STANDARD:
To meet the standard in full, you can provide a one-page summary of your business model that is easy for your team, advisors and investors to understand. This will explain how you will achieve your business goals and make a positive impact.
Setting out your business model visually, in the form of a diagram, can be helpful in coming to a better understanding of how and why our social enterprise works. It can also help communicate this to others.
This is where a Business Model Canvas can be useful. This is a one-page visual format for designing business models that was first developed by Alexander Osterwalder. It is a blueprint for a business that helps you strip away all the unnecessary details and wild predictions usually found in a traditional business plan.
You might want to check out this series of animated videos that look at how to define and communicate your business model in a simple, intuitive way.
To recognise the unique features of social enterprises, the Social Enterprise Institute has developed its own variation called the Social Business Model Canvas.
This is intended to help you have structured conversations around the crucial activities and challenges involved in making your business work and achieve maximum impact. It involves the following main aspects:
You can find out more about how to use the Social Business Model Canvas here.
There is also a special online course on business model design for social enterprises that has been created as part of the Impact Practice series available through the Social Enterprise Institute.