We have created a range of free tools and resources here for social enterprises and impact businesses to guide them in the establishment and validation journey, and build towards taking on impact investment.
In our experience many projects seeking funding miss one or more vital foundations to create a strong business model and compelling investment ready enterprise. Some of these are outlined below:
- A solid, highly complimentary founder team and structure for bringing them onboard (link to free Belbin and Founders Pie tool)
- Bringing co founders and key advisors onboard is a significant and important strategic step for new enterprises, and where possible should be done in a structured way and on a milestone-basis with a solid agreements in place to demonstrate diligence to funders and investors (link to free example sweat equity agreement which is also useful to inform thought process for co founders and advisors of NFP social enterprises) *note this is not legal advice
- A validated business model with pilots and revenue (link to free Impact Canvas tool)
- A robust financial model and projection to inform an investor ask (link to free guide on building a cashflow projection and formulating an investor ask)
- A solid pitch deck to wrap the above story up in (link to free guide on building a pitch deck)
- A strategic plan and investor memorandum before approaching a blended finance/impact investment funders (link to free guide on building an information memorandum)
- (and if you haven’t yet incorporated) you’ll need to think through the right legal structure, eg, for profit, not for profit, cooperative or hybrid (link to free guide on incorporating)
Through building these important strategic foundations to your enterprise, funding and investment opportunities will also greatly expand beyond the limitations we see with so many early stage startups in Western Australia, which are often limited to very small grants, and FFF investment.
If you’re looking for business advisory and consulting support through Impact Seed then please get in touch here. Alternatively our current open investment readiness programs (if any) can be found here. If you’re looking to be counted in the WA social enterprise mapping project, visit: https://www.impactseed.org/socialenterprise/. Finally, if you’re interested in joining the WA Social Enterprise Council, please visit: https://www.wasec.org.au/
