization.  I’ll also say, as I said before, you don’t need to go and roll this out across the board from day one, test a few different initiatives, see which ones work and then roll them out from there.  You don’t have to commit fully to everything straight away, but have a go and even if you’re just testing a few of these things, the message that sends to your employees is really strong because it shows that you really do care about this aspect of their lives and want to improve things for them.”

For more from Becci Gould on creating a thriving company culture, listen here.

44. Amanda Munday, Founder of The Workaround, On the Parenting & Professional Life Crossover

Amanda Munday is the Founder of The Workaround, a parent-friendly co-working space located in Toronto. In our podcast recording, Amanda dove deep into the dual identities of the professional and the parent, challenging us to think that just because you are one doesn’t mean you can’t as well be the other. 

With her co-working space, Amanda is challenging our assumptions about what possibilities exist, what possibilities must exist, for the professional parents. 

“What I challenge with it is we can run dual identities at the same time. And that’s at the core of what the workaround is doing is saying we are parents and we are professionals and we have other parts of ourselves outside of if you identify as mom or dad, we can have that life before. It’s not over because we’ve moved into parenting.”

Want to hear more from Amanda on evolving to a more parent-friendly workforce? Listen here.

45. Bernie Geiss, Founder of Cove Continuity Advisors, on a Philosophical Alignment that Led Him to the B Corp Movement

Bernie Geiss is the Founder of Cove Continuity Advisors, an award-winning financial services firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Before getting into financial services, Bernie spent multiple years traveling the world and learning, practicing meditation and yoga. It was those deeply impactful experiences that Bernie brought with him into his approach to starting his own business. With enough time, it seemed fitting that Bernie played an extremely active role in B.C.’s passing of the benefit company legislation. 

In our episode, Bernie talked about how, with the help of a business coach (Michele Soregaroli, another podcast guest!), he came to align his philosophy with his business. 

“We went through a very extensive deep search about what our commitments are, what our purpose is, and we came to the purpose of, that we want to lead a fundamental shift from unconscious entrepreneurial-ism to enlightened continuity.  And that was a way for us to integrate the philosophical side of what we all deeply believe in with what was going on in the world. That there’s this unconscious entrepreneurial-ism, which is this desire to earn profits and to save money and to consolidate and concentrate wealth in the hands of a small group of people to the exclusion of many people who are working for those people.  It was through Michelle and that evolution of rebranding that we discovered the B Corp movement.”

For more from Bernie and the transition from traditional business to a social enterprise, listen here.

46. Doug Lessing, Founder of Phin, On Using Unstructured Time to Create Flow

Doug Lessing is the Founder of Phin, a soon-to-be Certified B Corporation startup that connects great companies with great people and causes. Doug opted to take the social entrepreneurial leap, leaving a company he “grew up in” to build a startup with social good at its core. 

The impetus for this startup, Phin, came from something of a sabbatical that Doug took as a moment away from his previous job to create space and time to think and process what his next career move might be. 

It’s this prioritizing of space that Doug has kept with him now in his day-to-day of building this social impact-focused business in Phin.

“That unstructured time actually became the one thing that I hold onto now, as the one thing that I really learned, and that’s that when we give ourselves some space, the magic really begins to happen.  The creativity begins to flow, energy begins to flow, the ideas begin to flow.”

For more from Doug & his approach to social entrepreneurship, listen here.

47. Austin Buchan, CEO of College Forward, Listening & Responding to Feedback to Scale Impact in the Nonprofit Sector

College Forward is a nonprofit in Austin, Texas that helps what would be first-generation college students get to and through college. Joining CEO (and my brother-in-law) Austin Buchan in the College Forward office for a recording, Austin reflected on how College Forward has been able to develop the powerful programming for students that they have (through what would now be called Human-Centered Design). 

He also got into how College Forward is taking that intimate understanding of what their students need to begin to look at how they continue to serve students, but at a much larger scale. 

“Going back to just mission and money as the two things that we’re thinking about within the overarching lens of scale, there are 1.7 million students in college in Texas alone, and we’ve got to think differently if we want to see these numbers [low-income student access] move. And you know, sadly I think this is kind of tragic in some ways, but the outcomes that we care about, looking at the number of low-income students getting into college, persisting and graduating, that number has actually gone down since we started this work even in our local community. Those inequity gaps are growing every single year. And even though for the fortunate students who kind of stumble into our program by chance, we’re leveling the playing field… How we take what’s worked for 13,000 students and scale it to 130,000 over the next year, 1.3 million the year after…those are the questions that we need to be designing programs and business models around to make sure that we can do it at scale. And when I say scale, I really mean scale. Not how do we open up another office in San Antonio to serve 200 students, but how do we really design a model that could reach hundreds of thousands if not millions now over the next 10 years?”

For more on Scaling Impact and Earned Revenue Models in the Nonprofit space, listen here.

48. James Christie, Founder of SustainableUX, Footprints in the Digital World & Taking Passion Projects to Full Blown Enterprises

James Christie Founded Sustainable UX in 2016 with the hopes that this online conference “for UX, front-end, and product people who want to make a positive impact—on climate change, social equality, and inclusion” would attract 40 visitors. It brought 400 to attendance. 

