As a new venture or an existing venture that is looking to reach new customers, the first step to getting your customer groupings into a manageable bite-size pieces is finding the subgroup within your potential customers that share the traits of your ‘early adopter’ customer.
As you continue to flesh out your venture, you will need to begin assigning values and costs to the resources you have identified. The goal here is to move from understanding the costs and revenue of each unit of sale and/ or impact to how these things will look on a yearly basis when your venture reaches its stable state (This may or may equal your ultimate goal. It’s the state where most assumptions have been resolved and progress starts being steady. If you have no idea when that would be, imagine five years from now).
At Trico Foundation we often talk to groups about their goals for their social enterprise and discuss what their venture will look like when it has reached its desired steady state (here we are talking about down the road when you have reached your financial and social impact goals—please note that we previously referred to this as your five-year goals/ fifth year of operating, however each venture and industry will have a different indicators for stability and it is important to work with the desired goals/ markers that you have set out to indicate that your venture has reached its steady state).
This blog is an opportunity for us to introduce a number of groups and types of stakeholders that you may come in contact with/ have to respond to as develop or grow your social enterprise.
Now it’s time to shift gears and think of your end game – that is, what you want this venture to accomplish when it is up and running (from now on we will refer to this as your stable state). Ultimately, the art of being a start-up or expanding on your existing social enterprise is figuring out how to secure your ‘early adopter’ customer and then build up to your end game with the least amount of risk and the highest chance of success.
There are a growing number of events connected to social entrepreneurship. Many of them happen in our home city, demonstrating what an incredible hub of activity Calgary is. The Trico Foundation team is pleased to attend many of them and wish we could attend more.
Today, the Trico Foundation team is very excited to share that Alexandra Daignault (who is returning for her second summer with us!) and Victoria Ross will be joining us from May to August as we are truly inspired by their passion for their ventures. We look forward to working with them as they develop their social enterprises, learning from them as they bring their ventures through our A.S.E.S.S. process. See below to learn more about Alexandra, Victoria, and the ventures that they will be working on over the summer months.
The social entrepreneur/changemaker sums up his journey as “fumbling towards ecstasy”. He thinks collectively we could be on the cusp of a renaissance in social problem solving, but the 1st step is how we each work on ourselves. With the benefit of his inspiration & insights, we should see less fumbling & more ecstasy.
“The Story of Louis Pasteur” and “Einstein & Eddington” offer powerful insights into the importance of learning. At the heart of learning, is how we respond to questions & frustrations. Never forget; every frustration or disappointment you encounter is a really a ‘golden-opportunity question’ hidden under bad branding.
There are a growing number of events connected to social entrepreneurship. Many of them happen in our home city, demonstrating what an incredible hub of activity Calgary is. The Trico Foundation team is pleased to attend many of them and wish we could attend more.