Demetris C. Hadjisofocli. Presentation of information on how any individual can explore the opportunity to set up and manage their own business and how they can turn an idea into a business opportunity in the area of social enterprise or regular business. This presentation was given to a group of individuals with various types of disabilities and the purpose was to inform them, encourage them, and facilitate their introduction into the business world. A definition of systemic entrepreneurship, a termed and a process that I developed and coined and use the last 2 years, was given out.

1. Supported Employment-Empowerment and Career
Development for People with Disabilities
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
DISABLE INDIVIDUALS’ ENGAGEMENT – SYSTEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Nicosia – Cyprus
March 20th – 21st, 2014)
Demetris C. Hadjisofocli
demetrish@gmail.com

2. What is (Social) Entrepreneurship
 Social entrepreneurship is the process of pursuing suitable solutions to social problems. More specifically,
social entrepreneurs adopt a mission to create and sustain social value. They pursue opportunities to
serve this mission, while continuously adapting and learning.
 Possible Social Problems
 Unemployment among youth
 Poverty
 Civil Unrest
 Recession
 Closure of large number of SMEs
 Unproductive Entrepreneurship
 Socially Productive Entrepreneurial Activities

3. Areas where social entrepreneurship can support employability
for disable people and engage them in the market
 Eradication of the poverty trap
 Health
 Education (access, relevance, quality)
 Income and wealth (also the distribution thereof)
 Shelter (adequate and affordable housing)
 Civil society
 Human Rights
 Security
 Sustainability
 Family and individual wellbeing

4. This problem can be solved by pre-school children in five to ten minutes, by
programmers in an hour and by people with higher education…
well check it yourself!
8809= 6
7111= 0
2172= 0
6666= 4
1111= 0
4
3213= 0
7662= 2
9313= 1
0000= 4
2222= 0
3333= 0
5555=0
8193= 3
8096= 5
1012= 1
7777= 0
9999=4
7756= 1
6855= 3
9881= 5
5531= 0
2581= ???

5. Develop a (social) enterprise
 Same process as any other form of business
 During Ideation the focus should be to address socially sensitive issues
 The issues can be addressed Directly or Indirectly

6. How is it to have an Idea and Start a
Business?
 What is the journey like?
 Brainstorming
 Perceptions
 Realities

7. Key Steps
 Why is a product/service necessary?
 What are the objectives for setting up a Company?
 Formulate a basic idea and organize a brainstorming session
 Research the needs/opportunities and set up a framework
 Map how the company will operate and how it will benefit the stakeholders
 Define Business Model and Business Structure

8. Key Steps
 Get support (talk about the idea)
 Develop an executive summary and find someone who can help
with building initial strategies/basic planning
 Identify the resources needed and the resources available
 Think about both Operational and Tactical Planning

9. Key Success Factors
 The Planning, Tactical, and Strategic Vision should be globalized
 Learn from others’ experiences but…..
 There isn’t a One Model Fits All approach
 Don’t build a business just for the sake of building one
– Cost/Revenue Planning is Vital
– Don’t do it for non value added reasons
– Have sustainability planning (running out of money is the biggest problem that
kills even great ideas)

10. Key Success Factors
 Be honest when setting and communicating expectations
 Continual internal evaluation with consideration of external factors
 Continual communication with stakeholders
 Be willing to pivot

11. What is Entrepreneurship Drive
 It is the ability to identify new ideas, have the determination and the drive
to try them out, the willingness to listen and learn, and the character to
know when it is time to pivot to a better version…

12. Characteristics of Entrepreneurship
 Innovation
 Creativity
 Scientific Curiosity
 Collaboration
 Forward Looking
 But Methodology to Success Can differ….

13. FOOTBALL
 One Ball  Tool
 Same Objective  Success
 Different Approaches 
 CAR Paradigm
 Tires, Body, Engine, Wheel

14. What is a startup?

15. Usually it goes like…
 Brother…. Whoa…. I have this idea that is Kick Ass…. If we build it everyone
is gonna want it …. We made it!

