SocialFinanceLab Self-Assessment

Who needs this information?

Anyone pursuing an idea or social business endeavor seeking insight on the phases of development and how they apply.

General Information

Most entrepreneurs are familiar with the concept of business life cycle stages, the idea is that all businesses face similar challenges and have similar needs, at different stages of their development. Organizations in the same stage of the life cycle share common characteristics, needs, and success factors. This idea is commonly applied for traditional ‘for-profit’ businesses, but some versions are also applied to the social enterprise sector.  

Here we present the a model that applies to SocialFinanceLab. In this case, the purpose of the stages of this model is to help you understand where you are in your own journey. In practice, boundaries between stages are blurred and your social enterprise may exhibit characteristics of more than one life cycle stage at any given time.

How to use this learning nugget?

Read through the persona descriptions to see which one(s) you best identify with. Then consult the table to see which business phase that particular persona represents. With this information, you can filter SFL content based on your findings.

How long does the learning nugget take?

Time to consider the information and apply it to one's situation usually takes between 5 and 10 minutes.