The Business Model

Ours is an entrepreneurial society. We revere business success, we build public policy around small businesses, we pay top dollar to hire someone with an MBA.

At the same time, we distrust business. We shop for bargains and work hard to avoid letting businesses take advantage of us. We love to hate big businesses and take companies to court for anti-trust violations. We don’t trust people we suspect of being “in it for the money.”

We have a complicated relationship with the idea of business.

For those of you in the non-profit or government sector, this may be a barrier to embarking on “business planning.” Let’s spend some time identifying assumptions and clarifying terms. In the table below list some products or services you like and pay for gladly in column 1. In column 2 list products or services you don’t trust, pay for grudgingly, would never buy again, or are actively boycotting. Write down two or three specific examples in each column. In your list, include businesses but also keep in mind not-for-profit programs and organizations that use civic entrepreneurship strategies and revenue generation to fund those programs. For example, the Girl Scouts sell cookies locally, but have also branched out nationally to license their cookie flavors for other products such as ice cream. This revenue goes back into the organization.

Click on the worksheet icon to do this exercise in the worksheet.