11 different revenue streams for social enterprises to consider
If you're planning to develop a hybrid model with different income streams, and not be dependent on grant funding, there’s a lot of different options out there for you (and they’re not limited to just these eleven):
Selling directly to individuals (online or in person)
Crowdfunding - great if you already have a good size audience who aligned to your cause
Selling directly to other organisations or businesses (discover how to do this in my Sell to Corporate course)
Memberships or subscription - a great way to generate recurring revenue
Public sector contracts & tenders - bid for contracts that are issued by the public sector and private businesses, and become part of their supply chain or service delivery
Affiliate / Partnership sales - where you partner up with individuals or businesses who get a proportion of the sale they sell on your behalf
Franchise - if you have a great product/service/business model or brand which others could replicate or use for an agreed term (and under agreed conditions), licensing could give you licensee fees and royalties
Leasing (if you have property) - generate an income from renting out what you own for a fixed time and conditions
Hosting events / knowledge sharing events (webinars, training, conferences etc)
Auction - test the market and see what people are willing to pay for your products / services when you auction them off, over a particular period of time (recommended to have a base price they have to bid above)
Sponsorship
So there it is, 11 ways to generate an income in your social enterprise.
But how do you know which one is right for you and where your business is at?
If you’re just getting started, or want some funds to even get off the ground, grant funding, crowdfunding, or selling an MVP (minimum viable product/service) is probably the best option for you. You’ll want to check if you have these foundations in place first though.
If you’ve operating for 6 months or more, have secured some initial investment or made some early sales, firstly congratulations, you’re probably now at the stage of wanting to increase your sales and revenue. I’m here to help. Here’s 5 things to check you have in place to scale to your next level.
Or you’ve been around a bit longer, or had some really excellent early success but your ready to take it that step further and build on the success you’ve already had. You’ve been thinking about working with corporates and generating revenue from them but you’re not sure how you actually go about doing it. Well you might want to take a look here about how I did exactly that and generated over £1 million in 8 years through selling to corporates.