Since then, Christie knew this topic had concern and traction, and alongside his full-time work as a Director of UX with Mad*Pow, Christie and his SustainableUX team have continued the conference drawing over 1,000 attendees over the last two years. 

James joined me on the podcast to talk both digital footprints and challenges of taking this passion project and turning it into something much greater.

“All the challenges are basically personal. This is a spare-time project and it’s a passion project…there are a lot of competing priorities. [One strategy is] to de-distractify [my] life, to focus on what matters, to prioritize beyond the noise. I’m getting way more focus and able to unblock myself there. It’s definitely a work in progress.”

Want to hear more about the footprint of the internet and how James created this online event around sustainable design that attracts thousands? Listen here.

49. Yasmine Mustafa, CEO of ROAR for Good, on the Power of Personal Stories to Forge Persistence

Yasmine Mustafa is a wildly talented and inspirational social entrepreneur. Being forced to flee Kuwait with her family to the U.S. during the Gulf War, Yasmine’s determination has led her through challenge after challenge. Whether it was completing Temple’s social entrepreneurship program while working two part-time jobs, or now pivoting her company ROAR last year, when faced with product/market fit challenges. 

Yasmine joined us on the podcast to share what has kept her going with this company, and ROAR specifically.

“At every event, no matter what, someone would approach us with their personal story. That’s what ultimately drives you…I would actually go and re-read testimonial emails as motivation any time I got down. It’s the impact of the people she’s working with that keeps Yasmine going, she also makes sure to focus on that which drives her, and that which doesn’t:  “I take stock of things that drain me and things that energize and do more of the latter. Whatever’s draining, I try to eliminate that.”  [32:04 – 32:15]

For more from Yasmine on her determination & development as a social entrepreneur, you can listen here.

50.  Frederick Hutson, CEO of Pigeonly, On the Talent of the Formerly Incarcerated That’s Largely Overlooked

Frederick Hutson is the CEO of Pigeonly, which is a service that makes it easier and more affordable for families to connect with their incarcerated loved ones. The idea for Pigeonly was a highly personal one for Frederick. At the age of 23, Frederick was sentenced to five years in federal prison for the illegal distribution of marijuana. 

Once settled into his prison sentence, he obsessed about imagining a better life for himself when he was out. Always an entrepreneur, Frederick thought about how he could leverage this personal experience of incarceration and his intimate understanding of the prison system to provide a useful and valuable service. It was in 2012 while living in a halfway house when the idea for Pigeonly was born. 

On the show, Frederick shared his thoughts on this segment of the population that’s highly talented but being largely overlooked.

“We have returning citizens in every single department of our company. I’m not saying just put people in customer service. I’m not saying we just put people in our fulfillment department that handles all of our shipping and printing.  We have returning citizens that are in engineering, we have them in marketing, we have fulfillment, we have them in customer service, we have them in operations.  What I’ve found and what I know to be true just from my own experience, is that there’s an incredible amount of talent in the U.S. prison system by virtue of the criminal justice system here being largely out of control. And I look at the number of people being incarcerated and the laws that aren’t really designed around rehabilitation…there’s a lot of talent that is being released.”

Want to hear more from Frederick and the evolution of Pigeonly and his entrepreneurial ambitions? Listen here.

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Co-Founder & CEO, Grow Ensemble

Cory is the host of The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast , where he’s interviewed well over 150 leaders in the space of better business, social impact, and innovation. Prior to Grow Ensemble, Cory was the CEO of a digital marketing agency, a position he earned at the age of 22. There, he became an expert on all things digital marketing & SEO.

Cory Co-Founded Grow Ensemble (with his partner, Annie Bright) as a vehicle to raise awareness of and inspire action around some of the world’s biggest problems and problem solvers.

He blogs, podcasts, and publishes video on all things leaving the world a better, more just, equitable, and habitable place for all.

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July 22, 2021 at 10:50 am

I wonder if you could look into social entrepreneurs who such as Hubie Jones of the Boston area or John Crawford of New Haven Ct. area? These men are designing new ways to change the lives of impoverished inner city children by reinventing schools and housing that do no rely on the local government of federal grants.

July 22, 2021 at 11:51 am

Thanks for the comment.

I’ll make a note for our team to take a look at those folks you mentioned.

Timely, as a Boston move is in our semi-near future!

October 28, 2022 at 7:12 pm

Wow! This is an amazing list of social entrepreneurs! I’m so inspired by all of them!

November 3, 2022 at 5:36 am

So glad you found the article helpful and our list inspiring!

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Social Entrepreneurship: Writing Successful Business Plans

The work of a social entrepreneur is always a complex mixture of socio-emotional relations and consideration of not only financial and marketing factors but also a combination of environmental, cultural, and emotional aspects that always come into play. When the correct approach is being taken, it represents the analysis and the proper estimation of social and environmental outcomes before the business approach is taken.

