GGE Ep 9: Masterclass: Creating Sustainable Revenue in a Social Enterprise

Click the link to go to the now famous blog post: "23 Questions to Ask Yourself if You're Not Generating Enough Money with Your Social Enterprise."

Today's guest Solene Pignet wrote a great blog post, "23 Questions to Ask Yourself if You're Not Generating Enough Money with Your Social Enterprise."

I'll be the first to admit the title doesn't roll off the tongue very easily, but it is impactful.

It was so interesting we decided to do an entire show on the concept. Don't worry, we'll also get into Solene's story on how she jumped ship from the corporate grind to start and run her own social enterprise.

GGE Ep. 8: This Lesson Will Change Your Life

What if there was one skill, that if you had it could change your life and your organization. Well there is, and that skill is persuasion.

In this special episode of Greater Good Entrepreneur, we're going to give you something special. It is a brief lesson, only 15 minutes, that literally can change your life.

In this lesson, you will learn the art of persuasion. Whether you are seeking investors, trying to get an email address, or trying to get someone to come over to your point of view, this lesson will teach you a persuasion architecture you can use for the rest of your life.

You can use it in a conversation, when writing web content, as a guide for writing an article, or any other communication medium you choose.

If you need to persuade someone of something (and we all need to do that several times per day) then this brief special episode is for you.

Want to See the Future of Work? Look at TV and Film

Television shows and films have very short lifespans. A movie may take 1-2 years to make and play for only a couple of months. A television series will run for a couple of years if it ever even gets an audience. Only outliers last more than five years.

Product lifecycles and companies themselves are becoming more and more like TV and film. Products last a few years at best. Companies change so much and so fast that workers can't rely on staying at the same place for an entire career.

For better or worse, the gig economy is the future.

According to the Forbes article "The Rise of the Freelancer Economy," as of January 2016, there are 53 million freelancers in America. By 2020 it is expected that 50% of the US workforce will be self-employed.

Want to know how to plan your career when the economy consists of products and businesses with short lifecycles? Look to your friends in the film business. They've been doing this for years.

Milk Money

GGE Ep 7: - Milk Money with Janice Shade and Louisa Shibley

Vermonters already know the benefits of Eating Local and Buying Local. Now Vermont is leading the way to Invest Local as a way to build a strong local economy.

Communities thrive when people invest in each other. Entrepreneurs and small businesses gain access to “neighborly” capital to grow their company, while investors work toward their financial goals by investing in companies they believe in. The whole community benefits as local jobs are created and wealth is recirculated through the local economy.

Louisa and Janice have started Milk Money as the platform to enable Vermonters to invest locally. You will hear how they got started and how you can invest, or find investors, for a local business.

To learn more about Milk Money go to www.milkmoneyvt.com

The Man in the Arena

No one says it better than Teddy Roosevelt did back in 1910.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Putting yourself out there means potential financial and social risk. To strive forward doing work that matters involves getting hurt and being vulnerable; because honestly pushing boundaries means sometimes falling.

There is nothing wrong with opting to for invisibility. But being invisible has its price, paid by the soul.

Mind the Gap

Most of us feel like we have done the studying and the learning to know our craft, and it feels like that should be enough. But the only thing by which others can judge is the work we produce. The art, the article, the extra time spent meeting with a friend...

The world cannot see what's in your head and heart; they can only know what you produce.

Can you see the gaps in the things you care about and the what you've created?

Intention is not the same as action.

Your Million Dollar Race Horse

What if you had a million dollar race horse? Would you feed it mediocre food? Would you let it skip random exercise days? Would you let it oversleep and then get drunk a few times a week? Of course, you wouldn't.

Do you let yourself do these things?

Why do we treat ourselves so much worse than we treat pets or possessions?

* Thanks to "Evolved Enterprise" by Yanik Silver for the inspiration.

How to Get Lucky

Ask successful entrepreneurs about their story and the conversation almost always comes to a point when the business owner says "I was at the Widgets International conference and got lucky, I met Big Influencer." While the event may have felt like luck, lots of things had to happen before that moment to leverage the happenstance meeting into something bigger.

The chance meeting turned into something bigger because the entrepreneur had already put in the work. She built her website, had blog posts up and things being sold or given away. It wasn't perfect, but it let Big Influencer know that she had been getting stuff done and not just thinking and dreaming.

Then she spent the money and time to go to the conference where Big Influencer was hanging out.

That "lucky" encounter at the conference was not coincidental. By putting in the work first, then spending time going to the show, connecting with Big Influencer was just a matter of time.

The "chance encounter" will grow into something bigger when we have our work to show as fertilizer for the relationship.

Kusikuy Clothing

GGE Ep 6: - Kusikuy Clothing with Tamara Stenn

Dr. Tamara Stenn is quite an entrepreneur. By age 25 she already had her a successful advertising firm. She gave that up to go into the Peace Corps. Then came back home and started a business while getting her masters degree.

While owning the business, she got her Ph.D. and taught economics and entrepreneurship.

Now, she is restarting another socially conscious business, Kusikuy. 

ASRA Foods

GGE: Ep 5 - ASRA Foods with Jill Ouazzani

When they followed their dreams and moved to Vermont life was great. Beautiful surroundings, great quality of life, educational opportunities. It was perfect... well, except for the olive oil.

Vermont is a leader in great local foods, but without great olive oil these foods weren't fully meeting their potential. At least not to the Ouazzani crew.

So they decided to combine their passion of helping small farmers with the need for great olive oil into a business.

ASRA foods was born from that passion. Listen to how Jill and Simo Ouazzani are navigating a brand new family, jobs and a new businesses. And kicking ass at all of it.

These are truly great people. Enjoy!