16. And often seems
to end like …..
GOOGLE, YAHOO, FACEBOOK…..
BUT, GUESS WHAT?

17. The reality is……
 Nothing works
 Run out of money
 Nobody wants to buy
 Someone else did it
 Don’t have more time to work on this
 So and so on the team doesn’t do his share of work

18. “
”
94 out of 100 die…
STARTUPS ARE REALLY HARD AND THERE IS NO SECRET INGREDIENT THAT WILL HELP
YOU TO SUCCEED

19. A good definition of startup
“A human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under
conditions of extreme uncertainty”
Eric Ries

20. What are some of the Ingredients
 VISION
 MISSION

21. Vision
 What is it gonna be?
 So why we do our thing?

22. Vision
 When Chester Carlson invented a way to make copies of paper docs IBM
laughed at him
 Then Xerox created copy machines and today “to Xerox” is a verb

23. Characteristics of a good Vision
 Short
 Easy to understand
 Implemented quite fast (< 2-3 yrs)
 Long lasting (decades)

24. Mission
 What we do?
 For whom?

25. Mission
 Wang Laboratories
 3 Billions in revenue in the 80s
 Word processing computers
 Failed
 Didn’t foresee general purpose computers

26. Startups
Everything but an exact science

27. “Don’t worry about failure you only have to be right once”
- Drew Houston
 Most Successful entrepreneurs failed on average 6 times before getting
some traction

28. Startup Myths
 It Costs nothing to build
 Get funded with some nice slides and a lot of passion
 It’s all about the idea
 Founders are all cool hippie college dropouts

29. Myth 1
Start Ups are cheap
 Lean or not, building something meaningful costs money and at some
point savings run out

30. Funding Channels
 Personal, Friends, Family
 Idea Competitions
 In Kind Support
 Incubators/Accelerators
 Angel Investors
 Agency Funding
 Angel/Small Investors
 Venture Funding
 Banks/Other Financial Institutions
 Plan well ahead of when you need it, Otherwise you will be killed!

31. Myth 2
“WOW them with your presentation and you’ll
get money”
You are already underestimating the number
of times you will be rejected and how long it
will take you to raise some funds

32. Myth 3
“The idea makes the difference”
 Ideas are easy – Implementation is hard
 A great idea with:
 a great execution
 a great timing
 a great team
 great perseverance
 Maybe

33. Myth 4
“A startupper is a cool hippie college dropout”
 Profile of the average founder:
 40yrs old
 Married with Children
 6-10 yrs work experience
 Bachelors or higher

34. How to make it?
 Find your product/market fit before you run out of money
 THAT’S IT
 Solve a Problem

35. Start Up is not a linear path
 Was everything you think you knew about your product and market
wrong?
 What if…

36. RJReynolds
Burned $450.000.000 to develop smokeless cigarettes but...
………. Smokers didn’t give a f**k about smoke … at that time

37. WebVan
 Grocery home delivery
 Within a 30-min window
 Time chosen by the customer but..
 Didn’t consider that many working customers would like
their groceries delivered at home and at night
 They built the wrong capacity for the wrong time

38. WebVan
 Burned $800.000.000
 CNET named it the largest dot-com flop in history

39. Motorola
 Burned $5.000.000.000 For satellite-based phone system that nobody
wanted

40. Critical Point
 You don’t invent product/service
 You solve problems

41. Setup the right goals
 How good/thorough do you know customer’s needs?
 Does your product/service solve that need?
 How much are they willing to pay for your solution?
 How much is this problem a priority to the customer?
 Does it solve a significant problem?

