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Blog & News.

Business Model Canvas for Social Entrepreneurs

8/13/2018

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business model canvas for social entrepreneurs
The Business Model Canvas (BMC) was developed by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, and co-created with an array of 470 practitioners from around the world. It offers a simple, visual, one-page canvas on which entrepreneurs can design, innovate and dialogue about their business models. It is not the only framework that has been developed to articulate business models but like many of the frameworks this one was built out of careful research. However, unlike many others, it has also been tested and enhanced through the input of many practitioners.
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In addition, the BMC itself sits inside a very innovative business model, including licensing under Creative Commons and a commitment to co-creative innovation within the methods around the BMC. Business Model Canvas and Business Model Generation book written by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur can be found here: www.businessmodelgeneration.com
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Business Model Canvas & Social Enterprises

Working with the Business Model Canvas in and around the social enterprise sector Ingrid Burkett Knode realized that there were some ‘special’ things about social enterprises that could easily be reflected in the BMC using a few simple adaptations.
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Ingrid Burkett Knode has used the BMC to work in the social enterprise sector and has found the canvas to be very helpful, particularly in early exploratory stages of development and in relation to growth and innovation stages. She has documented her knowledge on the BMC in the material: "Using the Business Model Canvas for Social Enterprise Design".

What she concluded was that there are three basic different ways in which social enterprises organize themselves in achieving the goals:
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  1. They may directly support, train and employ people who are experiencing some form of exclusion and disadvantage (for example, a social enterprise cafe may employ people who have been homeless and unemployed);
  2. They may provide services or products to directly meet a social need or achieve a social impact (for example, a community supported agriculture enterprise may make fresh, local produce available whilst also supporting smaller, local farmers); or
  3. They may generate income for a charitable or social purpose (for example, an op shop may generate income to support a larger charity deliver other social purpose programs). 
​Many social enterprises find it difficult to explain their business models, and that many start working on their business plans before understanding their business models thoroughly.


Author
Partners @BASET
KISMC & CABAN

​

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Business Modelling in Social Entrepreneurship

7/30/2018

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business modelling in social entrepreneurship
As we have realized and already shared in the blog article 'Why Social Business Modelling is Important for Social Entrepreneurship' managing a social business is not about just adding business skills to the realm of social impact! Balancing a social mission with an intention to trade and manage a business requires a blending of skills which is greater than the sum of each set of skills alone.

​The social impact inside a business operation is not cost neutral - so both the skills needed to deliver on a social impact and the costs involved in doing so need to be considered in designing a viable and sustainable business model. Therefore, business modelling is crucial for social entrepreneurs and for that reason, we are clarifying a few important points regarding business modelling in social entrepreneurship.
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What is a Business Model?

A business model (BM) is more than the product or service an entrepreneur or a company offers. It is a logic description of how businesses make money. It is a tool that helps stakeholders understand and clearly articulate how the entrepreneur (company) creates, delivers and captures value for itself as well as the customers at an appropriate cost.

From the management point of view BM is a step-by-step plan for generating revenues and making a profit in a specific marketplace. It explains what products or services to produce and market, and how it plans to do so, including what expenses it will incur. The business models differ from each other depending on the nature of the business. To put together a good business model, one needs to know what to offer in the form of goods or services that is of value to potential customers or clients, ideally in a way that differentiates the entrepreneur (company) from its competitors (it is called value proposition). A successful business model just needs to collect more money from customers than it costs to make the product.
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What does a Business Model consist of?

In their simplest forms, business models (BMs) can be broken into three parts:

  1. Somebody makes useful something: design, raw materials, manufacturing, labour, and so on.
  2. Somebody sells that thing to those who need it: marketing, distribution, delivering a service, and processing the sale.
  3. Those who need it pays to have it: pricing strategy, payment methods, payment timing, and so on.
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So, a BM is simply an exploration of what costs and expenses the entrepreneurs (companies) have and how much they can charge for the products or services they generate. New business models can refine and improve any of these three components. 
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social business model


​What is a Social Business Model?

