In this episode of the Strategy Made Simple podcast Beth Cougler Blom explains how we can make better learning experiences by taking a learning design approach. She explains how her experience in learning design roles contribute to making better trainings and facilitating well with groups. We discuss how meeting ground rules and setting out the obj…

Lauren Lee is the social enterprise manager at Resource Assistance for Youth. The main social enterprise at RaY is a moving operation called RaY Works, where they help nonprofits move between office spaces, as well as helping people in residential support programs move between homes. Because RaY Works is a program within the larger nonprofit, there…

Lucas Stewart has many titles. Presently he is the Executive Director of The WRENCH in Winnipeg. Previously he has been involved in the founding and development of a variety of social enterprises including Purpose Construction (Previously Manitoba Green Retrofit), and Senior Partner with Encompass Coop. His driving goal has been to help reunite fam…

Robin Bryan was the General Manager of Compost Winnipeg at the time of recording (Jan 2022), and continues working with the team in a consulting and advisory role. Compost Winnipeg works to take food and other organic waste that would end up in the landfill and instead use it to make compost. Through this work, they have needed to work through some…

Jessica Floresco is the General Manager at Mother Earth Recycling (MER). Mother Earth Recycling does a variety of electronic and mattress recycling which reduces waste in the Winnipeg area. In addition, they are a work integration social enterprise, providing good jobs to people who have otherwise been excluded from the workforce, and MER gives the…

Hazel Corcoran is the Executive Director of the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation. The Federation acts as a bridge and advocate for the various worker cooperatives across Canada that form it's membership. They also manage some investment options for cooperatives so they can receive investment through RRSPs and TFSAs. Hazel also describes her transit…

Nancy Neamtan has been working on developing community economic development and the social economy ecosystem in Quebec for decades. Throughout that body of experience, she has been able to work on the challenges that come with building up a sector. In addition, she was one of the founders and builders of the Chantier de l’économie sociale, a major …

Sandra Allen is a Member, Co-Owner, Board Member and People Team Lead for Shift Delivery Co-op. Shift Delivery is a last mile carrier based in Vancouver, Canada that uses e-assist trikes instead of motor vehicles for their deliveries. Sandra describes the value that Shift has in it's people, how they onboard new staff and help them prepare and tran…

Chris Nichols is a Worker, Co-Founder, Director and Operations Coordinator for Wood Shop Workers' Cooperative. Wood Shop is focused on creating wood furniture out of reclaimed wood for customers in the Vancouver area. They are working towards creating a more circular economy through their work. They started by using reclaimed pallet wood to create …

David Thuss is the current Director at the London Brewing Cooperative, and one of the founding worker owners of the Co-op. He has experience in many of the areas of the brewing business, but now works in a supporting role for the other workers in the Co-op. London Brewing follows a triple bottom line approach to running a social enterprise, and als…

Joey Pittoello is the General Manager at Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op, and has worked in many different roles within the company. Just Us! is a worker Co-op, where each worker has the option to join as a member with a stake in the organization, and the opportunity to influence it's overall direction. One of the significant challenges that has bee…

Susan Holt is the Chief Growth Officer for Plato Testing, a software testing service that hires and trains people with indigenous backgrounds. She also acts in the same role for their sister company PQA. She has been part of Plato Testing's growth from a single office to five offices across Canada over the past five years. Throughout the growth of …

Olowo-n'djo Tchala is the founder and CEO of Alaffia, an international fair trade hair and body product company based in the USA. He was able to take this company from the garage, to supplying large national grocery store chains with their products. Throughout the growth of the company, he has put the mission first, and ensured that the workers in …

The purpose of B Corp is to certify and demonstrate businesses that are doing social good through their operations. Built into the system is an incentive to improve the impact that is being done by the business. ACU received their B Corp certification in February of 2020, and received the highest score in Canada and the 6th highest score in the wor…

Meg Ronson is the Project Manager for Legacy Leadership Lab, a team based out of the University of Waterloo. They are working on using social innovation labs to build up a network and tools to facilitate social acquisitions. Social acquisitions are a form of succession planning so that business owners can exit, and the businesses can be converted t…

Erinch Sahan is the Chief Executive of the World Fair Trade Organization. The WFTO is a combination social enterprise and fair trade certifier, with offices around the world. The WFTO is a member led organization working towards improving the situation for workers around the world using the 10 Principles of Fair Trade. --- You can continue the conv…

