Social Enterprise: Change in the Place of Dollars!
Social Enterprise: Change in the Place of Dollars!
By Timothy Vassallo
Social Enterprise is not a new concept or phrase, but it has become a part of the media ‘buzz word’ compendium as of late. Much like the hoopla around other buzz words, social enterprise means something different to almost everyone who hears the phrase. However, much like discussions about education and poverty, it is not a bad thing for the topic to be on the tips of many tongues.
Social Enterprise, or Social Entrepreneurship, represents a paradigm shift in business as it puts the focus on the social benefits derived from the business venture as opposed to profit. Now, that is not to say that a social enterprise need not be fiscally responsible. In fact, the long-term viability of the venture is directly related to the self-sustaining nature of a social enterprise. The best of these ‘social entrepreneurs’ take all the same risk as regular entrepreneurs while they are facilitating positive change. The goal of a social entrepreneur is to create a product or service that allows them to be self-sufficient as well as make the world a better place.
The Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED) has been changing the entrepreneurial landscape of Nova Scotia since its inception more than 20 years ago. The lives of thousands of Nova Scotians have been positively impacted through CEED’s multifaceted mandate, from small business training and financing to entrepreneurially-based interventions for priority youth in conflict with the law, as well as in experiential in-class workshops for Nova Scotia public school students. Recognizing the need for increased community engagement with respects to Social Enterprises, CEED has collaborated with a diverse suite of partners, such as Mount Saint Vincent University Business Department and the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship at Dalhousie University, to develop Social Enterprise for a Day (SE4D).
SE4D will bring students from Dalhousie University, Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia Community College, and Halifax Regional Municipality High Schools together to create and implement a social enterprise over the course of one weekend. Volunteers from local community development agencies, social enterprises, and educational institutions will team up with participating students to help create each social enterprise and assist in making this event a multi-dimensional educational opportunity for all. As well, through CEED’s Youth Employability Project and Education Portfolio’s outreach, many of HRM’s priority youth will participate in the SE4D Weekend as a means to engage a diverse range of individuals in this important dialogue.
The SE4D, scheduled for February 3rd and 4th, 2012, will serve to inspire, educate and motivate both the participants and facilitators alike. If you are a representative of a locally-owned social enterprise and wish to participate as a volunteer, or have a media inquiry, feel free to contact Meghan Cadue at MCadue@ceed.ca. Join the discussion and be part of the change you seek!
http://www.se4d.ca/
“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” Bill Drayton (Ashoka Founder)
Learning the Hard Way is the Hard Way! by Elke Sager CEED Business Development Officer
Growing up in a business-oriented household, I swore that I would never marry a businessman or start my own business. The long hours, business dominated conversations, and revenue dictating what and when we could afford expenditures, other than the basics, was something I didn’t want running my adult life. A nine-to five-job and a regular paycheque were what I dreamt of! I escaped from Germany all the way to Canada. What I didn’t count on was the fact that business is my veins and, if I wasn’t going to find it, it was going to find me. And it did. I married an entrepreneur.
My husband had started his business the way most entrepreneurs did at that time, flying by the seat of his pants. His idea of success was to collect as much cash as possible, stash it, and make a deposit whenever he got around to it. Ours was a wholesale business and most retailers paid in cash. Needless to say, there were often phone calls from the bank that the account was overdrawn. In response, my husband threatened to take his overdraft somewhere else. Slowly, we installed order in the system but were still totally ignorant about the importance of reading and understanding financial statements. Every year we asked the question about how we generated a profit but had no money in the bank.
Not until I started studying accounting and business did the light come on. By the time we were ready to sell the business, 20 plus years later, we finally had a grip on managing a business. I’m sure that we spent a substantial amount of time and money needlessly. If only we had taken advantage of business training and professional advice much earlier in the game!
I learned all my practical business management skills the hard way. Another typical adventure in doing it without prior knowledge or advice was my retail enterprise. But that’s another story…
A Ring, a Sewing Machine, and a Business
CEED SEB Business Advisor Elizabeth Collis tell us how an unusual proposal led to her first entrepreneurial project.
Around the water cooler the other day the conversation turned to the degree of romanticism of our partners. My husband falls in the very low end of the romantic nature scale and, to illustrate that point, I told my colleagues about how when he proposed, he actually asked me if I would prefer an engagement ring or a sewing machine. I added that it was by having the sewing machine that we were able to start our first business together (no, I didn’t choose the sewing machine – I got both!)
