An easy way to increase your bottom line? |
Business Round Table
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You may or may not have heard the phrases "Social Enterprise" or "Social Entrepreneurship". They both mean the exact same thing and it's something that has been going on for decades. It's also a way to more effectively market your wares. So what is it, how do you market by using it? Glad you asked.
I'm going to throw a few things out to you and I want you to think, have I ever heard of this: Girl Scout Cookies Goodwill Thrift Stores Selling through a child's school Save the_______(insert whichever organization you wish) return address labels Easter Seals All of these are examples of social enterprise at work. In each case a "social" program has incorporated business into the mix to generate revenue to carry out their mission. The Girl Scouts are a perfect example of how you can use social enterprise to increase your revenue. Let's take a close look at how it works. The Girls scouts are a wonderful organization dedicated to helping young girls grow into responsible young ladies. The do this through guidance, mentoring, group activities and community involvement. A great mission (Yes shameless plug for the Girls scout from a former scout), but all of these things take money so the question is how do the Girls scouts raise money? On the other hand there is a bakery that makes the best thin mints I've ever had, that bakery needs to get their product into the hands of the consumer. Traditionally, the bakery would contract with a distributor/retailer to sell the product through a store the bakery sells the product to the distributor at wholesale cost and then it gets marked up to a retail cost which geneartes the distributors profits, of course doing it the traditional way adds other costs (transport, advertising etc) to the cost of the product. Instead of doing it the traditional way the bakery has done things unconventionally, they have entered into a social enterprise agreement with the Girl Scouts. The bakery produces the product and the Girls Scouts provide the advertising and sales force. The two split the profits along an agreed upon ratio. So the bakery is getting it's product into the hands of the consumer and the Girls Scouts are generating revenue. More importantly the consumer is "donating" to a worthy cause. But rather than just giving away money the consumer is also getting value for his dollar. This can be a very easy way to increase your bottom line, all you need is a reasonable priced product or service and a willing non profit partner. There's a very good book available that outlines Social enterprise called "Enterprising Non-Profits" by J Gregory Dees, Jed Emerson and Peter Economy. Pick up a copy and consider creating a social enterprise partnership. get protected before it happens to you |
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