Passion + Service=Triple Impact

Author
Susan White
Region
North America
Topic
Ethics & Social Justice
Strategy & General Management
Length
15 pages
Keywords
Social enterprise
start-up
benefit corporation
service industry
Business Model
Student Price
$4.00
Target Audience
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students

Triple Impact was a new social enterprise start-up firm founded by four university students in 2013. The founders believed that it was possible to serve others and make a profit. The founders’ immediate job was refining their business model, networking to find clients, and arranging their first service trip to bring corporate employees to a developing country to benefit TI, the citizens of that country and their corporate client. The firm’s founders are at a critical decision point in their young firm’s life. They have found little success in promoting their idea of service trips to the corporations they have contacted. Their contacts have been interested but are unwilling to commit to a company that has not yet led any successful service trips. The founders need to decide if they should stick with their initial, somewhat grand vision, or is there a way to scale down and use a smaller successful service trip to demonstrate their services?

Learning Outcomes
  1. Identify the motivations for a social enterprise.
  2. List the skills and capital needs of a start-up social venture.
  3. Explain how elements of a business plan can apply to a particular firm’s circumstances.
  4. Develop next steps for a start-up that is more in the imagination stage, before it has become a viable business.