Many authors (D. Mills-Scofield) state that every business is (or should be) social business and there is no significant difference in the business models themselves. However, we need to recognize that social enterprises have business models that can be a little different from an ordinary business - indeed social enterprises are special business! In fact, social businesses are a powerful way to increase social impact.

The Social Business Model (SBM) differs from the classical business model, as aside from showing a road map how to generate economic value, it has to show also how to create social value in a measurable way. In other words, social impact also has to be a part of a business model. The process of building SBM relies on some strategic moves as the conventional business model innovation. However, one specificity of the social business model is the need to consider all stakeholders, not only shareholders, and the need to define the social profit that is the aim of the social business.
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The purpose of every one SBM is the social entrepreneurs and the supporting professionals to understand how the enterprise generate both financial and social value, and what the relationship is between the two types of value in the enterprise. It should be able to be focused on how a social entrepreneur does business, how that business generates revenue, what value a business offers to whom, who the customers are, and why customers would keep coming back to the entrepreneurs.

The social business model can help the entrepreneurs understand how and why their business works, and it can help them to design and innovate their business and how to make and increase social impact.

​
Author
Coordinator @BASET
KISMC

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Why Business Modelling is Important for Social Entrepreneurship?

7/16/2018

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In Europe the interest about social entrepreneurship is strongly driven by the growing recognition of the role social enterprises can play in fostering social inclusion and inclusive growth. How to design, start, manage and lead businesses that benefit people and the society in a financially sustainable way. This question makes the business modelling in social entrepreneurship one of the key topics for people that help, support and facilitate the social entrepreneurs.
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Social Business Model

Business modelling in social entrepreneurship is a process of creating or building up a social business model (SBM), or in other words, of designing a descriptive, holistic, relevant and simplified version of a case of the already started or in the stage of a start-up social business.

In the meantime, the professionals who help and train social entrepreneurs have to know how to create business models. Why?
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Social Impact + Sustainable Business Model

We realized that managing a social business is not about just adding business skills to the realm of social impact! Balancing a social mission with an intention to trade and manage a business requires a blending of skills which is greater than the sum of each set of skills alone. The social impact inside a business operation is not cost neutral - so both the skills needed to deliver on a social impact and the costs involved in doing so need to be considered in designing a viable and sustainable business model. 

These findings were made during the work on the “Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training” project, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission under KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices, KA204 - Strategic Partnerships for adult education. The project was motivated by the fact that in Europe the interest about social entrepreneurship is growing and many young people recognize themselves as social entrepreneurs. On the other hand, teachers, trainers and mentors on the classical entrepreneurship discipline have growing number of business cases, that are directly related to the social entrepreneurship.
So, we had to pay attention to the methodological tools of those professionals who have to support and train the people who create from scratch or develop already existing social enterprises. 
If you are interested to read more about the article:
BUSINESS MODELLING IN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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Author 
Coordinator @BASET
KISMC
​

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State of the UK Social Entrepreneurship

6/18/2018

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The UK is viewed by many other countries as a pioneer of social enterprise and the associated practices of social investment and social value. Government statistics identify around 70,000 social enterprises in the UK, contributing £24 billion to the economy and employing nearly a million people.

​In "The Future of Business (State of Social Enterprise Survey 2017)" report the Chair of Social Enterprise UK (the national body for social enterprises in the UK) – Lord Victor Adebowale summarizes that in the last ten years there has been a wave of start-up dynamism with a new generation of businesses choosing the social enterprise approach: “embedding a social purpose in their DNA, acting commercially, and reinvesting their profits to create a more positive change”. Lord Victor also highlights that the social enterprises’ landscape in 2017 looks very different compared to the year of 2007 – pre-2008 crash, pre-austerity, pre-Brexit – and concludes that social enterprises represent the future of how everyone should be doing business. More precisely - by having a sustainable business model with a clear social purpose, working and employing in the most challenging areas and doing so in an accountable, fair and inclusive way.

The report “Social Enterprise in the UK” by the British Council also confirms the significant evolution in the social enterprise sector in the UK such as changes in the government’s approaches, increase in the number of incubators, a new focus on social investment and an enhanced emphasis on measuring social value.  