This was the mid-eighties and we were living in the Middle East. Like elsewhere, aerobics classes were all the rage and those weights which you strapped on your wrists or ankles were just coming in. You couldn’t buy them where we were, so I made my own pair using car seat plastic, Velcro, and sand. The next thing I knew, the owner of the health club was asking me to make a whole bunch, and we were in business. I didn’t think I had an entrepreneurial bone in my body, but after the first sale, I was hooked. After an embarrassing incident when a set of weights split in a class, sending sand cascading across the wooden floor, we adjusted our design and soon had a production line going on my balcony. My mother-in-law’s old-fashioned scales were set up to weigh the sand, my husband cut the materials, and I sewed. The word spread and so did our weights across the city’s health clubs and gyms.
We financed our emigration to Canada with that first enterprise, and have continued to build a family and business together, working as a couple and as entrepreneurs. The sewing machine I left behind, but the ring and love for creating a business are still with me. And oh yes – so is my husband!
Looking Back – Nancy Thompson – Manager, Small Business Training
Looking back over the last 30 years as an entrepreneur, I can with confidence admit I made mistakes which enviably resulted in lost profits and missed opportunities. Mistakes like hiring the wrong staff, and not learning how to read or understand financial statements from the beginning.
Somehow through trial and error, and despite my lack of business knowledge, the business did very well with a net profit of 17%, an the annual revenue of $600,000., and at peak employment there were ten people. Thankfully, I was blessed with common sense and the realization that continuing to learn by trial and error was not in the best interest of staff, the company, or myself. So, I set out to find someone who was willing to educate me; I went looking for a mentor.
It did not take long to find a willing businessperson, Mr. Germaine, a local entrepreneur that was respected throughout the community. After our first meeting some 25 years ago he looked at me and said, “You are flying by the seat of your pants”. He was so right.
Over the next thirty days he taught me how to analyze financial statements, and use cash flow statements. We continued to work together for a year. Having taken the time to work with an advisor who was willing to transfer his knowledge, I was better prepared to anticipate and solve problems before they happened. I attribute my surviving three recessions, and having the ability to overcome a host of obstacles, to taking time out to ‘work on the business rather than in business’.
Thirty years ago accessing business training for business start-up or expansion was not available. Today, through organizations like CEED the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development training for entrepreneurs is readily available. CEED serves as a provincially recognized centre of excellence providing guidance and training for hundreds of entrepreneurs for close to 20 years.
If there is one piece of advice I can give to aspiring and existing entrepreneurs that are looking to start or grow a business it is this, “just because you are doing well financially don’t assume that you are doing it right – there are so many things to learn to prevent you from making mistakes that will cost you, your family, and the business”.
SIDE BAR: A recent study by Kilfoil, Mombourquette, Leach, in September 2011, on behalf of CEED, concluded that entrepreneurs who received business training are less likely to fail.
What people say about training programs at CEED:
Developing a Sales Strategy
What is the one thing you would tell others about this workshop?
“If you want to sell, you need to attend this.”
- Stephen Burley
Phone fear to phone fabulous
“I feel inspired and confident to start making those dreaded cold calls.”
Blast off …
“ Very relevant information, very useful. Lot’s about WHY to do things, not just HOW.”
- Jodi Crowell
Meeting Client Expectations – is your business up to it?
Meeting Client Expectations – is your business up to it?
By Kathy Murphy, CEO
Centre for Entrepreneurship, Education and Development
Many businesses strive to set themselves apart through customer service standards and in some cases – creating that “wow” experience. This strategy can be very effective for certain businesses, unless you’re a monopoly, or an oligopoly, then satisfaction becomes redundant as demand exceeds supply and price point is non-negotiable (think electricity or oil!)
But for entrepreneurs, if your business concept is one that distinguishes itself on service and quality standards you could be on the right track — if –this meets the customer’s expectation. I think of restaurants, hotels, spas when I think of the opportunity to be “wowed” with service. A simple example is the hotel room upgrade, when you are a frequent guest. This is one way service-based businesses can provide a value added experience to their customers…unless they fail to pay attention to the combined experience at every service level. Don’t think a bigger, better room is going to matter if the staff is surly, or the room is not clean. You see, it’s a well-oiled machine where all cogs must turning from the moment you step outside of your car, to the chocolate on your pillow at night (and today, not just ANY chocolate will do!).