Without a doubt, working on a business plan, one must not only attract investment and determine feasibility but work hard to identify the risks at play. Therefore, social entrepreneurs must strive for strong, informative, confident, and convincing business plans to receive the support they seek from investors, partners, or the general community.

This article will focus on the ultimate steps necessary for writing such a successful business plan. Take your time to study each paragraph and make sure that you implement them correctly by estimating your objectives, finances, and available resources.

The important aspects to follow when writing successful business plans

Executive summary.

It’s one of the most important parts of your business plan, which is why it should be short and to the point to let the executives understand all the key moments quickly and without having to turn to additional resources. The trick is to highlight your major points by taking notes of the key arguments. Start by describing the objectives you aimed to receive, then talk about results and recommendations that you find necessary. It should be like an outline before the actual business plan comes up. Read your executive summary and ask yourself whether it reflects the overall content you plan to present. It should act as a synthesis of what you already have.

Your mission must be achievable! It’s one of those factors that many entrepreneurs ignore as they tend to write all the nice phrases that do not sound realistic in the first place. If you are not sure how to achieve this kind of wording, approach professional essay writing companies, such as IHateWriting and explain your situation. When composing your mission statement, mention what you have already achieved, and talk about the methods that you will use when working with upcoming projects.

Target customers

Knowing your target audience is paramount to writing a successful business plan. There are two options to consider. You may focus on taking a specific niche , which will be suitable if you work with the troubled youth or your business plan relates to a limited geographic area. Another option would be focusing on a global audience by making it clear in your business plan that you aim for international cooperation and that you are open to investment proposals.

Problems and pain points

Without a doubt, there will be problems and challenges that you will face when composing your business plan. The key to success in this regard is narrowing things down and including only those aspects that can be managed. This way, you won’t mention something hard to achieve. Ask yourself about what’s necessary and list your available resources. Regarding additional circumstances like Covid-19 restrictions or logistics , these must be mentioned with due care and legal provisions.

Market and competition analysis

Knowing the market must be reflected in your business plan as well. Research things first and see what’s being offered by your competitors. Once you have this data and some statistics, mention your findings in your business plan by stating why you do things differently and what makes you unique and better in certain regards. For example, if you can achieve something differently, mention it by explaining the market state and why you plan to take certain solutions as your business marketing method.

Products or services

Don’t forget to include basic information about your products or services that are being offered. While it doesn’t have to be included in your executive summary section, it’s still necessary to list product specifications in a separate section or make a mention of services that you offer. It should be clear and listed with the help of bullet points where you talk about exclusive offers accessibility factors and discuss environmental and social aspects. According to local or international legislation, make sure that you provide certifications for products and licensing documents for services.

Financial plan

Your financial plan section of the business plan must include past financial reports, current balance, estimated outcomes, and the calculation of possible risks. As a rule, all reports must be mentioned and included as appendix documents for convenience purposes. Include financial information regarding interest rates and the bank data that may be in question when discussing your funding matters.

The cultural & explanatory aspect

Since we are focusing on social entrepreneurship, focusing on cultural points becomes an essential part of work, even though it does not represent a written part of your business plan. For example, when you are dealing with a Middle Eastern country or focus on providing your business initiatives in Japan , there are certain cultural and marketing aspects to consider like trading practices, environmental safety concerns, and addressing logistics, among other things.

Take your time to study traditions and restrictions that you may face, get to know the locals, and, most importantly, do not be afraid to ask questions to ensure that you understand every challenge correctly. Once you know the basics about the country, it will always show as you work on your business plan by changing the wording or avoiding certain business marketing phrases.

The same relates to explanatory tone, which may be suitable for certain business plans that deal with several countries where the cultural clash is inevitable. It’s a part of modern business diplomacy and a sign of a good attitude as you will be able to secure the deal and build a strong partnership with investors and stakeholders. The key is to learn as much as possible and implement it in your writing!

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Stanford University

• Perhaps this sample social business venture plan from Stanford can help provide a model for you.

http://ses-1.stanford.edu/reports/global.pdf

• More extensive social business plans for the markets in China, India, and Mexico are also available at Stanford.

http://ses-1.stanford.edu/ NYU Stern School

• Jeffrey Robinson an assistant professor at NYU Stern has this social business plan guide for your entrepreneurial social change aspirations. Robinson’s guide aggregates several checklist / questionaire resources.

http://www.jeffreyrobinsonphd.com/socialventureplan.pdf

McKinsey on Nonprofits (business plan advice for nonprofits from McKinsey) http://www.asaecenter.org/files/FileDownloads/McKinsey_Busplan.pdf

REDF Social Enterprise Business Plan Template and Presentation This file outlines the main components of a social enterprise business plan, and offers guiding questions to help fill in the various elements. http://redf.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/REDF-Social-Enterprise-Business-Plan-Template-and-Presentation-20071.doc

REDF Feasability Assessment & Business Planning for a Social Enterprise

Help in defining the outcomes for a social enterprise.

http://redf.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/REDF-Feasibility-Assessment-Business-Plan-Presentation-2013.pdf

Social Business Plan Template

http://thesocialbusiness.typepad.com/social_business_plans/files/socialbusinessplantemplate.doc Marketing Plan Templates

