341 | Being Realistic About Social Enterprise Growth with Paul Zelizer

This week on the pod is our monthly solo episode with Paul Zelizer.  Paul is one of the first business coaches to specialize in working with social entrepreneurs and the host of the popular Awarepreneurs podcast.  This episode explores 4 topics to consider about sustainably pacing the the growth of your social enterprise as well as factors to pay attention to if you find yourself needing to make a pivot to attain more social enterprise growth.

The 4 key strategies for this episode:

  1. Understanding Your Customer and Market

  2. Knowing When to Scale—and When Not To

  3. The Role of Funding on Pace of Growth

  4. When to Reevaluate or Pivot

This episode is sponsored by the coaching company of our host, Zelizer Consulting Services.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Being Realistic About Social Enterprise Growth: Solo episode with Paul Zelizer

NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer a transcript and the below summaries by Castmagic for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.

You can read the full transcript of this episode here..

Key Topics and Bullet Points

1. Important Issues for Social Enterprises in 2024

  • Overview of contemporary challenges and opportunities

  • Ensuring preparedness for future changes

2. Learning from Failures in Crowdfunding: The Coolest Cooler Kickstarter Campaign

  • Summary of the campaign's initial success and eventual failure

  • Key lessons on pitfalls and missteps to avoid

3. Understanding When to Scale

  • Signs to look for before making a decision to scale (e.g., market readiness, operational effectiveness)

  • Role of thorough market research

    • Importance of demographic and psychographic studies

    • Staying competitive through understanding market trends

4. Strategic vs. Opportunistic Scaling

  • Definitions and differences

  • When to use each approach

5. Maintaining Impact During Growth

  • Importance of balancing growth with the company's mission

  • Strategies to ensure community engagement and support

6. Role of Funding and Investment in Growth

  • Impact of funding on the pace and direction of growth

  • Importance of conversations with investors

    • Aligning expectations between the company and investors

    • Balancing financial growth with sustainability and mission

7. Managing Investor Expectations

  • Aligning company goals with investor goals

  • Transparent communication and setting realistic growth targets

8. Reevaluation and Pivoting

  • Indicators that a current strategy isn't working

  • When and how to pivot effectively

  • Importance of honest assessment before making significant changes

9. Learning from Failures and Setbacks

  • Using failure as a learning opportunity to strengthen the business

  • Avoiding predictable mistakes during transitions and pivots

10. Strategy Sessions for Social Entrepreneurs

  • Overview of Paul Zelizer's strategy session packages

  • Supporting informed decision-making for growth and scaling

11. Listener Engagement and Suggestions

  • Encouragement for listener suggestions on topics and guests

  • Gratitude for the positive impact listeners are making in the world

Paul Zelizer