Posts in Philosophies

Why Clear Business Models are Important

Why Clear Business Models are Important

If you don’t have a clear business model you can’t grow or market effectively

If you have a clearly defined business model, you can check any future opportunities, partnerships, activities, etc against whether it helps your business model. Successful companies are able to explain their business models as quickly as their elevator pitch. Where the elevator pitch should be able to explain what you do to potential customers, your business model should be able to explain how your business works to potential partners, suppliers, etc.

Strategies, PhilosophiesMatthew RempelJune 12, 2019Business ModelComment

Podcast: Connection and Messaging with Ian Rountree

Podcast: Connection and Messaging with Ian Rountree

Ian Rountree is the project manager in charge of Buy Social Praries. Buy Social Praries is a project of LITE, and is a part of the wider network in Buy Social Canada.

Ian and I talk about the importance of explaining what your social enterprise is about, and how to tailor that message to specific audiences. We also talk about the importance of networking as an industry to attempt to hit the scale needed to provide products and services for the large purchasing needs of businesses and governments.

If you are a social enterprise that needs certification, or are interested in purchasing products from social enterprises, please contact Ian to learn more.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelMay 23, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Ian RountreeComment

Podcast: Amanda Bernardo with Little Voice Books

Podcast: Amanda Bernardo with Little Voice Books

Amanda Bernardo is half of Little Voice Books, an independent children's book publishing company. She is the author behind Little Voice and The Lighthouse. Along with her illustrator Samantha, they have built up the company around these two books.

We talk about the challenges of marketing books and growing a business with small roots. We also talk about how to organize a company to be able to have the capacity to grow into new areas.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelApril 25, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Amanda BernardoComment

Podcast: The Networks of Anne Kresta

Podcast: The Networks of Anne Kresta

Anne Kresta is the President and CEO of Level IT Up, a social enterprise that helps people with autism with job training, while providing quality IT workers for Winnipeg tech companies.

Throughout our conversation, Anne would always mention how what they're doing would not be possible without the support of various groups of people. From her board, to the network of similar organizations, to the autism community. Networks are powerful for social enterprise, and it's important to be connected to both other social impact organizations, as well as the customers you hope to serve.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelApril 12, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Anne KrestaComment

Podcast: Diversified Impact with Kalen Taylor

Podcast: Diversified Impact with Kalen Taylor

Kalen Taylor stepped into the role of Executive Director at Purpose Construction and Purpose Pest Management in 2018. Since they started, they have been working at re-branding and separating out the two areas of their expertise, residential retrofits and pest management.

As a part of this process, Kalen has been leading Purpose to expand their offerings to better serve their community, and their staff.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelMarch 26, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Kalen TaylorComment

Podcast: The Relationships of Social Enterprise with Kristy Muckosky

Podcast: The Relationships of Social Enterprise with Kristy Muckosky

Kristy Muckosky uses the relationships with volunteers at the Thrive Thrift Shop to help them build their confidence and grow to see new possibilities. She does this by providing them with a space where they can take chances, learn how to keep trying after failures, and do so in a non-judgemental environment.

The Thrive Thrift Shop is a community based thrift shop offering household goods from diapers to bedsheets to the north end community of Winnipeg. They also provide training to volunteers to help them learn how to handle customers and retail customer service.

Disclosure: At the time of recording I am serving a term on the board of Thrive Community Support Circle.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelMarch 12, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Art LaddComment

Podcast: Social Procurement and Work Integration with Art Ladd

Podcast: Social Procurement and Work Integration with Art Ladd

Art Ladd is the Executive Director of BUILD - Building Urban Industries for Local Development. The majority of his work is centered around helping people who have barriers to employment. BUILD helps them by providing paid training and work placements so they can apply to other companies with experience and a reference.

Art also explains how aspiring social entrepreneurs can look for social problems that can be solved while also solving an economic problem.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelFebruary 27, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Art LaddComment

Podcast: Marty Donkervoort with Business Skills and Social Values

Podcast: Marty Donkervoort with Business Skills and Social Values

Marty Donkervoort is a Manitoba based social entrepreneur and educator. He's founded multiple worker co-ops and social enterprises, done consulting and teaches courses on social enterprise and sustainability.

Marty suggests that social enterprises cannot thrive without the business skills to compete in the marketplace. He also explains his story of transitioning from being an executive in a multinational corporation to working in the social sector.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelFebruary 12, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Marty DonkervoortComment

Compete With Products And With Branding.

Or: Direct, Indirect, And Replacement Competition

Who is your competition?

In some areas of life, there is an easy answer. If you play on a football team, clearly the other teams are your competition. If you are a football league commissioner, then it’s a little more complicated. You could see other team sports as your competition, from rugby to soccer to baseball. Beyond even that, if you’re a coach of a community team for 15-year olds, you’re trying to compete for the attention and focus of your players. You’re competing with school, music teachers, video games, and raging teenage hormones.

Competition is not as clear cut as we might like it to be. The same applies to marketing.

Strategies, PhilosophiesMatthew RempelFebruary 6, 2019competition, brandingComment

Podcast: Shaun Loney and the Solutions Economy

Podcast: Shaun Loney and the Solutions Economy

Shaun Loney is a Manitoba based social enterprise developer. He has started several social enterprises, and has been an advisor for many more. He has also written three books on the subject.

Shaun urges us to examine the systems within which we live and work. He has encouraged me and many others to try to work towards finding solutions for the problems that are caused by our systems.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelJanuary 29, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Shaun LoneyComment

Keep Focused on What Matters - Strategy Made Simple Strategic Review

Starting a new year is a great natural break point. Most people at this time are naturally reflecting on what happened in the past year and are at the same time looking to what the new year will hold. I took some time over the holidays to take a break from client work and focused in on what Strategy Made Simple is about and where I’m heading with it.