Strategic marketing for social entrepreneurs

http://www.socialent.org/pdfs/StrategicMarketing.pdf

• << Previous: Business Plan Competitions
• Next: Funding >>
• Last Updated: Sep 27, 2022 12:00 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.fsu.edu/socialentreprenuer

© 2022 Florida State University Libraries | 116 Honors Way | Tallahassee, FL 32306 | (850) 644-2706

11.4 The Business Plan

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the different purposes of a business plan
• Describe and develop the components of a brief business plan
• Describe and develop the components of a full business plan

Unlike the brief or lean formats introduced so far, the business plan is a formal document used for the long-range planning of a company’s operation. It typically includes background information, financial information, and a summary of the business. Investors nearly always request a formal business plan because it is an integral part of their evaluation of whether to invest in a company. Although nothing in business is permanent, a business plan typically has components that are more “set in stone” than a business model canvas , which is more commonly used as a first step in the planning process and throughout the early stages of a nascent business. A business plan is likely to describe the business and industry, market strategies, sales potential, and competitive analysis, as well as the company’s long-term goals and objectives. An in-depth formal business plan would follow at later stages after various iterations to business model canvases. The business plan usually projects financial data over a three-year period and is typically required by banks or other investors to secure funding. The business plan is a roadmap for the company to follow over multiple years.

Some entrepreneurs prefer to use the canvas process instead of the business plan, whereas others use a shorter version of the business plan, submitting it to investors after several iterations. There are also entrepreneurs who use the business plan earlier in the entrepreneurial process, either preceding or concurrently with a canvas. For instance, Chris Guillebeau has a one-page business plan template in his book The $100 Startup . 48 His version is basically an extension of a napkin sketch without the detail of a full business plan. As you progress, you can also consider a brief business plan (about two pages)—if you want to support a rapid business launch—and/or a standard business plan.

As with many aspects of entrepreneurship, there are no clear hard and fast rules to achieving entrepreneurial success. You may encounter different people who want different things (canvas, summary, full business plan), and you also have flexibility in following whatever tool works best for you. Like the canvas, the various versions of the business plan are tools that will aid you in your entrepreneurial endeavor.

Business Plan Overview

Most business plans have several distinct sections ( Figure 11.16 ). The business plan can range from a few pages to twenty-five pages or more, depending on the purpose and the intended audience. For our discussion, we’ll describe a brief business plan and a standard business plan. If you are able to successfully design a business model canvas, then you will have the structure for developing a clear business plan that you can submit for financial consideration.

Both types of business plans aim at providing a picture and roadmap to follow from conception to creation. If you opt for the brief business plan, you will focus primarily on articulating a big-picture overview of your business concept.

The full business plan is aimed at executing the vision concept, dealing with the proverbial devil in the details. Developing a full business plan will assist those of you who need a more detailed and structured roadmap, or those of you with little to no background in business. The business planning process includes the business model, a feasibility analysis, and a full business plan, which we will discuss later in this section. Next, we explore how a business plan can meet several different needs.

Purposes of a Business Plan

A business plan can serve many different purposes—some internal, others external. As we discussed previously, you can use a business plan as an internal early planning device, an extension of a napkin sketch, and as a follow-up to one of the canvas tools. A business plan can be an organizational roadmap , that is, an internal planning tool and working plan that you can apply to your business in order to reach your desired goals over the course of several years. The business plan should be written by the owners of the venture, since it forces a firsthand examination of the business operations and allows them to focus on areas that need improvement.

Refer to the business venture throughout the document. Generally speaking, a business plan should not be written in the first person.

A major external purpose for the business plan is as an investment tool that outlines financial projections, becoming a document designed to attract investors. In many instances, a business plan can complement a formal investor’s pitch. In this context, the business plan is a presentation plan, intended for an outside audience that may or may not be familiar with your industry, your business, and your competitors.

You can also use your business plan as a contingency plan by outlining some “what-if” scenarios and exploring how you might respond if these scenarios unfold. Pretty Young Professional launched in November 2010 as an online resource to guide an emerging generation of female leaders. The site focused on recent female college graduates and current students searching for professional roles and those in their first professional roles. It was founded by four friends who were coworkers at the global consultancy firm McKinsey. But after positions and equity were decided among them, fundamental differences of opinion about the direction of the business emerged between two factions, according to the cofounder and former CEO Kathryn Minshew . “I think, naively, we assumed that if we kicked the can down the road on some of those things, we’d be able to sort them out,” Minshew said. Minshew went on to found a different professional site, The Muse , and took much of the editorial team of Pretty Young Professional with her. 49 Whereas greater planning potentially could have prevented the early demise of Pretty Young Professional, a change in planning led to overnight success for Joshua Esnard and The Cut Buddy team. Esnard invented and patented the plastic hair template that he was selling online out of his Fort Lauderdale garage while working a full-time job at Broward College and running a side business. Esnard had hundreds of boxes of Cut Buddies sitting in his home when he changed his marketing plan to enlist companies specializing in making videos go viral. It worked so well that a promotional video for the product garnered 8 million views in hours. The Cut Buddy sold over 4,000 products in a few hours when Esnard only had hundreds remaining. Demand greatly exceeded his supply, so Esnard had to scramble to increase manufacturing and offered customers two-for-one deals to make up for delays. This led to selling 55,000 units, generating $700,000 in sales in 2017. 50 After appearing on Shark Tank and landing a deal with Daymond John that gave the “shark” a 20-percent equity stake in return for $300,000, The Cut Buddy has added new distribution channels to include retail sales along with online commerce. Changing one aspect of a business plan—the marketing plan—yielded success for The Cut Buddy.

