You Aren’t Creating the IMPACT or REVENUES You Want in Your Impact-Driven Business7 Reasons Why

And How To Fix Them!

Changemaker, welcome ! You did well downloading this tool if you want to create a positive impact in the world, but you’re not quite there (yet). As hard as you try, with all your effort you find the actual results falling short of where you would like to be.

Maybe it’s because you aren’t generating enough money to cover your time and your expenses, let alone surplus to reinvest and grow your social enterprise. Or, maybe you wish you could grow the reach and quality of your social enterprise’s impact because you see the potential to transform many lives for the better. Or maybe both.

Don’t worry, every changemaker goes through those challenges!

As a matter of fact, that’s why we are here ;)

We are Danielle and Solène, the co-founders of Changemakers Association. After years of running our own purpose-driven businesses, and supporting over 100+ changemakers combined (in over 17 different countries!), we have decided to join forces in order to support as many impact-driven entrepreneurs as possible.

>> Our goal is to help you lead an impactful and financially sustainable social enterprise. If you aren’t getting the financial orimpact results that you want, it could be because of a variety of reasons.

In this guide, we are sharing the 7 reasons we see early-stage changemakers struggle to meet their impact and revenue goals. But we won’t leave you hanging there! Along with each one, we share our advice to help you move in the right directions towards boosting your success!

Our hope is that this list will help you identify what might be going wrong, and how you can begin improving your social enterprise to reach new heights of impact and profitability.

Enjoy the read!

You’re not reaching (enough of) your ideal

clients. Do you have a steady stream of potential customers and clients interested in what you have to offer? If you find yourself talking to an empty room most of the time it could mean you haven’t landed on the best strategies to get in front of your ideal clients. It’s going to be impossible to consistently grow your reach, revenues and impact if you don’t even get the chance to communicate what you do to those that need to hear from you!

How to fix it: Focus on strengthening your tactical communication muscles. Get to know your ideal customers like the back of your hand. Put that knowledge to work with the help of blogging and social media and develop a method to consistently reach new people who might be interested in what you offer.

You’re not converting enough potential

customers into paying customers. Similar to #1, if you’re suffering from low sales, it could be that you are talking to the right people, but your messaging simply isn’t resonating with them. Are your people initially intrigued enough to start getting to know you, but later don’t pull out their wallet to work with you or purchase your product? If you’re not speaking their language, it’s going to be difficult to connect the dots about why your work is important to them and how the solution you offer will transform their lives for the better.

How to fix it: Focus on strengthening your person-to-person communication muscles. Practice telling the story of you and your social enterprise in different ways until your ideal customers get so excited they start telling it for you! Make sure your messaging is on point in everything you do. Something else to consider : if you are uncomfortable with the idea itself of exchanging money for the value you can provide, it is crucial to work on your money mindset first.

Reason #1: Reason #2:

You’re not solving a big enough problem. If you have found a way to attract a steady stream of your ideal clients and feel confident about communicating the value you deliver, but the product or service you offer still isn’t flying off the shelves, it could be that you aren’t solving a big enough problem. Is the solution you offer alleviating a big enough pain, or creating a positive transformation that your customers really care about? Even if your solution is amazing, if it’s not addressing a big enough pain point, or improving someone’s life in a significant way, they might not be compelled to take action.

How to fix it: You’ll need to go even deeper into understanding your customers, and what their most pressing needs and desires are. To solve a more meaningful problem for your customers, you need to uncover the root cause of the issue you were initially trying to address, and tackle it instead.

You’re not offering the right solution. Related to #3, it could be that you are working on solving a problem that is truly meaningful to your customers, but perhaps the solution you’ve created doesn’t quite cut it. It might be missing some features, have too many bells and whistles, be too complicated to use, or be lacking in some other way. This is not a bad problem to have! It means you’re really close to arriving at a super valuable offering that will have a great positive impact for your customers.

How to fix it: It will take some trial and error to discover the perfect mix of features and a design that will really put your offering on the map. You can use ideas from Human Centred-Design and Lean Methodology to experiment until you have designed the perfect solution - one that provides the greatest value to your customers.

Reason #3: Reason #4:

You’re waiting for your mission to sell for

you. One mistake some social entrepreneurs make is thinking that their social or environmental mission alone will be enough to attract all the clients and customers you need. For many people, your focus on making an impact in the world will be a positive factor, but it is not enough on it’s own to set you apart when it comes to sales. You need to show people that what you do and how you do it stands out in other ways too!

How to fix it: Differentiate yourself from your ‘competition’ in multiple ways, not only relying on your social mission to set you apart. Learning how to pitch your value proposition can go a long way, as well as a clear and attractive branding. Don’t be shy to evaluate (and communicate on) your impact, and be sure to also communicate how you stack up against the alternatives on other levels.

Your business model is overly complicated. Another common misstep made by social entrepreneurs is overcomplicating the business model in the early stages. It might feel like you need to ‘do it all’ in order to make ‘it’ work. But if you aren't making the progress you hoped, it could be because you are trying to do too many things at once! Lack of focus will kill your progress faster than anything else.