Customer satisfaction is said to be redundant, as our minimum expectation is to be SATISFIED. Satisfaction is pretty much neutral ground now, so, if you surprise and delight me versus annoying me – well, here’s where you start to differentiate yourself. If expectations are being met and there is no “annoyance factor” – then I’m likely to be satisfied. In contrast, if I am “delighted – excited and impressed” – and this was my expectation – I’ll talk about it to others. For minimum expectations, Wal-Mart is a benchmark for me. I don’t care to be greeted at Wal-Mart, but I do like their competitive prices on certain items, and the vast selection when I want to shop for price point only. I don’t expect good service, and I don’t expect to find someone I can talk to – but I do know that if I have time to spend and want to save money – I’ll be pretty much satisfied. It’s all about expectation – and for Wal-Mart – the expectation for service will never “wow” me, but I will find bargains on some brand names. And if something breaks – and I want to stand in line, I’ll get a refund hassle-free. It’s what I expect. Should Wal-Mart bring in more staff to better serve customers, we’d likely see that reflected in the price point of goods, not to mention in the faces of some very confused customers!
On the other hand, if I go to the Marriott Times Square – my expectation is quite different. Professional doormen greet me upon arrival, dressed immaculately. At check-in, it’s easy to get the type of room you want, with a view of Times Square – especially if you’ve stayed there before. For me, the restaurants are excellent, the amenities superb, great views everywhere, the rooms upgraded, clean and well appointed, and Broadway is steps away! — You get the point.
Determining service standards requires careful consideration for the entrepreneur. Start by asking:
1. Who is my target market and what are their expectations?
2. Where do I fit in the competitive landscape?
3. Can my products, services, concepts be easily replicated, duplicated or replaced?
4. Can I afford to “wow” my customers or does it make sense in my type of business?
5. Am I willing to invest in understanding the needs of my clients (market research, client surveys, setting satisfaction benchmarks and continuing to measure)?
6. Can I create a compelling story, lead by example, and maintain an environment for my staff to excel in – consistently?
Reliability and consistency are key benchmarks. Deliver on consistency to ensure your clients get what they want – when they want it, and you are credible. Give me what I want (or an acceptable alternative) when I need it, and deal with my concerns appropriately and expeditiously, and you are reliable. This is not a “wow” experience, but a basic expectation. If your customer wants the wow factor – and this is what will set your business apart and create repeat and referral business – then be prepared to invest. This means investing in training, ensuring the operation can deliver, and continuously measuring your results. You’ll likely need a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to track your clients and their trends, and anticipate opportunities for incentives. CRM systems can also integrate with inventory needs and track sales, decreasing opportunity loss when you run out of a key product.
Keeping customers coming back is complex and whether you have a virtual, or a physical location, for your business, service strategy is just one measure for success – but an important one. It’s well known that the best ROI for marketing and sales is in the repeat and referral business a happy customer delivers to you– and if wowing them makes sense – then you will be setting yourself apart in an increasingly competitive market.
Pitching the Perfect Game
Please enjoy another post by CEED’s own Timothy Vassallo!
Mathew Georghiou: Pitching the Perfect Game
While growing up in Sydney, N.S., Mathew Georghiou fell in love with video games, from the original Atari Video Computer System to coin-operated arcade games, and would often find himself asking for advances on his allowance to finance this ‘relationship’. Fast forward to 1994, to when Georghiou started MediaSpark, the award-winning software development, publishing, and ‘gamification’ company. He had finally found a way to merge his love of gaming and his desire to change the way people learn.
MediaSpark Inc., based in Georghiou’s hometown, has spent the last sixteen years designing interactive and experiential training products for Fortune 100 companies, such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, and providing unique educational products to schools in every province in Canada, across the U.S., as well as many other countries across the globe. Born out of a desire to gain control over his own destiny, something Georghiou could not see happening while working for a large company, MediaSpark became an opportunity to take control of his career and life.