Link to Learning

Watch this video of Cut Buddy’s founder, Joshua Esnard, telling his company’s story to learn more.

If you opt for the brief business plan, you will focus primarily on articulating a big-picture overview of your business concept. This version is used to interest potential investors, employees, and other stakeholders, and will include a financial summary “box,” but it must have a disclaimer, and the founder/entrepreneur may need to have the people who receive it sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) . The full business plan is aimed at executing the vision concept, providing supporting details, and would be required by financial institutions and others as they formally become stakeholders in the venture. Both are aimed at providing a picture and roadmap to go from conception to creation.

Types of Business Plans

The brief business plan is similar to an extended executive summary from the full business plan. This concise document provides a broad overview of your entrepreneurial concept, your team members, how and why you will execute on your plans, and why you are the ones to do so. You can think of a brief business plan as a scene setter or—since we began this chapter with a film reference—as a trailer to the full movie. The brief business plan is the commercial equivalent to a trailer for Field of Dreams , whereas the full plan is the full-length movie equivalent.

Brief Business Plan or Executive Summary

As the name implies, the brief business plan or executive summary summarizes key elements of the entire business plan, such as the business concept, financial features, and current business position. The executive summary version of the business plan is your opportunity to broadly articulate the overall concept and vision of the company for yourself, for prospective investors, and for current and future employees.

A typical executive summary is generally no longer than a page, but because the brief business plan is essentially an extended executive summary, the executive summary section is vital. This is the “ask” to an investor. You should begin by clearly stating what you are asking for in the summary.

In the business concept phase, you’ll describe the business, its product, and its markets. Describe the customer segment it serves and why your company will hold a competitive advantage. This section may align roughly with the customer segments and value-proposition segments of a canvas.

Next, highlight the important financial features, including sales, profits, cash flows, and return on investment. Like the financial portion of a feasibility analysis, the financial analysis component of a business plan may typically include items like a twelve-month profit and loss projection, a three- or four-year profit and loss projection, a cash-flow projection, a projected balance sheet, and a breakeven calculation. You can explore a feasibility study and financial projections in more depth in the formal business plan. Here, you want to focus on the big picture of your numbers and what they mean.

The current business position section can furnish relevant information about you and your team members and the company at large. This is your opportunity to tell the story of how you formed the company, to describe its legal status (form of operation), and to list the principal players. In one part of the extended executive summary, you can cover your reasons for starting the business: Here is an opportunity to clearly define the needs you think you can meet and perhaps get into the pains and gains of customers. You also can provide a summary of the overall strategic direction in which you intend to take the company. Describe the company’s mission, vision, goals and objectives, overall business model, and value proposition.

Rice University’s Student Business Plan Competition, one of the largest and overall best-regarded graduate school business-plan competitions (see Telling Your Entrepreneurial Story and Pitching the Idea ), requires an executive summary of up to five pages to apply. 51 , 52 Its suggested sections are shown in Table 11.2 .

Are You Ready?

Create a brief business plan.

Fill out a canvas of your choosing for a well-known startup: Uber, Netflix, Dropbox, Etsy, Airbnb, Bird/Lime, Warby Parker, or any of the companies featured throughout this chapter or one of your choice. Then create a brief business plan for that business. See if you can find a version of the company’s actual executive summary, business plan, or canvas. Compare and contrast your vision with what the company has articulated.

• These companies are well established but is there a component of what you charted that you would advise the company to change to ensure future viability?
• Map out a contingency plan for a “what-if” scenario if one key aspect of the company or the environment it operates in were drastically is altered?

Full Business Plan

Even full business plans can vary in length, scale, and scope. Rice University sets a ten-page cap on business plans submitted for the full competition. The IndUS Entrepreneurs , one of the largest global networks of entrepreneurs, also holds business plan competitions for students through its Tie Young Entrepreneurs program. In contrast, business plans submitted for that competition can usually be up to twenty-five pages. These are just two examples. Some components may differ slightly; common elements are typically found in a formal business plan outline. The next section will provide sample components of a full business plan for a fictional business.

Executive Summary

The executive summary should provide an overview of your business with key points and issues. Because the summary is intended to summarize the entire document, it is most helpful to write this section last, even though it comes first in sequence. The writing in this section should be especially concise. Readers should be able to understand your needs and capabilities at first glance. The section should tell the reader what you want and your “ask” should be explicitly stated in the summary.

Describe your business, its product or service, and the intended customers. Explain what will be sold, who it will be sold to, and what competitive advantages the business has. Table 11.3 shows a sample executive summary for the fictional company La Vida Lola.

