What have you learned?

After quite the blogging hiatus to finish my PhD, I’m back to it!

Alot of people (I mean at least 4) ask me what are the key things I’ve learned about scaling a social enterprise, where do I start…

Very briefly…3 key things I think are blocking the scaling of social enterprises:

1) Alot of scaling advice assumes resources and know-how are readily available. The reality? Most social enterprises are time-poor and resource-constrained. They can't afford costly mistakes based on oversimplified scaling models.

2) We often look at scaling as a one-time decision. The reality? Scaling is an ongoing series of interconnected choices where each decision impacts all others.

3) When planning to scale we often ignore the hybrid nature of social enterprises. The reality? Social enterprises must balance commercial and social goals simultaneously - something that requires constant recalibration.

My advice:

Stop treating scaling as a linear process. Instead:

Plan for iteration - Build flexibility into your scaling strategy from day one

Challenge your thinking - When scaling, social enterprises most often plan for more of the same (and to be fair, why not if that has been successful); however, there might be another way of scaling that you haven’t considered.

Map the interconnections - Understand how decisions in one area ripple through others

Assess readiness regularly - Don't just plan once; continuously and intentionally, evaluate your options and approach to scaling

Manage the dual goals together - Social enterprises either pursue their dual goals as integrated [the business activities directly impact the lives of beneficiaries] or differentiated [the business activities generate profit that is then diverted toward other activities that support beneficiaries]. Most social enterprises in Ireland are integrated, and yet they approach scaling as if they were differentiated. The importance of integrating social and commercial goals increases as you scale.

Embrace the complexity - Multiple routes to scaling, and regularly pivoting and iterating aren't a sign of poor focus - when done in a considered way, they're a feature of successful social enterprises - we are all swans underneath!

I’m aware of these seem like simple things to do - but implementing them is infinitely more difficult.