There’s nothing magical about business planning. At its core, it involves thinking through and documenting who your target customers are, how your proposed venture will profitably address their needs better than the competition, how you will communicate with these customers, and how resources will be obtained to pay for startup costs.

Writing these things down, and asking outsiders to review them, often leads to finding and fixing flaws in your assumptions and logic. The result is that you’re better prepared for launching your venture.

There is an elephant in the corner of this room. And we\'re going to talk about it. As we go about our work with a wide range of social enterprises throughout the country, we have seen a significant and important Achilles heel that many in the room would rather not talk about: the quality of the financial and accounting systems by which we evaluate the financial performance of social enterprises.

The Organization For over 23 years, El Paso, Texas-based nonprofit La Mujer Obrera (The Woman Worker), and its daughter El Puente Community Development Corporation, have worked to transform the conditions of Mexican immigrant women on the U.S.-Mexico border. During its first decade, the organization focused its efforts on improving the situation for the mostly women garment workers in El Paso\'s sweatshops. As it has grown, La Mujer has continued to broaden its scope and build awareness about the negative economic impact generated by free trade on the Mexican immigrant community.

Project HIRED launched its first social business venture, HIRED Temps temporary staffing services, in 1986. Since then, California’s Silicon Valley has gone through several recessions. The most recent was particularly severe with hundreds of companies going out of business and the loss of 200,000 (or 15%) of total jobs. 19 years later, HIRED Temps continues to be a highly successful business venture, annually providing employment to over 100 individuals with significant disabilities, with $1.3+ million in gross sales and contributing over $100,000 annually to fund other programs and services.

As organizations develop new social enterprise ideas, they typically think first of businesses that leverage programmatic value, skills and assets. However, earned income innovation and social value can also come from administrative functions. Scaling for Profit Social sector organizations often operate at a small, local scale and miss out on opportunities to improve efficiency and increase quality through collaboration. La Casa de Don Pedro in Newark, NJ recognized one such opportunity in its early childhood centers.

Project HIRED’s mission is to assist individuals with disabilities to gain competitive employment and advance their careers through partnerships with industry. Combined, our three social business ventures provide competitive employment to over 100 workers with disabilities (with salaries and benefits in excess of $2.6 million) and generate a net contribution of $410,000 or 12%. Tip 1: access to expertise It’s important to allocate the effort to cultivate people you know who have the skills you need.

Project HIRED launched its first social business venture, HIRED Temps temporary staffing services, in 1986. Since then, California’s Silicon Valley has gone through several recessions. The most recent was particularly severe with hundreds of companies going out of business and the loss of 200,000 (or 15%) of total jobs. 19 years later, HIRED Temps continues to be a highly successful business venture, annually providing employment to over 100 individuals with significant disabilities, with $1.3+ million in gross sales and contributing over $100,000 annually to fund other programs and services.

You’ve gone through the steps. You've sorted through numerous venture ideas (January 2005 SER: Fast Track or Back Burner), assessed the feasibility of a few of them (February 2005 SER: Testing the Waters), and written a quick business plan for one (March 2005 SER: Just Enough Planning). Now you’re ready to move beyond planning and start doing.

On May 27th the third annual Conversations in Social Enterprise launched with Media Mavens: The Art and Compromise of Selling Good News. The ongoing summer luncheon series is a “Best Practices” forum sponsored by the San Francisco-based Social Fusion, a social enterprise incubator with a mission of fusing the power of business with the heart of social impact.

I find that social enterprise events always have more great speakers than any other kinds of business events. Passion for their mission drives these presenters, so they are often extremely compelling. The Social Venture Institute conference, held in San Francisco in March, was no exception. Below are some examples from those stellar speakers and some tips to help you perfect your persuasive power.