Presented by YSEC & George Brown College’s Institute for Entrepreneurship & Community Innovation (IECI).

This 4-part series will take you through the steps of creating a business plan for your enterprise, social enterprise or nonprofit.

Outcomes:

- Draft a business plan
– Get an expert opinion on your idea’s strengths & weaknesses
– Utilize market research to create financial plans
– Create a draft marketing plan

Taught by Professor Mark Simpson, Co-ordinator & Professor of Management Studies, International Business Management, Small Business Entrepreneurship

June 2, 9, 16, 23   I    6-9pm

George Brown College
230 Richmond Street East

50% discount for YSEC Members. To become a member click here.
35% discount for additional members of your team.

Limited seating available. Register here.

Do you want funding? Do you know how to tell your story to potential investors and partners?

Learn how in this highly interactive workshop series.

Over four weeks, you will have the opportunity to work on your business plan with assistance from The Institute of Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation.

Participants are encouraged to share their ideas with other participants, network, and develop their social enterprise / business ideas.

This seminar series will review business plan concepts and provide the opportunity for hands-on application.

Concept reviews are 30 – 60 minutes with 2 hours dedicated to hands-on application to your plan.

Outcomes

• Utilize market research to create financial plans
• Develop a marketing plan
• Create a draft of your business plan
• Know funding sources

Seminar 1 – June 2nd – The Pit

Have your social enterprise / business reviewed by the Pit Bosses.  Provide a quick pitch and be bombarded by Q & A. Exact length of pitch will be confirmed upon final registration numbers.  All participants will be provided with the “must know” questions.  Ignore at your peril.

• Know where you need to improve
• Use the knowledge gained to build a great plan

Seminar 2 – June 9th – Market Research – Telling Your Story

Need funding?  Then you need to tell your story.  And how do you tell your story?  Market research is the key – market research allows you to build your financials.  No one cares about your opinion – just the facts.

• Learn cheap and effective market research steps
• Turn your research into your financial plan
• Gain confidence in your business and your ability to tell the story

Seminar 3 – June 16th – Marketing

A great idea is no good if you can’t sell it.  Does it take big bucks?   It doesn’t need to.

• Grassroots marketing strategies
• The power of your personality

Seminar 4 – June 23rd – Feedback

Peer review.  How clear is your story?  Get the real feedback from your peers.  Walk away knowing what you need for success.  The story is coming together – let’s talk about sources of funding.

• Business plan reviewed against a scoring grid
• Take away comments to finish your plan
• Understand finance sources

About the Instructor

Mark Simpson is the Founding Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Community Innovation at George Brown College, and has run his own business consultancy for more than 20 years. Mark is passionate about helping young entrepreneurs plan for their ideas. 

Event Details:

All seminars will run from 6-9 pm. Registration and refreshments at 5:30 pm.  

Location:
 230 Richmond Street East
Institute of Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation (The Institute)
The Centre for Business
George Brown

Cost:

$200 for series
$130 for additional members of your team (please contact us at info@ysec.org for discount code)

50% off for YSEC members

Corporate and Community Social Responsibility is celebrating and showcasing excellence in the area of Social, Economic and Environmental sustainability in Ottawa today. This evening they will be honouring YSEC with their Young Social Entrepreneur Award. If you’re in the Ottawa area, come meet Anshula tonight at the at Algonquin College between 6pm to 9:15pm for the award ceremony.

If you’re in Toronto, keep up with funding for your non-profit. The Centre for Social Innovation presents Sustainable Energy Funds for Non-Profits tonight as part of their Green Enterprise Toronto Social Series. From 5:30pm to 8pm tonight at the Rivoli and learn more about how the City of Toronto’s Sustainable Energy Funds could help your project. Rob McMonagle, Senior Energy Consultant and green energy guru from the City of Toronto, will discuss the different ways our city supports projects from non-profits, municipal, academic, social service and health care sectors in this exciting project. This event is free and space is limited, so RSVP to get a seat.

Are you on the for-profit side? Then use tonight to learn how to expand your current Facebook initiative. From 6:30pm to 9pm come to the Centre for Social Innovation building at 215 Spadina Ave for Facebook For Business: Beyond The Basics - A workshop for folks who aren’t sure’ how to use facebook for this purpose. This hands on workshop delves into discovering how to position your business on Facebook so that others will pay attention. A lesson that’s important to everyone with a new start up.

Where Monday is filled with something for everyone, Tuesday is filled with someone who will knock your socks off. I wasn’t lucky enough to get a $500 ticket for this event, so I’ll just be huddling around the doors, but those lucky few attending get to meet Al Gore at the Thinking Green: An Evening with Al Gore at the Allstream Centre. This event brings together corporations with one similar goal: the goal of building a clean economy, leveraging innovation and technology. As the Key Note Speaker, Vice President Gore will provide his unique global perspective on the clean economy. In his remarks, entitled Thinking Green: Economic Strategy for the 21st Century, Vice President Gore will argue that physical changes in our planet will influence global business, and require new corporate strategies that take into account the broader environmental, social and political issues involved in shaping the clean economy of the future. Are you attending? Tell us what your impressions were.

