A Holistic Business Value Proposition: society, the environment and money

Developing a business value proposition is key to being able to articulate what VALUE your business brings to its customers. I would like to challenge you to think broadly about the value your business brings to the world: Does it add value to society? How? Does it minimize impact on the environment or, better yet, address an environmental problem? Does it have a viable financial model that will help ensure its long-term sustainability? How do all of these elements create maximum value for the customer you are trying to serve?

The following Lessons from Sustayne will take you through a process of identifying what your business value proposition is and asking yourself key questions about environmental aspects of your business. Then, you can take your results and consider how you have articulated the integration of the social, environmental and financial aspects of the value your business brings to the world. It's a great way to find out where you've got your business model set and where you need to focus on improvement.

Business Value Proposition Generator
This tool will take you through the key elements required to be able to clearly articulate the value your business brings to its customers. It helps you think through things like market positioning, pricing and customers. You'll end up with a fairly awkward statement. Don't worry - this just serves as the jumping off point for you to take the information, personalize it and make your own, pithy elevator pitch. It also helps you figure out what elements of your business model you need to do more research on - who is your competition? How are you different? What price will you come in with? What value do your customers get for that price?

Sustainability Checklist
Created by our friends and content partners at Sustainable Business Consulting, this checklist will help you think through major areas of environmental sustainability (e.g. water, waste, shipping, recycling) to determine whether and how they are integrated into your value proposition. You'll end up with a list of environmental sustainability areas to focus on as you further develop your model.

As many of you know, Sustayne (TM) is a straight forward and effective set of tools developed by Social Enterprise Group and Bainbridge Graduate Institute to help guide you through the development and growth of your social venture. If you want more on Sustayne, consider signing up for one of our oil-free, low-cost summer teleworkshops.

We'd love to hear from you - post a comment here or contact us at info@socialenterprisegroup.com to let us know if you have questions or just to let us know how the tools are working for you.