Whether you are enjoying basketball, football or futbol, the fourth quarter (I know know quarter in soccer) is upon us! Here at Social Impact Ventures, Q4 is all about finishing out the year strong and reflecting on what we have learned and what we can improve.
For Social Impact Ventures, this year has been all about piloting our new business model. We have run a handful of crowdfunding campaigns and incubated two businesses--Hermes Homecare and Digimotif. Both have moved from the lean canvas to having paying customers in their current MVP status.
We also learned that we give GREAT strategic advice to our clients, but find it extremely difficult to act upon similar advice internally. As we all know, marketing, outreach and networking are critical to growing a business. It is remarkable that I can help a company to build market share, develop new markets and increase their network, drive revenue growth, but seem stuck to do so here. As I reflect on that situation, I realize that is far easier and less "risky" to promote someone or something else than it is to promote your own brand. Perhaps it is what we can call the Consultants Paradox--an ability to see and act on a client's SWOT in the blink of an eye, but to turn away when the gaze is pointed inwardly. My other thought is that it takes time and attention and I have given short shrift to these needed activities while serving clients.
So what's next? To be honest, it is to look inward and actually carve out time and attention to growing the business. As luck would have it, I actually have a couple of weeks between engagements to do just that! Rather than bore you with key findings, I will simply let you know that Social Impact Ventures will continue to provide interim management, but we will be adding staffing capacity to launch an accelerator focused on addressing the funding disparity gap that plagues black founders and entrepreneurs.