The Choice of Social Enterprise

​It is pivotal to state that based on a national representative sample by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 4.2% of the UK adult working population is estimated to be actively involved in socially entrepreneurial start-up activities whereas the RBS Enterprise Tracker survey in association with UnLtd (the leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in the UK offering the largest such network in the world) suggests a fifth (19%) of aspiring entrepreneurs would choose to start a social enterprise. That would be highly needed considering the top societal challenges in the UK are poverty and financial insecurity, aging population, youth unemployment and health inequality.
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​Innovation of the Social Enterprises

According to the SEFORÏS Country Report “The State of Social Entrepreneurship in the UK” - written by a consortium of 12 organisations from 10 countries including Belgium, China, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK - social enterprises are more involved in innovative activities such as creating new or significantly improved products, services and processes, compared to commercial enterprises. The report identifies that the main driver for innovation among social enterprises in the UK is to achieve social and environmental goals such as increasing the quality of social impact, spreading social impact or reducing environmental impact. 
Also, as revealed in the SEFORÏS report, UK social enterprises create and catalyse inclusion and innovation by addressing social issues embedded within their mission and operational model, by employing individuals experiencing barriers of entering the labour market, by attracting population segments less likely to participate in commercial entrepreneurship (e.g. disabled individuals), by being inclusive in their ownership, governance, management and innovation practices.

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Author
Partner @BASET
Caban Capital
​

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What Inspires Social Entrepreneurs?

5/14/2018

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What inspires social entrepreneurs?
What actually inspires social entrepreneurs? You are probably wondering why all those people are so much concentrated on devoting their time to create positive impact. Of course, social entrepreneurs are, first of all, focused on running their organisation in order to be able to contribute to either the environment or the society.

Social entrepreneurs use innovative and creative approaches to tackle community, national and international issues. Their approaches are sustainable and practical which benefit society. They aim at financially stable activities to be able to make an impact and reach their social mission. Of course like any entrepreneur, the social entrepreneur needs to have that inspiration and motivation to be able to keep their operations alive and to be sustainable.
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Social Entrepreneur's Inspiration

Social entrepreneurs have user-friendly and ethical ideas engaging as many people as possible in order to influence the number of citizens who will grasp the idea and to act on it for impacting others. In other words, social entrepreneurs are not only role models but also change makers, change agents who create new approaches and solutions to change the society and our planet for the better.    
To present cases of what could inspire social entrepreneurs, we have extracted quotes from the SocialBusiness.org article of 100 Inspirational Social Entrepreneurs. The article is based on a hundred of interviews with social entrepreneurs from all over the world in a variety of industries, who share their inspirations. 

We have chosen a few powerful phrases from all those 100 social entrepreneurs on how they got or are getting their inspiration:
"The daily contact with the reality of doing it is inspiring. Implementing a plan that has been so long and deep in the making is insanely inspiring and exciting. Seeing, essentially, so far, how most of our ideas and details of how we thought we would roll this out, most of them were turning out to be on target or better than we had expected."
Eric Reynolds, Founder and Executive Director of Inyenyeri 

"Personally, my main source of inspiration comes from our own headquarters. We all live and work together in a small chalet and you really do get to know people under those circumstances. The genuine passion, hard work and positive energy that exists under our roof after two and half years of exhausting bootstrapping is phenomenal."
Sam Bruce, Co-founder of Much Better Adventures

"My personal inspiration comes from the people I love and my friends. The fire that drives me to put my heart and soul into Fashioning Change is the social injustice that results from a culture of flash and trash consumerism and the impact it has on people and the Earth."
Adriana Herrera, Founder and CEO of Fashioning Change 
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"A lot of my inspiration comes from the dissection of frustration. Whether it is my own frustration or that of others, there always seems to be a better way to do things. I really get satisfaction from breaking down a problem and slowly inching towards an alternative solution."
Calvin Kwok, Designer of STITCH & LOCKE
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social entrepreneurs inspiration

​"We saw that an overwhelming majority of consumers felt our solution was something they would absolutely value and we saw that there was a lot of frustration with the status quo. Alex and I were inspired by these results and it really affirmed our decision to start Køge."

