Social Business: Clarify your Idea - From Vague to Focused and Actionable

I was recently working with someone on this issue. It is common among numerous entrepreneurial thinkers. They have big and great idea. However, in their head it was too great and too overwhelming. Clarity is needed in your social entrepreneurship pursuit, or any business idea. Make it simple. Otherwise it will be too big and too hazy and you won't be able to make it actionable.

Now grab a notebook and pen, computer, or iPad, and get ready to work through these points. Make sure to write it out. This is very important. If you do not write it out it will keep on wedged in your head spinning around the same un-actionable cycles over and over.


Here are two frameworks to help you clarify your idea:

   
1. Hedgehog Concept (from Jim Collins Good to Great)
   
2. Tony Robbins OPA

Hedgehog Concept:

What are you most passionate about in the world? (What social issue are you trying to solve?) Do not limit it to your social business idea. Just list all things out that that you are considering. This is a key portion for a social entrepreneur, what social aspects are you most passionate about solving? What makes you most angry when you hear about it?
List them out.

Now rate them. What are your top two? Once you do this it will give you more clarity into what the social business should really be focusing on.

What are you best at in the world? Or another way to say it, what do you love working on most  in the globe? This will shape the way the social business is run. It may even adjust the overall direction of the your business idea. Are you best at speaking, networking, writing, selling, talking, connecting with people, administration?

What drives your economic engine? (Or if you are a non-profit, in his book Good to Great in the Social Sector, Collins says this circle can be changed to - How can we develop a sustainable resource engine to deliver superior performance relative to our mission). What is your business model? How are you going to make money from this social business. you've clarified the one biggest passion or social dilemma you want to take care of. You have shown out what you are best at in the world (how you are going to personally solve the social problem). And additionally, how you can make money, in the best way, through your socially impacting idea.

In some cases there are aspects of our ideas that we hold incredibly tightly to for no reason.
Which items in your social enterprise idea are non-negotiables? What unquestionably makes the business? What really HAS to be there?

If you believe it really is important then WHY? Does it line up with what you are most passionate about, what your best at, or your business model? If not, then maybe it shouldn't be there.

OPA Model - Tony Robbins

Now that you've done that you should have quite a bit more clarity already. Nevertheless let's take it one step further. By the end of this, hopefully you would have a specific set of action items to take away and do.

OPA - Outcome / Result, Purpose, Actions

Outcome: Write out the final outcome. Try to be very specific. Do not just say, I want to help feed orphans. Say:

I am going to clothe orphans globally; commencing with india. I will do this through selling my own distinct designed t-shirts and donating one shirt for everyone purchased. These shirts will be sold in boutique clothing retailers starting in Georgia, and broadening from there.

This is merely a quick example off the top of my head. It should overlap what you came up with in the Hedgehog principle above.

Purpose: List out 10-15 reasons WHY you are doing this.

Actions: Brainstorm as many action items you can think of that you need to do. From the biggest to the smallest. Many of them will be big projects in themselves with their own set of action items. For example, you might have:

   
• Call John to see about the price of buying product x from him.
   
• Create a business plan
   
• Create a website
   
• Start blogging regularly
   
• Meet with x about possible partnership

Clearly calling John is a one step process. However, writing a business plan is a substantial project within itself. Likewise, developing a website is a venture with a number of action items to finish. Don’t worry about this for now. Later on, after you have completed this entire exercise. You should go through each of these, pick out the projects and do another OPA framework for that.

Rate each item on its importance.

Go through each item, pick out the bigger projects and create another OPA for it.

There you have it. Hopefully you've clarified your business idea; boiled it down to one area to focus on. You should also have a clear set of action items ordered in priority to get you going.

Write out the outcome and purpose on your computer, possibly add some relevant uplifting pictures and quotes, and hang it on the wall to look at everyday. This is very important. There'll be days when you don't want to do it, when you don't want to get out of bed, and do not want to write that next article. Days when you don't want to make that next sales call, or book that next meeting. Look at it, let it re-encourage you!


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Why social entrepreneurs can be the most successful people the world has ever seen

I have frequented training courses, have been learning and studying, and spoken to numerous successful people. Most, if not all, point to one of the same variables in their high accomplishment: Purpose. The reason behind what you do. If you do not have it you probably won't succeed; but if you do, the skies the limit. In this article I want to explain why social entrepreneurs who are working to build social businesses should be the most successful in the globe.

Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams Realty, says it perfectly:

" ... A Big Why brings big focus and big energy, and a little why brings little focus and little energy. HIGH ACHIEVERS ALWAYS HAVE A BIG WHY" (p. 73).

The superb book, E-Myth, by small business guru Michael Gerber says it like this,

"Your Primary Aim is your innermost driving force. It gives you a sense of direction and purpose. It motivates you to your highest levels of energy, and puts you at your best" (Chpt. 12).


With that said ...

Don't social entrepreneurs have the primary target of all? Don't they have the most  worthy motivation behind what they are doing? Then doesn't it stand to reason that social entrepreneurs, as they are giving their lives to solve the world's complications, should be the most enthusiastic, avaricious, energetic, devoted and efficient people on the face of the globe?

One lesson I learned early in my social entrepreneurship activities was that money is not a good inducement. Since establishing my firm Ethic Travel, which focuses on using a percentage of our profits to help construct homes for those in need, and now launching Impact Through Business, I have NEVER had this much liveliness and obsession. I'm up at 4:30 a.m most mornings, and work till late into the evening many nights; all to do it again the next day. And what's more, I am thoroughly loving it. I can see the repercussions that our business can have on individuals lives. I put a picture of a boy in atrocious poverty up on my wall. When I do get down or feeling lethargic, as we all do at times, I take a long look and let it refocus my purpose. It's an utter impossibility to stare at this, let it sink it, and not have burst of motivation surge through me. This is what I am working for in Ethic Travel. To see quality homes built for people like this, to give them a healthy stable environment so that, in turn, they can begin to build their lives.


What moves you?

If you want to arrive at your potential think about the big picture. What do you want your life to be about? What do you want the history of your life to be? I truly believe that pursuing social entrepreneurship should be the most triumphant in the world; they have the biggest why.

Not only will a big why propel you to success, it will sustain you once you get there. If all you are pursuing is money alone, you will be sadly saddened and unfulfilled once you get some. True success is being fulfilled, and that cannot come by pursuing money alone.

Move forward in your journey to true fulfilment and utter success download your FREE e book, Changing the World Through Business: the what and why of social entrepreneurship. - Click Here