7 ways to generate income in your social enterprise
Is what your doing now in your business helping you to achieve the income you require to run a sustainable social enterprise?
If not, are you ready to create a shift in how you generate income so you can start reaching your income goals?
If my last two emails got you thinking "I'm so done with struggling along without any sustainable income source" and "I'm so ready to make a change, so I can start creating the real impact I want to deliver through my social enterprise", then I thought it might be helpful for you know exactly how you can generate income in your social enterprise.
Sometimes we just need a spark of inspiration to see other ways to generate an income.
Here's 7 ways you could generate income in your social enteprise:
1. Sell your services or products online or in person to consumers, who want / need them
You're thinking, "obvious", right? Well yes it's obvious but I speak to so many social entrepreneurs who aren't prioritising this way to generate an income. So I'm starting with it here just to remind you that it's absolutely possible for you to sell your services and products TODAY! Even if you haven't got it all figured out yet, I and many other social entrepreneurs have pre-sold lots of services or products before they're even been ready. For example, I have pre-sold courses to check there is interest before I go in to a full launch. Others pre-sell clothing via Instagram before making small batches, to help reduce waste and over-production. And there's lot of other examples too. But even if you're beyond the pre-sale stage, if you know your product/service and the specific benefits it offers your customers then I highly recommend you focus on promoting, marketing and selling this so you can start generating an income.
Read more here about generating more revenue and clients through sales in a way that aligns to your social purpose and values.
2. Apply for grant funding.
I'm always very cautious about recommending this to social entrepreneurs because I don't think it's the only way to fund your business. Grant funding is a great way to kick start your social enterprise, or pilot a project or initiative but as a social enterprise you should not be reliant on grant funding as your long term income strategy. Needless to say it takes so long, and a huge amount of time of capacity pulling together funding proposals that may never get past the first stage. Top tip, even if you're really tiny and have only just got started, I recommend not applying for anything less than £10k it's not worth your time and resources. Want to know more, read this great article here, which explains it all ("46% of grants cost more than they're worth").
Find out more about grant funding in the UK here.
3. Seek out sponsorship or ask for donations
This is a great way to build an engaged community of supporters as well as regular donations. This tends to work best if you have a very specific cause or campaign, or are perceived as a charitable organisation. Local organisations might be willing to sponsor you or you could build a community of people who give you donations on a monthly basis, or during a one-off campaign.
4. Create a membership
If you have knowledge, skills, something you can teach or give people every month then a membership is a great way to secure a recurring monthly / annual income for your social enterprise. I see lots of social entrepreneurs now trying this approach whether it be through a monthly gift or craft box; monthly coaching and mentoring support; monthly tutorials and interviews with guest experts or behind the scenes; or simply the "old-school" style of membership where people get discounted/free access to your venues/services, a monthly newsletter/magazine and other offers from time to time (I'm thinking National Trust, although recognise they're a charity). There’s lots of ways you could create a membership for a part of your target community.
5. Create a crowdfunding campaign
Crowdfunding is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways for social entrepreneurs to launch their business, or pilot something new within their business. Not only is it a great way to generate revenue, it's a fantastic way to build your community of loyal fans and customers. Watch my interview with Tom Dawkins from StartSomeGood on how and why crowdfunding could work for your social enterprise.
6. Sell your products or services to corporate or other organisations
This is where I personally have most experience. When I first started as a social entrepreneur back in 2013 this is how we decided to generate an income for our social enterprise - Solutions for the Planet. We continue to sell our STEM & enterprise programme in schools to corporate partners across the UK at about £12,000/year per company. And how we generated over £100k within an 18 month period (and over £1 million in revenue over the past 8 years). The important thing to recognise here is the word "sell", we do not ask for sponsorship or funding we sell our services to these corporate orgnizations in a way that meets a specific need or demand they have and you can do this too. It's just about understanding what you have to offer which meets their need / desire.
Check out my signature programme: Sell to Corporates for Social Entrepreneurs here, which teaches you my tried and tested approach to securing paying corporate clients.
7. Get a loan or social investment
Another way is to apply for a loan or social investment to support you whilst you build up your customer base and grow your trading income. There is a huge amount of support these days for helping social entrepreneurs access social investment or apply for loans. It can be a great way to have security for the period of the loan or investment and often includes support from mentors to ensure you generate the profit needed to pay it back.
If you’re based in England you could find support to getting ready to access social investment here, with Access - The Social Investment Foundation
If you’re in Wales, like me, have a look at what’s available from Social Investment Cymru
If you’re in Scotland, have a look at what’s available from Social Investment Scotland
There’s also information about social investment in Northern Ireland here.
So there it is, 7 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 6 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.
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