Alex Hyssen and Andrew Lenjosek, Co-Founders of Koge Vitamins

"Our number one inspiration comes from the small-scale farmers we buy from in places like Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, the Philippines and Thailand. They are under-privileged and work in harsh conditions in remote areas of the world. Some of them are among the poorest people on this planet, yet they have a dignity and strength that is admirable."
Mathieu Senard and Edouard Rollet, Founders of Alter Eco 

"The recession has seen the makers among us –- those with practical skills such as sewing, knitting, baking, jewelry making –- take center stage and whereas "green" and "ethical" were once seen as a bit worthy, dull and hippie-fied, now the designers and craftspeople who hold these values dear are creating with beauty and style. I’m overwhelmed by the abundance of talent and want to share it!"
Katie Fewings, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Ethical Weddings

"We have over 100 brands that have incredible stories: brands that are supporting and working with fair trade co-ops of women in Guatemala, brands that are committed to producing their designs here in the US, brands that are finding ways to make their clothing from recycled water bottles. It's inspiring to work with these brands who are creating beautiful designs that are making a difference and protecting our environment or providing hope and possibility to the artisans they work with."
David Dietz, Founder of Modavanti
social entrepreneurs inspiration

​"Today, there is a constant stream of news and information about social problems and the individuals and organizations who are working hard to solve them. I try and stay updated on the latest and greatest efforts in the social business sphere, which gives me my daily dose of positive inspiration!"

Iman Fadaei, Founder of Ethical Art

"My instructors and my inspiration are the Afghan women themselves. My work with ARZU has simply confirmed what I have long believed to be true—that what women have in common outweighs the individual differences of religion, culture and geography. Motherhood creates a universal hope that one’s children will grow up educated, in safety, in good health with adequate nutrition and medical care, and with economic opportunities to support themselves and their families."
Connie Duckworth, Founder of ARZU 

"We get inspiration from choosing to think about things differently. We see disability as a difference, and difference creates value. Sometimes people just forget that when they leave university and get into the business world."
Edouard de Broglie, Founder of Dans Le Noir

"When you see parts of the developing world that force you to reflect on your own life and habits, you can’t help but be changed. We saw places so rich in culture and so full of life that we couldn’t help but wonder why they should bear the brunt of the western world’s consumption. These experiences inspired us to start thinking about our own shopping habits, where our clothes come from and to start asking the same questions of others."
Founders of All of Us Revolution 


Conclusions

As you can see from all these 12 cases of inspiration of social entrepreneurs, inspiration comes in different forms for each individual. However, they all have something in common: they are striving towards providing positive change for the society or for the environment. They were all inspired from their personal experiences with reality resulting in either their frustration from the status quo and from consumerism, or by simply getting inspired by passion, positive energy and bravery. 

Additionally, all those social entrepreneurs keep themselves constantly inspired by their surroundings, i.e. the team they work with, by the support they get from their friends and family, by the community and most importantly by the impact they create.


​Author
Partner @BASET
Caban Capital

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2nd Project Meeting held in Greece [BASET]

4/16/2018

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BASET project meeting in Greece
On 2 April 2018 all partners in the BASET project gathered for the 2nd project meeting in Piraeus, Greece. The project coordinator Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) and the project partners CEED Bulgaria, IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District presented social entrepreneurship case studies from each country with regard to the Social Entrepreneurship Development Model (SEDM) for BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training.
Each partner had the chance to talk about the social entrepreneurship environment in their country whereas many case studies encouraged interesting discussions comparing the ecosystems in a variety of European regions. Furthermore, the main topic that everyone provided feedback was on the SEDM progress - such as results from the focus group that took place in Sofia, framework and suggestions for the content of the model and the main concepts, existing models and frameworks for social and business enterprises were analyzed together with previous and ongoing Erasmus+ projects on Social entrepreneurship.
The project meeting helped the entire project team sync their efforts in a direction that would be beneficial to all stakeholders in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem. ​The meeting was also focused on discussions about the project activities, dissemination strategy, financial and administration details. All partners agreed on next steps and the evaluation and quality assurance framework for the project.