Business Description

This section describes the industry, your product, and the business and success factors. It should provide a current outlook as well as future trends and developments. You also should address your company’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives. Summarize your overall strategic direction, your reasons for starting the business, a description of your products and services, your business model, and your company’s value proposition. Consider including the Standard Industrial Classification/North American Industry Classification System (SIC/NAICS) code to specify the industry and insure correct identification. The industry extends beyond where the business is located and operates, and should include national and global dynamics. Table 11.4 shows a sample business description for La Vida Lola.

Industry Analysis and Market Strategies

Here you should define your market in terms of size, structure, growth prospects, trends, and sales potential. You’ll want to include your TAM and forecast the SAM . (Both these terms are discussed in Conducting a Feasibility Analysis .) This is a place to address market segmentation strategies by geography, customer attributes, or product orientation. Describe your positioning relative to your competitors’ in terms of pricing, distribution, promotion plan, and sales potential. Table 11.5 shows an example industry analysis and market strategy for La Vida Lola.

Competitive Analysis

The competitive analysis is a statement of the business strategy as it relates to the competition. You want to be able to identify who are your major competitors and assess what are their market shares, markets served, strategies employed, and expected response to entry? You likely want to conduct a classic SWOT analysis (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) and complete a competitive-strength grid or competitive matrix. Outline your company’s competitive strengths relative to those of the competition in regard to product, distribution, pricing, promotion, and advertising. What are your company’s competitive advantages and their likely impacts on its success? The key is to construct it properly for the relevant features/benefits (by weight, according to customers) and how the startup compares to incumbents. The competitive matrix should show clearly how and why the startup has a clear (if not currently measurable) competitive advantage. Some common features in the example include price, benefits, quality, type of features, locations, and distribution/sales. Sample templates are shown in Figure 11.17 and Figure 11.18 . A competitive analysis helps you create a marketing strategy that will identify assets or skills that your competitors are lacking so you can plan to fill those gaps, giving you a distinct competitive advantage. When creating a competitor analysis, it is important to focus on the key features and elements that matter to customers, rather than focusing too heavily on the entrepreneur’s idea and desires.

Operations and Management Plan

In this section, outline how you will manage your company. Describe its organizational structure. Here you can address the form of ownership and, if warranted, include an organizational chart/structure. Highlight the backgrounds, experiences, qualifications, areas of expertise, and roles of members of the management team. This is also the place to mention any other stakeholders, such as a board of directors or advisory board(s), and their relevant relationship to the founder, experience and value to help make the venture successful, and professional service firms providing management support, such as accounting services and legal counsel.

Table 11.6 shows a sample operations and management plan for La Vida Lola.

Marketing Plan

Here you should outline and describe an effective overall marketing strategy for your venture, providing details regarding pricing, promotion, advertising, distribution, media usage, public relations, and a digital presence. Fully describe your sales management plan and the composition of your sales force, along with a comprehensive and detailed budget for the marketing plan. Table 11.7 shows a sample marketing plan for La Vida Lola.

Financial Plan

A financial plan seeks to forecast revenue and expenses; project a financial narrative; and estimate project costs, valuations, and cash flow projections. This section should present an accurate, realistic, and achievable financial plan for your venture (see Entrepreneurial Finance and Accounting for detailed discussions about conducting these projections). Include sales forecasts and income projections, pro forma financial statements ( Building the Entrepreneurial Dream Team , a breakeven analysis, and a capital budget. Identify your possible sources of financing (discussed in Conducting a Feasibility Analysis ). Figure 11.19 shows a template of cash-flow needs for La Vida Lola.

Entrepreneur In Action

Laughing man coffee.

Hugh Jackman ( Figure 11.20 ) may best be known for portraying a comic-book superhero who used his mutant abilities to protect the world from villains. But the Wolverine actor is also working to make the planet a better place for real, not through adamantium claws but through social entrepreneurship.

A love of java jolted Jackman into action in 2009, when he traveled to Ethiopia with a Christian humanitarian group to shoot a documentary about the impact of fair-trade certification on coffee growers there. He decided to launch a business and follow in the footsteps of the late Paul Newman, another famous actor turned philanthropist via food ventures.

Jackman launched Laughing Man Coffee two years later; he sold the line to Keurig in 2015. One Laughing Man Coffee café in New York continues to operate independently, investing its proceeds into charitable programs that support better housing, health, and educational initiatives within fair-trade farming communities. 55 Although the New York location is the only café, the coffee brand is still distributed, with Keurig donating an undisclosed portion of Laughing Man proceeds to those causes (whereas Jackman donates all his profits). The company initially donated its profits to World Vision, the Christian humanitarian group Jackman accompanied in 2009. In 2017, it created the Laughing Man Foundation to be more active with its money management and distribution.

• You be the entrepreneur. If you were Jackman, would you have sold the company to Keurig? Why or why not?
• Would you have started the Laughing Man Foundation?
• What else can Jackman do to aid fair-trade practices for coffee growers?

What Can You Do?

Textbooks for change.