Although MediaSpark was originally envisioned as a general multimedia services company, doing mostly programming, it quickly became obvious to Georghiou that fate was pushing him in a particular direction. “It just happened that the first number of contracts I won were to help companies or educational institutions create technology-based educational products and curricula. So, that moved me into the education market,” Georghiou remembers. Once moving in this direction, he tapped into his experience with nearly twenty years of formal education as inspiration for this ‘paradigm shift’. “I was very disappointed with my educational experience throughout school and my 6 years in college. While I did well academically, I really disliked the entire process. It was uninteresting and demotivating and I felt there must be a better way.” As someone who had always treated education as a game of sorts, looking for the inherent patterns to develop, he assumed that many people feel the same about education and learning. Considering the resounding success of MediaSpark’s GoVenture line of educational games and simulations, his assumption was an astute one.
There are some in the educational community, and elsewhere, who view multimedia-based experiential education and training as a fad or flavour-of-the-day. However, Georghiou sees it differently. “I would argue, as others have, that the past hundred years of ‘industrialized education’ has actually been the fad. Experiential education and learning through play is how humans (and most animals) have always learned, so we are just going back to our roots – and we will be much better for it.” In fact, he believes that education is moving towards a more holistic model, with learning being integrated into our daily lives through live role-playing and micro learning experiences. “Education won’t be something you do by going to a classroom or using a computer or a tablet for 1 hour or 10 hours, etc. Instead, life experiences will be delivered to you that you must take action on. I also think that there will be a big emphasis on what we call “authentic” performance evaluation to track and measure progress,” Georghiou predicts. As an entrepreneur who has been evangelizing the effectiveness of the’ gamification’ of educational engagements, he is quick to note “technology and gamification are just tools in the learning designer’s toolbox.” However, in most learning situations those tools can be more effective, engaging, and scalable when used in the proper manner.
As someone who moved seamlessly from the ‘intrapreneur’ to ‘entrepreneur’, Georghiou offers simple but sagely advice to individuals interested in making the same move: “The best advice I can give to a young person is that you don’t have to own a business to be entrepreneurial in your current career and life. Think and act like an entrepreneur, and you will be successful.” For Georghiou and his creative design team at MediaSpark, business, like education and learning, can be viewed as a game of sorts and, although how you play is important, if you learn from the game, you will be successful.
Failure is Good
Failure might not seem ideal to most however, Tim Vassallo discusses how failure is good. Check out our newest blog post written by our very own ceedling.
Failure is Good!
Well, that might be a bit disingenuous, but failure can be a very positive experience if processed the right way. Consider historical examples such as Abraham Lincoln’s resounding lack of success in public life leading up to his legendary Presidential accomplishments, or Thomas Edison’s “1000 Step” invention process to the development of his light bulb prototype. These innovative visionaries would not have viewed their failures as wholly negative, nor does history. Unlike the scene in the Hollywood blockbuster Apollo 13 where the Flight Director states, “failure is not an option’, sometimes failure is inevitable in business. Future success lies, however, in how we process lessons learned from failed endeavours.
In a recent discussion with Halifax-based serial technology entrepreneur Bill McMullin, founder and CEO of multiple Nova Scotian businesses, (including InfoInterActive Inc., a telecommunications software and service company sold to America Online for $43.3 million) the topic of failure arose. “I’ve had many ideas fail, most of which didn’t make the news, nor were they fatal. Failures are a given for every entrepreneur, nobody has perfect foresight, intuition, or skills and resources that perfectly match the challenges,“ McMullin admitted. His view of failure as an opportunity is equal parts refreshing and insightful. One would assume that an entrepreneur who has enjoyed his fair share of successes in his professional life would only focus on the positives, but he considers his ability to view a venture through a critical ‘lens’ as one of his strengths. “I’ve learned that it is very productive to spend an equal amount of time looking for and considering the information and points that don’t support your cause, case, or argument. I always reserve the right to change my mind based on new information.”
McMullin’s newest entrepreneurial venture is the extremely well received ViewPoint.ca, a comprehensive real estate portal, coming on the heels of one of his “spectacular failures”, the ServicePoint kiosk project. ServicePoint, an automated service for applying for and renewing passports, driver’s licenses, and other government issued documents, failed for a number of reasons. In McMullin’s opinion, “we made a huge mistake of assuming the government would like the idea of making it faster and easier for people to complete routine transactions. We compounded our problem by assuming the government would love the idea that they didn’t have to pay for the kiosks. We were going to install the kiosks at our cost and charge a small convenience fee to those that chose to use them. It turned out the government didn’t have a process for ‘not’ buying things.”