Author
Partners @BASET


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The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.


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3 Inspiring Examples of Social Innovation

3/12/2018

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3 inspiring examples of social innovation
Before introducing a few examples of social innovation, it's important to actually understand what social innovation really is. As the European Commission has simply defined it "social innovations are new ideas that meet social needs, create social relationships and form new collaborations." To complement this definition, a NESTA's report focused on social innovation outlines very well that "social innovations are modest and incremental; others are systemic and fundamental".
Social innovators from all over the world are bringing attention to social issues and providing solutions in incredible and novel ways. Therefore, we have reviewed various sources and chose to show you the following 3 examples of social innovations that would be interesting to take a look at.
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3 Social Innovations

1. BAKEYS - an Indian company that manufactures edible cutlery. This startup produces eco-friendly cutlery instead of plastic ones. Their substitution to plastic is not only delicious cutlery in various flavours but helps cut the quantity of plastic ending up in the ocean and into landfills. 

Moreover, Bakeys produces more environmentally friendly than biodegradable plastic utensils made from corn plastics. They also raised funding through a Kickstarter campaign back in 2016 which was more than 10 times from what they were looking to get.

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​2. THE READ READ
- 
is an innovative learning device that teaches blind people and those with low vision how to read Braille. The way it works is by helping the user sound out every word they learn, i.e. each tile has Braille letters printed on metal as well as the device reads the letter out loud along with how many dots it contains.

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​3. PETIT PLI - 
a line of clothes that grows with the child using expansion and growth technology. It was founded by Ryan Yasin in London in 2017 addressing the ill fitting children's clothes on the market. The clothes are water resistant as well as wind resistant, lightweight, and gender-inclusive with pleated designs. They can also grow up to seven sizes. It's not only sustainable by reducing waste, but also can save families money on new clothes.


​Conclusions

To sum up again what social innovation is, this video - developed by Social Innovation Generation, provides a quick overview, which has been exploring the various qualities and elements that support successful social innovation.


Author
Partner @BASET
Caban Capital

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Focus Group on the Social Entrepreneurship Development Model [Bulgaria]

2/19/2018

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Focus Group on the Social Entrepreneurship Development Model [Bulgaria]
On 31 January a group of stakeholders in social entrepreneurship gathered together with the teams of the project coordinator KISMC and the project partner CEED Bulgaria in Sofia, Bulgaria. The group gathering took place as part of the main project objective of BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training which is to establish and maintain a well-developed and a more effective the process of training the trainers of social entrepreneurs (SE).

During the focus group day all stakeholders participated in clarifying the training needs of the educators and the elaborated model for training. Also, three reference points regarding the training of SE trainers were propose:
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  • Train the trainers' process
  • The framework of the Social Entrepreneurship Development Model (SEDM) and the content of the training (modules)
  • The instruments
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​The focus groups was created to ensure a common understanding on attractiveness, usability, ergonomics and functionality that the BASET project should have. Hence, the focus group supported the early validation of the users of the model as well as helped in understanding their profiles and characteristics in terms of what information was of their interest, which channels were more appropriate for reaching them, etc. These activities as part of the Intellectual Output 1 defined and clarified the necessary skills, knowledge and competences for further outputs and final project results.
Moreover, all participants exchanged views on the framework of SEDM or more precisely on the following related to its structure:

  • Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise basics 
  • Marketing Social Ventures models 
  • Coaching Social Entrepreneurs models 


Author 
Partners @BASET
KISMC & CEED Bulgaria


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The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.


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Social Entrepreneurship - Is it the New Business Model of Today?

1/15/2018

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Social Entrepreneurship - Is it the New Business Model of Today?
​Social entrepreneurship usually emerges when companies, charities and governments fail in their attempts to correct social dysfunction. In Europe the interest in the topic of social entrepreneurship is strongly driven by the growing recognition of the role social enterprises play in fostering social inclusion, inclusive growth and environmental or economic impact.

Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship is at the intersection of social inclusion, market orientation and innovation. It encompasses the activities and processes undertaken to discover, define and exploit opportunities in order to enhance social wealth by creating new ventures or managing existing organizations in an innovative manner. Moreover, social entrepreneurship has attracted an increasing attention because of its potential to tackle crucial societal issues and achieve a wider social impact.

In the meantime, environmental and welfare issues, an increasing economic inequality and lack of basic healthcare, energy or clean water in different parts of the world have triggered an enormous social entrepreneurship wave to discover new ways of finding a solution to all these global problems including hunger, access to education and combating climate change.

New Business Models for Global Issues

According to the Millenial Impact Report, 94% of the millennials are interested in using their skills to benefit a cause and they appreciate the power of making choices focused on finding value. Social consciousness and responsibility are obviously on the rise and companies that support causes are gaining traction with the Millennial customer.

​To briefly summarize, an article of Harvard Business Review describes very well what business models actually are and why they matter. They outline the simplicity of what a business model is, that it actually is a story explaining how an enterprise works and that a good business model answers Peter Drucker’s questions such as: who is the customer; what does the customer value;  how do we make money in this business; what is the underlying economic logic that explains how we can deliver value to customers at an appropriate cost. Therefore, put in a short sentence: a 'business model' describes how a company creates and captures value.

Additionally, after reviewing an article by Forbes about 5 reasons why social entrepreneurship is the new business model, we would like to summarize them briefly below:

  • It connects you to your life purpose
  • It keeps you motivated
  • It brings you lasting happiness
  • It helps you help others discover their life purpose
  • It is what today's consumers want

The difference between business models and social entrepreneurship business models is that those of the social entrepreneurs serve to tackle environmental, societal, economical and other issues that we face nowadays. As Forbes states the new business models have a higher purpose than just making profit. Rather, social entrepreneurs find motivation to help others and connect to the purpose of their living.

Social Entrepreneurship as a Success Formula

​People are generally more interested in making a positive impact on the world and social entrepreneurship is taking off as a success formula. Social entrepreneurship offers insights stimulating ideas for more sustainable business strategies, which contribute directly to sustainable development and greater social responsibility.


Author
Partners @BASET
KISMC & CABAN

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BASET Project Kick Off in Sofia, Bulgaria [Social Entrepreneurship]

12/11/2017

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BASET Kickoff in Sofia, Bulgaria
​On 26 October 2017 the BASET project kicked off with a meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria where all partners – the project coordinator Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) and the project partners CEED Bulgaria, IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District – launched BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training [Project No. 2017-1-BG01-KA204-036360].

The project has been successful in the Erasmus+ call in 2017 and consequently co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union for its 2-years' implementation. Erasmus+ is the European Union’s (EU) programme for education, training, youth and sport, with the EU committing £12 billion to the programme between 2014 and 2020. By 2020 it is expected that over 800,000 education and training staff and youth workers will teach or train abroad across Europe with Erasmus+. Projects provide opportunities for learners and staff to improve their skills, enhance their employability and gain cultural awareness.

During the kick off meeting in Sofia all partners discussed their previous experience in social entrepreneurship and agreed on an agenda that would focus on producing quality intellectual outputs that would assist all stakeholders in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem. 
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What is BASET?

No matter that we have already mentioned what BASET stands for here’s a quick preview: ‘Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training’. The project duration is 2 years and will continue running until August 2019 which will end in Sofia with an insightful conference about the produced results for social entrepreneurship in Europe.

Although the project has a set end date for its implementation under the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, we are firmly willing to continue contributing to this topic by using BASET as an already established network and community to create social value and assist finding solutions to the world’s problem our society faces.

In order to understand more about what the project is about, keep reading below...

Why did we start BASET?

We could easily sum up the answer in one sentence but it would hardly cover all. However, let’s sum it up in a sentence:

“We kicked off BASET because we believe that social entrepreneurs can solve crucial problems that we all face.”