Founded in 2014, Textbooks for Change uses a cross-compensation model, in which one customer segment pays for a product or service, and the profit from that revenue is used to provide the same product or service to another, underserved segment. Textbooks for Change partners with student organizations to collect used college textbooks, some of which are re-sold while others are donated to students in need at underserved universities across the globe. The organization has reused or recycled 250,000 textbooks, providing 220,000 students with access through seven campus partners in East Africa. This B-corp social enterprise tackles a problem and offers a solution that is directly relevant to college students like yourself. Have you observed a problem on your college campus or other campuses that is not being served properly? Could it result in a social enterprise?

Work It Out

Franchisee set out.

A franchisee of East Coast Wings, a chain with dozens of restaurants in the United States, has decided to part ways with the chain. The new store will feature the same basic sports-bar-and-restaurant concept and serve the same basic foods: chicken wings, burgers, sandwiches, and the like. The new restaurant can’t rely on the same distributors and suppliers. A new business plan is needed.

• What steps should the new restaurant take to create a new business plan?
• Should it attempt to serve the same customers? Why or why not?

This New York Times video, “An Unlikely Business Plan,” describes entrepreneurial resurgence in Detroit, Michigan.

• 48 Chris Guillebeau. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future . New York: Crown Business/Random House, 2012.
• 49 Jonathan Chan. “What These 4 Startup Case Studies Can Teach You about Failure.” Foundr.com . July 12, 2015. https://foundr.com/4-startup-case-studies-failure/
• 50 Amy Feldman. “Inventor of the Cut Buddy Paid YouTubers to Spark Sales. He Wasn’t Ready for a Video to Go Viral.” Forbes. February 15, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestreptalks/2017/02/15/inventor-of-the-cut-buddy-paid-youtubers-to-spark-sales-he-wasnt-ready-for-a-video-to-go-viral/#3eb540ce798a
• 51 Jennifer Post. “National Business Plan Competitions for Entrepreneurs.” Business News Daily . August 30, 2018. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6902-business-plan-competitions-entrepreneurs.html
• 52 “Rice Business Plan Competition, Eligibility Criteria and How to Apply.” Rice Business Plan Competition . March 2020. https://rbpc.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs806/f/2020%20RBPC%20Eligibility%20Criteria%20and%20How%20to%20Apply_23Oct19.pdf
• 53 “Rice Business Plan Competition, Eligibility Criteria and How to Apply.” Rice Business Plan Competition. March 2020. https://rbpc.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs806/f/2020%20RBPC%20Eligibility%20Criteria%20and%20How%20to%20Apply_23Oct19.pdf; Based on 2019 RBPC Competition Rules and Format April 4–6, 2019. https://rbpc.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs806/f/2019-RBPC-Competition-Rules%20-Format.pdf
• 54 Foodstart. http://foodstart.com
• 55 “Hugh Jackman Journey to Starting a Social Enterprise Coffee Company.” Giving Compass. April 8, 2018. https://givingcompass.org/article/hugh-jackman-journey-to-starting-a-social-enterprise-coffee-company/

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8 Business Plan Templates You Can Get for Free

8 min. read

Updated April 10, 2024

A business plan template can be an excellent tool to simplify the creation of your business plan. 

The pre-set structure helps you organize ideas, covers all critical business information, and saves you time and effort on formatting.

The only issue? There are SO many free business plan templates out there. 

So, which ones are actually worth using? 

To help remove the guesswork, I’ve rounded up some of the best business plan templates you can access right now. 

These are listed in no particular order, and each has its benefits and drawbacks.

What to look for in a business plan template

Not all business plan templates are created equal. As you weigh your options and decide which template(s) you’ll use, be sure to review them with the following criteria in mind:

• Easy to edit: A template should save you time. That won’t be the case if you have to fuss around figuring out how to edit the document, or even worse, it doesn’t allow you to edit at all.
• Contains the right sections: A good template should cover all essential sections of a business plan , including the executive summary, product/service description, market/competitive analysis, marketing and sales plan, operations, milestones, and financial projections. 
• Provides guidance: You should be able to trust that the information in a template is accurate. That means the organization or person who created the template is highly credible, known for producing useful resources, and ideally has some entrepreneurial experience.
• Software compatibility: Lastly, you want any template to be compatible with the software platforms you use. More than likely, this means it’s available in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or PDF format at a minimum. 

1. Bplans — A plan with expert guidance

Since you’re already on Bplans, I have to first mention the templates that we have available. 

Our traditional and one-page templates were created by entrepreneurs and business owners with over 80 years of collective planning experience. We revisit and update them annually to ensure they are approachable, thorough, and aligned with our team’s evolving best practices.  

The templates, available in Word, PDF, or Google Doc formats, include in-depth guidance on what to include in each section, expert tips, and links to additional resources. 

Plus, we have over 550 real-world sample business plans you can use for guidance when filling out your template.

Download: Traditional lender-ready business plan template or a simple one-page plan template .

Brought to you by

Create a professional business plan

Using ai and step-by-step instructions.

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2. SBA — Introduction to business plans

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two different business plan templates along with a short planning guide. 