ViewPoint.ca is now Nova Scotia’s most popular real estate website, with over 3 million page views in the month of June alone, and the user-friendly site is quickly changing the way real estate is marketed, purchased, and sold. However, along with his talent as an innovative technology visionary, Bill McMullin sees his ability to recognize when something is not working as his most useful skill. “There is no sense in ignoring the negatives or risks, as there are always many. I don’t believe in the motto ‘never quit’. Sometimes it’s the best thing to do.”
Now, please do not interpret ‘quit’ as give up; in this instance, he means move on to your next project, idea, or dream. The entrepreneurial path is one that leads us on a reflective journey, and if you are just envisioning the destination, you might just be missing the warning signs along the path. The real message here is to be flexible, open-minded, and ready to ‘tack’ when the winds change.
In the words of Henry Ford, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
Tim’s Road to Entrepreneurship
Did you know that more than half of our team has owned their own business? From bagel shops and PR firms, to cleaning services and sign creation, our CEEDlings have quite the range of entrepreneurial experience and expertise.
Below our newest CEEDling, Tim Vassallo, shares his entrepreneurial story and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
While speaking with an employee of a local business during a ‘cold-call’ visit, I noted her displeasure with the cleanliness of the office suite. I suggested she speak to the Operations Manager of the cleaning contractor, mentioning that I had held a similar role previously. Her eyes lit up as she said, “Why don’t you submit a quote for the cleaning contract!” So, I did, and they accepted it…and I became the owner/operator of a cleaning services company.
So, maybe it’s not as exciting as ‘inventing’ the internet or the wheel, but I learned that by being able to provide a service that people need, I can earn a living and own my own business. Since that time, I have acquired four separate contracts with that same company, offering every cleaning service from floor maintenance to small repair jobs. What I lacked in entrepreneurial acumen, I made up for in sweat and determination. Those hard-learned lessons certainly led me to realize two important things:
1.) If you are to be successful in business, whether with a small cleaning company or a large multinational software developer, it is great customer service and being true to your word that keeps clients happy.
2.) It is much easier with support from entrepreneurship/business experts.
The last realization I acquired the hard way. It was not until I was looking for new opportunities in my ‘other’ career, as an adult educator/facilitator, that I re-discovered CEED through a job posting.
Researching the organization, I found myself torn between applying for the available position and inquiring about CEED’s Self-Employment Benefits program or the Seed Capital loan program. The opportunity to tap into the decades of experience shared by CEED staff was very tempting.
Although I decided to continue my journey as an educator and facilitator through a position with CEED’s Entrepreneurship Education Portfolio, I remain a strong advocate for self-employment through small business ownership. In fact, through my current role as an Entrepreneurship Education Advisor, I now get the opportunity to inspire, and be inspired by, the next generation of entrepreneurs!
Top Ten Tips for your Business Plan
Many Halifax entrepreneurs are still buzzing from the recent visit of CBC’s hit series, Dragon’s Den. Whether or not you left the “producer’s den” with your ticket to Toronto, you may find the following post helpful in your continued journey to small business success.
Today’s post is from our CEED Finance Manager, Shawn Cunningham. Shawn has over 30 years experience in assisting entrepreneurs throughout the Maritimes and operated a home-based business for three years. In addition, he has provided business management training seminars, conferences, business consulting and has approved – and declined – thousands of business loans.
Here are Shawn’s top then tips for strengthening your business plan – a MUST READ for any entrepreneur.
Top Ten Tips for your Business Plan
By Shawn Cunningham – Manager CEED Financing Program
Over my career of delivering small business lending, consulting and training throughout the Maritimes, I have provided guidance to thousands of new and potential entrepreneurs.
After reading countless business plans I wanted to share my top 10 tips that I believe will add value to your business plan with a few lines about each tip.
1. Make sure your business idea isn’t just a hobby.
This is a big one! It’s great to be passionate about your business idea, however, be sure that your business idea will likely generate enough profits to meet your yearly income needs. Don’t follow your business dream if the business will only operate at a low level of operations and won’t meet your financial needs.
2. Do you have the education, skills and experience to operate this type of business?
If you don’t measure up, you can compensate by volunteering, job shadowing or interning in a similar business to obtain valuable experience. You may also want to consider hiring someone who really knows the business. Be sure to add this info in detail to your business plan.