I’m sharing my process here so that you can use this check in format for your social enterprise. It also has the added benefit of giving you a sneak preview of the things I’m hoping to work on in the upcoming year.

I recommend doing a check in like this at least once per year if you’re a small business, but as you grow it might help to do this check in more frequently. At the end of this post I’ve included a couple different sections you might want to add depending on what kind of business you’re running.

Strategies, Philosophies, GoalsMatthew RempelJanuary 16, 2019development, systems, Check In, Review, TemplateComment

Podcast: Our Stories and Our Values with Cate Friesen

Podcast: Our Stories and Our Values with Cate Friesen

What do our stories say about us? How do we show our values through our stories? How can we change the way we feel about ourselves by changing how we talk about ourselves?

These are all things that Cate and I talk about in this episode of the Strategy Made Simple podcast. Find out how you can tell better stories about your social enterprise.

Cate Friesen is the person behind The Story Source. She does coaching and facilitates workshops to help you or your organization find your story and teach you how to tell your story.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelJanuary 15, 2019podcast, strategy made simple, Cate Friesen, StoryComment

Podcast: Animal Assisted Social Enterprise with Kathryn Kimbley

Podcast: Animal Assisted Social Enterprise with Kathryn Kimbley

Kathryn Kimbley is pursuing a PhD studying nascent social entrepreneurs, in addition to running her own animal assisted therapy social enterprise called HumAnimaCIC. She is based in the Midlands in the United Kingdom.

She spoke about her personal story of getting into social enterprise, what it looks like for people to participate in animal assisted therapy, and how social enterprises might be able to incorporate animals into their operations. We also talked about the gaps between academics and practitioners, and the lack of a solid definition of social enterprise.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelDecember 10, 2018podcast, strategy made simple, Kathryn KimbleyComment

Podcast: A National Network of Collaboration with Mike Toye

Podcast: A National Network of Collaboration with Mike Toye

Mike Toye is the Executive Director of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCED-Net). Through his work, he attempts to bring together diverse perspectives on Community Economic Development and share successful innovations across the national community.

I got a chance to speak with him while attending the CCED-Net Manitoba Gathering, a national conference where CED academics and practitioners get together and share ideas and perspectives.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelNovember 21, 2018podcast, strategy made simple, Mike ToyeComment

Podcast: Teresa Prokopanko - Community Based Social Marketing

Podcast: Teresa Prokopanko - Community Based Social Marketing

Community Based Social Marketing (CBMS) is a system for promoting ideas and advocating within groups of people. It has been used by advocacy agencies to understand where their efforts are most likely to produce the results they are looking for, and whether people are likely to respond positively towards their initiatives.

Teresa Prokopanko is the Composting Coordinator for Green Action Centre in Winnipeg. In this episode she explains how small organizations can use CBSM practices as a framework for their impact campaigns.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelNovember 6, 2018podcast, strategy made simple, Teresa ProkopankoComment

Podcast: Organizational Incentives and Structures with Frank Atnikov

Podcast: Organizational Incentives and Structures with Frank Atnikov

Frank Atnikov is the program coordinator of Social Enterprise Manitoba, an initiative of CCED-Net Manitoba. He helps connect social enterprises with resources to help them with developing their business, and coaching them through the stages of starting and growing a social enterprise.

In this episode of Strategy Made Simple, Frank walks us through a different definition of social enterprising, how to align the incentives within an organization with desired outcomes, and when it might not be a good idea to start a social enterprise.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelOctober 23, 2018podcast, strategy made simple, Social Enterprise, Frank AtnikovComment

Podcast: Siloh Moses - Aligning Business With Impact

Podcast: Siloh Moses - Aligning Business With Impact

On this episode of the Strategy Made Simple podcast, I interviewed Siloh Moses and we spoke about how to align your business operations with your desired impact. More specifically, we spoke about how to find out what kind of impact your business should pursue, and how to amplify the existing impact you are creating.

Siloh Moses is the founder behind WeWin360, a social good consulting agency. His book Better Than This is available on Amazon.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelOctober 9, 2018podcast, strategy made simple, Social Enterprise, Siloh MosesComment

Podcast: Caryn Birch - Non-Profit Supported Startup

Podcast: Caryn Birch - Non-Profit Supported Startup

RaY or Resource assistance for Youth is a non-profit based in Winnipeg, Manitoba that helps youth get into the workforce. They use several social enterprises to provide workforce training for their Level Up program. Caryn Birch is the manager of their newest social startup: Level Up: Gift and Thrift.

Caryn walks us through some of the steps that were involved with setting up a new social enterprise, and what challenges are to be expected for anyone who is thinking about starting a social startup.

Gift and Thrift is a gift shop stocked with artists' works and thrift shop for the downtown community. It is based on the Graham Mall, the main transit hub for the city, just four blocks from the Winnipeg Jets' Bell MTS place.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelSeptember 25, 2018podcast, strategy made simple, Social Enterprise, Caryn Birch, RaY, StartupComment

Podcast: Growth and Social Enterprise

Podcast: Growth and Social Enterprise

What do people in the social enterprise sphere think about business growth? I've asked 5 of my previous guests how they think about growth and how that impacts the way their organizations operate.

Guests include:

Carinna Rosales - SEED Winnipeg, an employment focused non-profit

Yacine Bara - Changewealth, a wealth management social enterprise

Philip Mikulec - Peg City Car Coop, a car sharing co-op

Sarah Leeson-Klym - Canadian Community Economic Development Network, a community industry network and advocacy group

Brendan Reimer - Assiniboine Credit Union, a for profit credit union.

Strategies, Philosophies, PodcastMatthew RempelAugust 14, 2018podcast, strategy made simple, Social Enterprise, Growth, IdeasComment