42. Customer Discovery
 Who can be the customers?
 Target
 Profile
 Can they afford the product/service?
 Can they access it?
 Location
 Legal
 Weather

43. Go through the process
 You’ll get plenty of doubt: Analyze data
 It’s all about speed and control

44. Customer Segments
 The People & Organizations targeted by the company
 For whom are we creating value?
 Who are our most important customers?
 Not all customers are created equal

45. Value proposition
 Services and products that provide value to customer segments
 Product
 Satisfies a new need/creates a need
 Solves a problem
 Offers better performance
 Is more customized
 Costs less
 Has a better design
 KNOW Numbers
 KNOW Markets
 WHAT is the Monetization of the Solution
 Who is the TEAM

46. Channels
 How does company reach customers to tell them about value proposition?
 Through which Channels Customer Segments can/want to be reached?
 How are Channels integrated?
 Which ones work best?
 Which ones are most cost-efficient?
 How are Channels integrated with customer habits/routines?

47. Customer Relationships
 Types of relationships established between the company and customer segments
 What types of relationships does the company have with customers?
 Direct or relying on others
 Customer facing
 Loyalty Schemes

48. Revenue Streams
 Represents the income of the company for every customer segment
 For what value are customers willing to pay?
 For what value do they currently pay? If they do!
 How are they currently paying?
 How would they prefer to pay?
 How much does each stream contribute to overall revenue?

49. Key Resources
 Strategic assets that the company need to maintain its business model
 What Key Resources does the…
 Value Propositions require to be delivered?
 Distribution Channels?
 Customer Relationships?
 Revenue Streams?
 Resources type: Physical, Intellectual, Human, Financial

50. Key Activities
 Strategic activities to deliver the value proposition, reach customers and nurture relationships
 What Key Activities does the
 Value Propositions require?
 Distribution Channels?
 Customer Relationships?
 Revenue streams?
 Types of Key Activities: Production, Problem Solving, Platform/Network

51. Key Partners
 Define contractors and partners that are supporters/critics for company’s business model
 Who are the Key Partners?
 Who are the key suppliers?
 Which Key Resources is the company acquiring from partners?
 Which Key Activities do partners perform?

52. Cost Structure
 What are all the costs required for the company in order to have its business
model up and running
 What are the most important costs inherent in the business model?
 Which Key Resources are most expensive?
 Which Key Activities are most expensive?
 Cash Flow is King
 Cost Rationalization? Why this/that Expense? How does it Contribute?

53. “
”
YOUR TURN

54. Ask yourself
 What are the emerging trends I notice?
 Am I willing to put the time and effort?
 Am I ready for sleepless nights and hardworking days?
 Am I willing to Work hard, Learn, Listen, Kill ego?
 Do I have the support of people I care about?

55. What is your personality?
 Critical to understand personal traits because certain characteristics fit
certain jobs
 Extrovert / Introvert
 Fighter / Go getter / Quiet
 Lerner/Listener/Know it all
 Know your strengths and weaknesses

56. Business Idea
 Needs that will be satisfied
 Problems to be solved
 Who will buy? Customers? Target?
 Competitive differentiation

57. Team
 Engineer
 Developer
 General Business/Finance
 Marketing
 Lawyer
 Leader (could be one of the above)
 Interact, Share, Listen, Respect, Embrace, Never Walk Alone

58. Have a Network
 Family
 Supporters
 Knowledge Transfer
 Experience Couriers
 Market Experts
 Coaches/Mentors
 Failure Owners
 File contact information

59. Rationalization
 Think Logically and consider the facts
 No Feelings or Intuition or Someone told me
 Be Creative
 Look at the +’s

60. Ideation
 Identify a Group or Problem you want to solve
 How does your group behave? Where does it frequent?
 Describe the activities of the group
 What kind of problems/difficulties could they have?
 What are the possible solutions

61. How are Ideas born?
 Are they easy?
 Do they just come to us?
 Once we have the idea, is it easy to get to the market?
 Set the right expectations
 It’s about passion, planning, hard work, commitment, the overall
environment, the team, the resources, perseverance

62. Tnx
4
UR Patience!
62