While not incredibly in-depth, it’s enough to help you understand how traditional and lean plans are structured and what information needs to be covered. The templates themselves are more like examples, providing you with a finished product to reference as you write your plan.

The key benefit of using these templates is that they were created by the SBA. While they may provide less guidance, you can be assured that the information and structure meet their expectations.

Explore: The SBA’s planning guide and free templates

3. SCORE — Planning workbook

SCORE’s template is more like a workbook. It includes exercises after each section to help you get your ideas down and turn them into a structured plan.

The market research worksheets are especially useful. They provide a clear framework for identifying your target market and analyzing competitors from multiple angles. Plus, they give you an easy way to document all the information you’re collecting.

You will likely have to remove the exercises in this template to make it investor-ready. But it can be worth it if you’re struggling to get past a blank page and want a more interactive planning method.

Download: SCORE’s business plan template

4. PandaDoc — A template with fillable forms

PandaDoc’s library offers a variety of industry-specific business plan templates that feature a modern design flair and concise instructions. 

These templates are designed for sharing. They include fillable fields and sections for non-disclosure agreements, which may be necessary when sending a plan to investors.  

But the real benefit is their compatibility with PandaDoc’s platform. Yes, they are free, but if you’re a PandaDoc subscriber, you’ll have far more customization options. 

Out of all their templates, the standard business plan template is the most in-depth. The rest, while still useful, go a bit lighter on guidance in favor of tailoring the plan to a specific industry.

Explore: PandaDoc’s business plan template library  

5. Canva — Pitch with your plan

Canva is a great option for building a visually stunning business plan that can be used as a pitch tool. It offers a diverse array of templates built by their in-house team and the larger creative community, meaning the number of options constantly grows.

You will need to verify that the information in the template you choose matches the standard structure of a traditional business plan. 

You should do this with any template, but it’s especially important with any tool that accepts community submissions. While they are likely reviewed and approved, there may still be errors.

Remember, you can only edit these templates within Canva. Luckily, you only need a free subscription, and you may just miss out on some of the visual assets being used. 

To get the most value, it may be best to create a more traditional planning document and transfer that information into Canva. 

Explore: Canva’s business plan gallery

6. ClickUp — The collaborative template

Out of all the project management tools that offer free business plan templates, ClickUp’s is the most approachable.

Rather than throwing you into all the features and expecting you to figure it out—ClickUp provides a thorough startup guide with resource links, images, and videos explaining how to write a plan using the tool. 

There’s also a completed sample plan (structured like an expanded one-page plan) for you to reference and see how the more traditional document can connect to the product management features. You can set goals, target dates, leave comments, and even assign tasks to someone else on your team. 

These features are limited to the ClickUp platform and will not be useful for everyone. They will likely get in the way of writing a plan you can easily share with lenders or investors. 

But this is a great option if you’re looking for a template that makes internal collaboration more fluid and keeps all your information in one place.

Sign Up: Get a free trial of ClickUp and explore their template library

7. Smartsheet — A wide variety of templates

I’m including Smartsheet’s library of templates on this list because of the sheer number of options they provide. 

They have a simple business plan template, a one-page plan, a fill-in-the-blank template, a plan outline, a plan grading rubric, and even an Excel-built project plan. All are perfectly usable and vary in visual style, depth of instructions, and the available format.

Honestly, the only drawback (which is also the core benefit) is that the amount of templates can be overwhelming. If you’re already uncertain which plan option is right for you, the lengthy list they provide may not provide much clarity.

At the same time, it can be a great resource if you want a one-stop shop to view multiple plan types.

Explore: Smartsheet’s business plan template library  

8. ReferralRock affiliate marketing business plan

I’m adding ReferralRock’s template to this list due to its specificity. 

It’s not your standard business plan template. The plan is tailored with specific sections and guidance around launching an affiliate marketing business. 

Most of the template is dedicated to defining how to choose affiliates, set commissions, create legal agreements, and track performance.

So, if you plan on starting an affiliate marketing business or program, this template will provide more specific guidance. Just know that you will likely need to reference additional resources when writing the non-industry sections of your plan.

Download: ReferralRock affiliate marketing business plan template

Does it matter what business plan template you use?

The short answer is no. As long as the structure is correct, it saves you time, and it helps you write your business plan , then any template will work. 

What it ultimately comes down to, is what sort of value you hope to get from the template. 

• Do you need more guidance? 
• A simple way to structure your plan? 
• An option that works with a specific tool?
• A way to make your plan more visually interesting?

Hopefully, this list has helped you hone in on an option that meets one (or several) of these needs. Still, it may be worth downloading a few of these templates to determine the right fit. 

And really, what matters most is that you spend time writing a business plan . It will help you avoid early mistakes, determine if you have a viable business, and fully consider what it will take to get up and running. 

If you need additional guidance, check out our library of planning resources . We cover everything from plan formats , to how to write a business plan, and even how to use it as a management tool . 

If you don’t want to waste time researching other templates, you can download our one-page or traditional business plan template and jump right into the planning process.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

Table of Contents

• Qualities of a good template
• ReferralRock
• Does the template matter?

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