How to fix it: Try the neighbour test - explain your social enterprise to your neighbour in a couple sentences. Do they get it? If not, consider simplifying what you’re doing. The key to an effective offer strategy is to go step by step. What is the single most important thing you are trying to accomplish? Do only that until you have it working smoothly. When that’s done, then you can start adding new activities or goals on top to work towards the bigger picture.

Reason #5: Reason #6:

You work a lot but don’t get great results in comparison.

Chances are you are not dedicating your time to the right tasks. Even an ideal business (one that is solving an urgent problem with the perfect solution and access to unlimited customers) will run into trouble if it lacks one thing.

And that is: time management, organization and planning. Learning how to prioritize objectives, activities and keep the enginerunning smoothly can be a challenge! But if you and your team aren’t efficient, or find yourself wasting days away due to spending time on low value tasks, it will impact your ability to grow and reach new levels of impact and profitability.

How to fix it: Learn to love planning! For the non-planners in the room, it can feel like a detraction from your business, but the truth is - when you are organized and clear on your goals and objectives, you will accomplish SO much more! And if that is not your strong suit no matter how hard you try - don’t give up - delegate by finding a team member who loves to keep things organized :)

We hope you found some insightful ah-ha moments in this list!

Chances are you recognized yourself in a couple areas. But don’t worry, you don’t need to have everyyyyything figured out to keep on moving!

Our advice? Take one aspect at a time and focus on it for at least 30 days. This will allow you to not be too overwhelmed with the quantity of things to figure out. And, you can make tangible progress before you move onto the next area of improvement.

Learning best practices and improving your skills month after month is the best way to see steady progress in your entrepreneurial journey… without feeling overwhelmed !

So the big question is…

Reason #7:

What will be your number1focus in the next 30 days ?!

What is the one thing you want to have figured out once and for all, that will really make a difference in how your initiative delivers MORE impact while generating sufficient revenues?!

We’ve seen this system help dozen of changemakers around the world since we launched Changemakers Association, and we are confident you can make such progress as well.

Here are few testimonials from members of Changemakers Association who have experienced this month-after-month improvement process:

“Sometimes I put a lot of pressure on myself as entrepreneur, where I am afraid to fail or to not be good enough. But these monthly trainings give me much more confidence in my project with advice adapted to my level in my entrepreneur journey, step by step ;)”

-- Joanna Haenlein (Turkey)

“Thank you so much for this! You guys nailed it! I've tried to do the programs of other mentors & coaches but never have gained momentum with them. It feel different because the emphasis as I see it with you ladies is not in getting results, but in getting in tune with yourself and as a natural result, get results. So thank you again. I'm very grateful to have met you two. “

-- Carmen Smallegange (The Netherlands)

"Real change doesn’t happen in isolation. The Changemakers Association is the ideal community for collaboration, idea exchange, and support for real business growth.”

-- Scott Stembridge (New Zealand)

Danielle is the co-founder of Changemakers Association, and founder of theSedge.org, an online community that provides learning opportunities to social entrepreneurs around the world. In everything she does, Danielle is passionate about inspiring entrepreneurial problem-solving and working collaboratively to design innovative, financially-sustainable and impactful initiatives.

Danielle holds a Bachelor's of Business Administration, and a Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship studying under Skoll fellow Martin Burt. Her background includes three years managing commercial loans with an international bank, participating in the world-class business incubator, Start Up Chile, and leading many community-driven projects over the past 8 years including sitting on the Calgary+Acumen committee.

Solène is is the co-founder of Changemakers Association, as well as the founder of Creators for Good — a consulting agency helping value-driven individuals transition from successful-yet-unfulfilling careers into Citizen Entrepreneurship. She is a globetrotter, passionate about Sustainable Development. She believes that the best way to live in a better world is to create it!

She holds a Bachelor degree in Communication, and a Masters degree in Corporate Social Responsibility. After working in the field of macro-economic research in 5 different countries (Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Russia and Turkey), she quit her job to start her own value-driven enterprise. Since 2014, she has provided strategic consulting to Citizen Entrepreneurs from 15+ countries.

About Us

Solène + Danielle

Changemakers Association is an affordable learning community where impact-driven entrepreneurs come together to learn, grow and share - all in the pursuit of making big change in the world.

Every month a new super-actionable learning module is released that addresses common topics faced by changemakers. But we don’t leave you to implement in a vacuum. To support you in putting that new learning into practice, you have access to a monthly collaborative mentoring call. On this monthly call, one member steps into the ‘spotlight’ and together we mastermind a specific question or challenge, where our featured member leaves with clear next steps, and others leave with inspiration for their next steps too!

Plus, you have 24/7 access to Solène, Danielle and the collective wealth of knowledge of all members in the private members community group on Facebook.

We are all on this journey together - hope you join us!

>> Learn more & join the waiting list to be the 1st to know when enrollment opens!

About Changemakers Association