3. Strengthen your plan with a team
Even a one person business can enhance his/her plan by including details about their team. Include your resume and provide info about any planned employees or major subcontractors. Also include a few lines about your banker, lawyer and accountant. Bonus points if you have a business mentor and/or team of business advisors!
4. Provide examples of similar businesses that are doing well
Call or visit entrepreneurs that are operating similar businesses in similar size locations in Canada or the US. Business owners will usually provide valuable insight into their sales levels, pricing and marketing tips if they realize that you are not going to compete with them in their local market.
5. Location matters…or not?
If you can operate your business from home you will enjoy savings each month by not paying rent for your business. You will also enjoy reduced taxes via claiming home office expenses. Be sure to get advice from a qualified accountant on this. If you can’t operate your business from home, see if you can share space with others or rent space as you need it before you commit to a full time rental. You might have to wait to obtain the best location for your business. One client of mine waited a year to obtain a superior location before opening the business.
6. Marketing Really Matters
This is also a big one! You should provide details on at least 10 marketing initiatives that you are going to do to generate sales. Websites, social media, memberships , attending networking events, participating in trade shows, hosting a special event are all possibilities. The point is to have enough marketing activities happening that you are not reliant on any one to succeed. Be sure that you investigate the cost of each and document it in your business plan and financial forecast.
7. Do some initial sales and document them in your plan
Another big one! This demonstrates that you have the ability to deliver the goods and get paid for it. I know that it will probably be awkward and less than ideal to make sales without everything in place as you would like. Do it anyway and document it! A recent client example is a dessert chef who made test sales before opening her business to determine market acceptance of her products and pricing.
8. Offer Complementary Products And/Or Alternate Distribution Methods
Without losing focus on your prime method of generating sales, offering complementary products or services will strengthen your business plan and smooth out seasonal sales slumps. Examples are the lawn care entrepreneur who offers spring and fall clean-ups and snow removal in the winter. You can also consider alternate distribution methods for your products such as the restaurant that also offers catering and takeout meals.
9. Include a cushion of working capital in your financing request
It is usually easier to obtain financing before you start your business than it is after you start. Businesses that have been open for several months will have to submit positive financial results to obtain additional financing. Include a reasonable amount of extra funds or working capital to sustain your business if there are cost overruns, higher expenses than expected or sales don’t happen as fast as you like.
10. Usually, one source of business financing isn’t enough
It will require significant effort and perseverance, however, you can assemble the financing that you require for start-up plus a cushion of working capital (as discussed in tip# 9) from several sources. Personal investment, loan from family members, Seed Capital Program, CYBF- Canadian Youth Business Foundation, Canada Small Business Financing Program, Chartered Banks, Credit Unions are all possible sources of financing. If you are buying a business, see if the vendor will provide part of the financing. You can mix and match the financing from several sources to meet your needs.
Year of the Entrepreneur
If you follow the Chinese lunar calendar – we’ve left the year of the tiger – and have now embarked on the year of the rabbit – which will by all accounts be, “a softer, calmer year after the very strenuous and volatile year of the tiger”. And if you’re really up on themes for 2011 – you’ve likely heard the Canadian Government announced that 2011 is “the Year of the Entrepreneur”. For many hearing this, thoughts may travel to a concept you’ve had in your mind for a while…..or expansion ideas for existing businesses. Or you may just say to yourself – if I had it to do all over again – boy would I do it differently! And though we all know business is largely associated with entrepreneurship, there are other ways to apply entrepreneurial skill and attitudes towards a variety of opportunities.
At CEED, we see “entrepreneurship as a way of life” – a process by which one identifies and acts upon opportunity, in order to create something of value. Most times this activity will be under conditions of risk and considerable uncertainty. — how’s that for textbook!
Many of CEED’s programs provide start-up and expansion loans to entrepreneurs, and our Self Employment Benefits program, provides eligible candidates with 40 weeks of entrepreneurial skill development focused on business planning, and bringing your idea to market – make sense? We also believe in the philosophy that you don’t have to be a business owner to be entrepreneurial, nor do you have to start a business to discover and build on your entrepreneurial traits.