The business model canvas is a powerful tool to get a quick sense of how a business works. It can also be used to show how businesses can create social good. In this episode, we will be examining what kind of relationships you social enterprises can have with their customers and stakeholders, what qualities go into defining those relationships, and…

Social enterprise describes many different kinds of businesses, and it needs to have a clear definition. In this episode of Strategy Made Simple, we go through several key elements to define social enterprise. Featuring content based on interviews with: Sophie Short: https://www.socialenterprisemark.org.uk/ Elizabeth Chick: https://www.buysocialcan…

The business model canvas is a powerful tool to get a quick sense of how a business works. It can also be used to show how businesses can create social good. In this episode, we will be examining how different forms of resources can be used by businesses to create interesting models. Specifically, we will be looking at Toast Ale, and how they have …

The business model canvas is a powerful tool to get a quick sense of how a business works. It can also be used to show how businesses can create social good. Without customers, you don't have a business. Finding the right customers can be the difference between a successful business and one that struggles. In this episode of Strategy Made Simple, w…

The business model canvas is a powerful tool to get a quick sense of how a business works. It can also be used to show how businesses can create social good. Value propositions form part of the foundation of a business. By clarifying your value proposition, you can focus your business in on the things that amplify that value. We also go over how to…

The business model canvas is a powerful tool to get a quick sense of how a business works. It can also be used to show how businesses can create social good. This is the introduction to a broader series on how to use a social business model canvas to create purpose driven businesses, also known as social enterprises. Watch this episode on Youtube. …

For this episode of Marketing Social Enterprise, I was joined by Marty Donkervoort and Judith Harris to talk about how various models of ownership change the way a business is operated. We speak about some of the benefits and weaknesses of employee ownership and community ownership in social enterprise and co-ops. Continue the conversation by joini…

Principles of minimum viable audiences focus the efforts of business managers down to their core supporters and early adopters. They force attention on the specific people that the operation can help, and enables connection to happen with those people. It encourages conversation with those people and maintains the passion for the project. Most soci…

โดย Matthew Rempel

โดย Matthew Rempel

โดย Matthew Rempel

โดย Matthew Rempel

Siloam Mission has turned a large expense into a social enterprise opportunity. Charles Enns is the Building Futures program manager at Siloam Mission in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Part of his duties involve managing a small commercial grade laundry social enterprise that is currently serving the internal needs of the Siloam shelter. The Siloam Laundry sh…

Marketing sometimes gets a bad reputation. It can be seen as a necessary evil of being in business. A dirty part of earning revenue. But it doesn’t have to be. Marketing is just the practice of being clear about the value you can offer to potential customers, and presenting it to them in a way that matches your company’s brand. If you truly believe…

If you don’t have a clear business model you can’t grow or market effectively. That is why you must know the 4 key elements of a business model: What you do What you sell Who you sell to How you get paid By being able to clearly define these four elements, you will be able to tell if an opportunity will strengthen or weaken your social enterprise. …

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 netw…

How do you communicate as a social enterprise? There are three styles of communication that we explore in this episode of the Strategy Made Simple podcast. Informational - sharing information Transactional - requesting action Interactional - building relationships The mix of styles that you use in communicating with your customers, clients, partner…

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 …

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,…

This episode is available in blog format as well. You can Listen to/Read it on StrategyMadeSimple.ca --- How Small Can A Product Be? One of the biggest parts of business is providing a product or service. Once you’ve decided what problem you would like to try to solve, the next step is developing the solution. Whether your solution is delivered as …

Kalen Taylor stepped into the role of Executive Director at Purpose Construction and Purpose Pest Management in 2018. Since they started, the team at Purpose has 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 exp…

This episode is available in blog format as well. You can Listen to/Read it on StrategyMadeSimple.ca --- 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 …

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 b…

Alternate title: Values, Alignment, and Customer Questions Marketing is about aligning your product or service with the values of your customers, then helping them overcome the objections they might have about purchasing the product or service. There are three steps to start overcoming your potential customers' objections: Align your product or ser…

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 aspirin…

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 o…

When you’re starting out as a new business, many of the decisions you make will affect how you can do marketing in the future. Your choices as you’re starting up will form the associations that people will have with your brand based on what you make, how it’s priced, where they can buy it and how you will let people know about your product or servi…

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 prob…

The process of going through a regular check in with your social enterprise is essential for ensuring that you are continuing to work towards achieving your mission. This check in process will guide you through looking at your mission and values, identifying important statistics within your business and creating a plan to improve your business. New…

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 F…

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 assiste…

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…

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 C…

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 …