Not attending Al Gore’s lecture? It’s probably because you’ll be at 215 Spadina for the Toronto Entrepreneur Advisory Roundtable #2. Between 6:30pm and 9pm, join a selection of experienced Toronto-based business consultants committed to helping socially-conscious entrepreneurs achieve greater success and profitability will come together to help you with your business issues. In this event, experts within the marketing, social media, sustainability, and finance sectors will sit down with you and go over you SE strategies to ensure success. $20 for members of Green Enterprise Toronto, Centre for Social Innovation, and Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada and $35 for the general public.

Keep your Wednesday open to join YSEC’s “Finance is Sexy” Workshop Series: Presenting Finances to Your Stakeholders. The third workshop in our “Finance is Sexy” series will help you learn the lingo and formats (i.e. income statements, balance sheets, statement of cash flows) you need to know in order to look professional when preparing and presenting your financial statements to your stakeholders. Eli Brenner, a Chartered Accountant at Meyers Norris Penny LLP will go over basic financial terms and concepts to help with income statements, balance sheets, and statement of cash flows as they apply for grant, investor, and general public presentations.

We love Kaos, as in the KaosPilots project design tool. Based on a uniquely conceived and heavily tested eight-element framework, the KaosPilots toolkit will help you to better design and deliver on your own initiatives. If you’re an entrepreneur working on your own projects or a process junky eager to add some new approaches to their repertoires, you’ll love this full day event (9am to 5pm) held at the Centre for Social Innovation on Spadina where Uffe Elbæk himself will be hosting the event.

This week is filled with meeting high profile individuals. What impression did they leave on you after an event? Let us know with a quick email, facebook post, or tweet.

Budgeting for Your Social Enterprise is a workshop for beginners.  Ease your way into the financial aspects of your organization and address questions like, “How do I create a budget that aligns with my social mission?” and “What are the actual steps I need to take?”  In this workshop, you will be introduced to the budgeting process for social enterprises and learn how to implement this process in developing your budget for your own social enterprise, whether it be a for-profit social business, a non-profit organization with an earned income strategy, or a charity.  Take the easy way to learning about finances for your organization and join us Monday, November 16, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Room 108.  Don’t forget to register in advance as spots are limited.

In other news,  our friends at CSI are hosting a set of communication workshops. On Tuesday, November 10th from 5:30pm-8pm, three panelists come together to discuss the “how-to’s” of effective email writing in Effective Email Campaigns: Tools & Tips. Then on Wednesday night, learn how to use Twitter to expand your network.  Network Your Way to More Business Using Twitter is a hands-on seminar that promises to teach how to make the most of your tweets and marketing strategy. Finally, on Friday from 12pm-2pm, Network Evaluation: Exploring How to Better Listen to and Cultivate Networks explores ways to track the efficiency of your collaborative network.  All three events are sure to strengthen your organization’s communications strategy.

Not part of an organization yet, just interested in SE? For those who don’t know yet, microfinance is a proven methodology for breaking the cycle of poverty by granting  small loans to help local people develop businesses and thus become self-sufficient andimprove their standard of living. The 2009 Toronto Microfinance Conference covers microfinance initiatives throughout the world, from Africa to South America, and how you can get involved. Learn more about your place in microfinance this Saturday, November 14th from 9am-4pm at the Metro Toronto Reference Library, Appel Salon.

Or you can get in on the green-economy conversation! Two conferences happening in Toronto this week about the partnership between green energy and our recovering economy. The Toronto Forum For Global Cities is a two-day event that kicks off Monday, November 9th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Join leaders to discuss how global cities can contribute to restoring growth, power themselves efficiently and more topics regarding the connection between economic sustainability and green energy.

The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association will take over the Metro Toronto Convention Centre November 15th and 16th for OSEA Community Power 2009. Dr. David Suzuki, industry leaders, government officials, local community groups and many others come together to celebrate the success of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act and discuss the hottest topics from Micro-FIT and Feed-in Tariffs, to financing models, the latest technology and local and international case studies.

If you like what you see, just follow the links for further details and registration. Where did you go this week? We want to hear from you, write us about your experiences with these and other events going on in our city.

Workshop: Budgeting for Your Social Enterprise

Description:

For many people working in or starting their own social enterprises, dealing with finances is a major obstacle. The second workshop in our “Finance is Sexy” series – Budgeting for Your Social Enterprise -begins with the basics, answering the question, “How do I create a budget that aligns with my social mission?“

In this workshop, you will be introduced to the budgeting process for social enterprises.  You will also learn how to implement this process in developing your budget for your own social enterprise, whether it be a for-profit social business, a non-profit organization with an earned income strategy, or a charity.

The workshop will be facilitated by Eric Plato, CMA, the Director of Finance at Frontier College.  Eric has worked in the not-for-profit sector for over 17 years. Prior to Frontier College Eric was the Controller at the YMCA of Greater Toronto. He also served as the Treasurer of the Ontario Council for International Cooperation for six years. He has delivered numerous workshops on budgeting and financial management to not-for-profit organizations. Eric’s workshops are focused on making financial management understandable for the non-financial person.

Who this course is for:

- People between the ages of 17-30 who are responsible for finances in your organization or business and want to learn practical tips and strategies around creating and maintaining budgets

- People who do not have a background in finances and want to learn more about budgeting for social enterprises

Experience Level: Beginner / basic  familiarity with creating budgets

Spots are limited for this workshop.  Register in advance at: http://ysecfis2.eventbrite.com/