But let’s dig in deeper.

After extensive research and looking back at our joint partners’ experience in social entreprneurship we discovered that specialist support for social enterprises is largely absent and where it exists it is often limited or fragmented. There is lack of mentoring and training schemes as well as investment support corresponding to the specific features of social enterprises.
BASET Kick Off
BASET Project in Sofia
Therefore, with a project such as BASET we are addressing the learning needs of educators (professional teachers, coaches, consultants, mentors, lecturers, SME experts, investors, professionals providing services to entrepreneurs and organisations, staff in business support organisations, training organisations and financial institutions, etc.) for their continuing professional development in social entrepreneurship. Our role is to upskill them in how to train and inspire social entrepreneurs to innovate, use curriculum templates and access business networks. We would introduce them with good practices and know-how on how to carry out mentoring across the innovation lifecycle and how to use new teaching methods based on gamification and visualization.

In the next section you can read more information about BASET’s objectives, methodology, results, impact and learn more about the partners involved in this exciting project which will contribute to the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Europe and beyond.
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Project Objectives

The main objective of the project is to foster social entrepreneurship in Europe through elaborating, testing and providing a set of learning and training instruments to educators.

​All instruments will be tested whereas a group of educators will be trained to offer a set of resources such as training in entrepreneurial skills, mentoring focussed on designing business models and business plans, networking within the broader social entrepreneurship ecosystem and access to grants or seed capital.
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Methodology

For the execution of BASET our activities will concentrate on the preparation of two methodologies and their testing:
  1. Through a 5 days’ course for educators (trainers and mentors)
  2. Through a 5 days’ course for investors

The methodology concentrates on a collaborative approach based on commonly accepted rules, preliminary defined tasks and critical milestones, strict reporting and effective control through an online project management platform. We believe that communication is key, therefore we have decided to work with cloud integrated platforms to enhance and ease up the collaboration among the whole consortium.
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BASET's Results & Impact

The project outcome is a clarified learning model for training educators to contribute to the success of social entrepreneurs. The model consists of three main outputs
  • Social Entrepreneurship Development model – a very practical and easy-to-use handbook for educators to understand the needs of social ventures and hands-on guidance that helps entrepreneurs carry out their social missions more effectively
  • Train the Trainers Toolkit – providing educators with background knowledge, skills and practical experience, virtual space to provide Social Entrepreneurship Training and technical assistance to social entrepreneurs’ communities
  • Train the Investors Handbook – equipping investors-mentors with practical knowledge and model of working with social entrepreneurs at risk
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Learn more about the model


​Focus on Sustainability

The methods and the achieved results will contribute to the understanding of the process of social enterprise management through the eyes of the educators in Europe who are involved in the entrepreneurship development and will be able to advance to specificity of the social entrepreneurship in a long-term scale.

With the outcome of the BASET project the educators will be armed with a set of resources that will make the process of training, mentoring and networking for social entrepreneurs sustainable while facilitating their access to effective services and capital.
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In order to have longer-term benefits the project presumes creating a sustainable network of stakeholders and selection processes open to a broader number of trainers and social business cases.
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BASET's Partners

The project consortium comprises of 5 partners from 4 countries:
  • Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) – Bulgaria
    An NGO focusing on developing competences for adults in innovation management, creativity and entrepreneurship
  • CEED – Bulgaria
    An experienced business support organisation in the entrepreneurship development in Bulgaria
  • IDEC – Greece
    A consultancy with an accredited lifelong learning centre in Greece and organizing in-service training courses for teachers and trainers, informal learning and vocational training
  • Caban Capital – UK
    A fund manager providing opportunities for investors to invest in entrepreneurs through services each business requires to be successful
  • Creative District – Belgium
    ​A Brussels-based organisation supporting initiatives in the creative and cultural industries for societal impact through providing innovation spaces for guidance and support to entrepreneurs
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Read more about partners
Author
Partners @BASET


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The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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The Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training /BASET/ Project No. 2017-1-BG01-KA204-036360 has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. 
This website reflects the views only of the author, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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