The more grey areas around building entrepreneurs – or some say “intrapreneurs” - is in the programming we develop for schools, such as education curriculum and other resources, taught in an experiential – learn-by-doing approach. The community has for some time – engaged CEED to determine how corporations, government or other nonprofit organizations can develop their teams to act entrepreneurially. This is only the beginning of employing programs and practices which asnwer the question “what would an entrepreneur do”? The answers are numerous and many problems can be solved quicker, with less bureaucracy and in a client focused approach if one hones in on their entrepreneurial skills and characteristics and creates and entrepreneurial culture. Even government wants to know how to streamline their services to deliver programs more effectively, more quickly and at a lower cost. After all – they’re spending our money – no? This is why we examine the way entrepreneurs operate in order to maximize net return and grow resources. Wouldn’t it make sense to have organizations from a broader perspective operate in a similar fashion? The key to it all is that any model that focuses on clients, understanding even the basics of financial management, markets and market conditions, supply chain management and developing great relationships – has the opportunity to create a more winning culture for both employees and clients. Especially in organizations which have traditionally been challenged by bureaucratic structure – inherited from previous eras.
Entrepreneurship is also a model that works with high risk youth. CEED’s programs such as the Youth Employability Project and the Second Chance program combine the development of personal and professional performance programs with an exploration of business as it relates to employment and self-employment. The options to learn what it’s like to be an entrepreneur is sometimes all it takes for some to go “running scared” – or stop and think and realize – “hey – this sounds a lot like me”.
How do you compare with these known entrepreneurial characteristics?
- Drive and Energy: Can work for long hours and days and seem tireless.
- Self Confidence: Believe in themselves and their abilities to achieve the goals they set.
- Long-Term Involvement: – builders. Willing to put in years to build a business
- Money is not an End-In-Itself: View money and profits not as ends, but as measures of their progress and success.
- Persistent Problem Solving: Strive to overcome hurdles and solve problems
- Goal Setting: Have the ability and the commitment to set clear goals for themselves. Hate to waste time.
- Are fearless risk-takers but they are not careless. Calculate their chances.
- Dealing with Failure: Regard failures as an opportunity to learn
- Use of Feedback: Are high achievers and very concerned about their performance. Seek information and clues about their work and learn from errors. Welcome criticism
- Taking Initiative and Seeking Personal Responsibility: Actively seek situations in which they are personally responsible for the success and failure of an activity.
- Use of Resources: Although they are extremely self-reliant, they are not afraid to seek outside expertise.
- Tolerance of Uncertainty: In contrast to professional managers entrepreneurs are able to live with modest to high levels of uncertainty
- Independence and Competitive need to do their own thing
- Optimistic., Innovative and Creative:
- Get Along Well With Others: Are interested in people and know relationships rule success!
- Flexible: Are receptive to change. Expect change. Evoke change.
- High Achiever:
- Profit Oriented: Believe in and expect profits.
- Persistent and Determined: Persistence is a common trait yet they know when to let go and walk away from an unwise and unproductive activity or decision.
- Integrity: Are honest at all times. Build a reputation of integrity. A mistake is dealt with openly.
Signing up for a class is just the first (and arguably the easiest) step towards your path to success. Starting to understand what you don’t know, but will need to know to be successful, can be intimidating. In the case of Second Chance – the opportunity to learn about yourself through intensive self-discovery, and then learn the elements of business planning, including writing your own business plan, provides invaluable experience that becomes transferable to the next steps in the journey towards success. Opening a business right away is rarely the outcome for high risk youth.
Agree or disagree, at CEED, we believe being entrepreneurial means many things to many people, and starts with having the confidence, resiliency and motivation to follow your dreams and the sensibility to know you’ll need to get the tools, training and support in place, or face an early failure. We’re lucky that we see entrepreneurial people and opportunities all around us. If you’re an entrepreneur – you might possess some of these skills, or see yourself wanting to develop them- and CEED, and many other organizations are here to help:
Here’s what we hear form those who want to build their entrepreneurial skills……………….“I want to take the leap into self-employment…..I’m a new Canadian…..I work in the corporate world……I’m a businessperson, I’m a student……I just retired…….I’m young and wondering what the possibilities of the future holds”. This doesn’t always transfer to opening a business, but if you focus on building entrepreneurial skills – you’ll be one up on the competition in many arenas – including employability. Wherever you are – you too can take part in celebrating the year of the entrepreneur – look around – we’re everywhere! check out our programs at http://www.ceed.ca/default.asp?mn=1.318.480 and if you have a group who is interested in learnign more about being entrepreneurial – contact me at kmurphy@ceed.ca
