The first module in the ASSET programme is Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship.

This module provides you with insight into what it means to run a social enterprise, and how your social enterprise will positively impact the wider society it is a part of. It will give you suggestions as to how you can improve the reach, output and design of your social enterprise, as well as explain the structure of the rest of the ASSET programme.

It will also highlight the importance of income generation and innovation and will prompt you to consider ways in which you could develop your organisational income streams for scaling or to consider new ways to generate income that your organisation has not tried in the past.

This module forms the basis of the ASSET programme and introduces the core concepts associated with the development of a successful social enterprise. It will be used to help you determine your organisational core values, your ambition statement, and the key characteristics of your client profile.

   

How do I use it?

In order to effectively use this module, you will need to think deeply about your social enterprise, its goals, and the intended clients of your organisation.

What are your core values? We recommend brainstorming these with your team. Once you have decided upon and declared your core values, you will need to demonstrate how each is central to your business in three specific ways. This will help you think about why those values, in particular, are your core values. If you do not accurately define your core values, you will find it far more difficult to develop in the future.

After declaring and understanding your core values, you will decide on an ambition statement for your social enterprise. This sets out what you want to do, what the benefit of this is, and who you intend to do it for. This information will be used to create a profile of your organisational clients, ensuring your desired aim will genuinely benefit the group you are targeting. Be as specific as possible when constructing client profiles as this will allow you to best understand the needs of your clients.

Next Module: Theory of Change