This is NOT business as usual, this is how you change the world

To kick off this blog, I'll start by stating my big,bold belief in the world and the source of the passion behind my work. I deeply believe that this world is changing, one entrepreneur at a time. And, it's changing with the increase in the numbers of people - individuals, nonprofit staff and managers, for profit entrepreneurs and, yes, even government agencies, who are rethinking the way they work. I believe that thoughtfully and intentionally bringing together social and environmental issues with business methodology helps us to address important societal issues in more effective and financially sustainable ways. Examples of this abound - check out www.skoll.org and www.ashoka.org for profiles of amazing social entrepreneurs who are changing the world.

The focus of my work is to get streamlined best practices out to people - whether they call themselves social entrepreneurs or not - who are committed to developing business models that have a dual bottom line so they can make better decisions about how and whether to develop a social venture. I feel lucky that I get to work with all sectors - public, private and government and in a variety of settings - from small, rural communities who are looking to social enterprise as a way to meet important local social needs and generate money in their economy to the US Forest Service bringing entrepreneurial concepts into the way they manage the stewardship of our forests to nonprofits who find that the development of a social venture can help them meet their social mission and generate revenue for their organization.

I hope my blog will be a place to have a fluid conversation about a variety of strategic and tactical issues around social enterprise. I expect it will raise questions, push the envelope and will hopefully inform and inspire. Let me know what you think and what you want to read about. Enjoy!