This is a guest post from entrepreneur and author, Jo Owen. Jo is the author of 20 books, which have been translated into more than 20 languages and with UK sales exceeding 150,000 copies. He is also the only four-time winning author of the Chartered Management Institute Gold Award. In addition to being an author, Jo was previously the founder of eight NGOs, including Teach First. His new book, How to Change the World, explains how to identify, launch, develop and scale an idea so that it has the most effective and meaningful social impact.
The good news is that you do not need to be rich, famous, powerful or an expert to change the world.
You do not even need to be called Donald Trump. I interviewed many successful social entrepreneurs for How to Change the World, and all of them started with none of the normal trappings of success or power. They were all outsiders, which meant that they saw things differently. They were not prisoners of conventional wisdom. Not being expert is a secret super power of all social entrepreneurs.
But they all had one thing which drove them to success: they all had a big idea. They all saw a problem they wanted to fix, or came across an idea they wanted to copy. You do not have to be a genius to have a great idea. You just need to keep your ears and eyes open to opportunities, and to problems you could solve. The chances are that you have already had a great idea. But many of these great ideas die before they are born: you need to pay the rent, feed the cat, clean the bathroom. Life takes over and the idea takes a back seat.
It does not have to be like that, if you know how to start. The easiest way to start is to talk, and to listen. Talk to anyone and everyone about your idea. Talking is risk free, and costs nothing more than some of your time.
The more you talk, the better your idea will become. Some people will tell you that you are nuts. That is fine: they are telling you that they could not possibly do what you propose. They are saying more about themselves than about you or your idea. They may alert you to some challenges you need to fix, which helps you improve your idea.
Other people may also say you are nuts, but then they will go onto to explore how you could improve your idea and make it slightly less mad and more viable. These people are like gold dust. They are solution focused. Keep hold of them: they can be your future advisors or team members. They may also help by introducing you to other people you need to talk to, like funders, for instance.
The more you talk, the more you will find that your idea grows on you. As it improves, you will start to see that it can succeed. You will find that the idea takes you over: it becomes impossible not to make it happen, and you realise that you are the only person who can make it happen.
And then there is a moment of truth where you realise that you have to move from talking to doing, from idea to action. Money is usually the catalyst. Either a funder offers you some seed corn funding, or some clients say that they would like you to put your idea into practice. That is the moment you make your leap, but it is not a leap into the unknown because you will now really understand what you need to do to succeed.
Once you start you will enjoy the social entrepreneurs’ roller coaster. The highs will be very high and the lows will be very low. You will face crises. You will face challenges in recruiting and retaining the right people and in managing money and making things work day to day. You will discover that you learn very fast indeed, and you will discover that you have more resilience, courage and persistence than you ever imagined. All of this comes from having that one idea which drives you and sustains you.
If you believe in your idea, you believe in yourself: you will find a way of succeeding.
Your social enterprise checklist: IMP squared
Idea
Tests of a good idea:
- What problem does it solve?
- Who will pay for me to solve this problem?
- Is my idea different and/or better than others out there and why? Or is it a ‘me-too’?
- Am I enthused and excited about this?
Impact
- What is the impact/difference my idea will make?
- How can we measure and demonstrate our impact to customers and funders?
- Can we scale the impact, replicate into different areas and sustain it over time – or does it depend on my personal passion and commitment?
Money
- If you have a great idea and great team, you will find the money.
- If you can not find the money (earned or donated) then you need to change the idea or the team.
Machine
- Invest properly in doing it right: accounting, controls, legal, IT are all boring but essential.
- Doing right does not assure victory; doing it wrong assures disaster.
People
- Recruit to values, not just skills: you can train skills, not values.
- The team you start with will not be the team that takes you to scale.
Partnerships
- You can not do it all yourself.
- Find other partners, other NGOs, private businesses, local and national government who you can work with to deliver impact.
