Planning and modeling your social venture

Any SE or SPB must have a solid business plan, complete with your mission statement, management overview, marketing, and financial strategic plans.

Engaging key partners such as government agencies, lawyers, media outlets, distributors and other stakeholders are crucial to successfully delivering value to your clients as a social entrepreneur.

SEs and SPBs seek to deliver social and financial returns. An exit strategy can structure these metrics and make your venture appealing to investors.

An exit strategy for a social venture could consist of merging with another not-for-profit or selling the social enterprise to a for-profit business. These strategies depend on the type of investors, the industry and the timing of the exit.

There are many different business models to explore that will allow you to deliver social value to your customers including fee-for service, employment, market linkage, or service subsidization.

A viable SPB business model consists of a clearly defined social mission guiding the strategy, value proposition and best practices. The business model makes the case that the SPB can achieve its intended social impact and sufficient profit simultaneously.

Part of planning an exit strategy is demonstrating the social and/or environmental benefits of the venture.