The “Startup Checklist for Social Entrepreneurs” is a self-guided, cost-effective, nuts and bolts tool for designing, registering, and operating a social enterprise startup. It is the framework behind WSED’s “Ready, Set, Launch: Social Enterprise Bootcamp,” which is our signature training program for designing sustainable social enterprises.

Instead of 5 modules, the Detailed Startup Checklist offers social entrepreneurs a five-stop roadmap that guides them towards designing and launching their social venture.

The five-stop roadmap includes:

Stop 1: Defining Your Vision – Using Your Gifts to Create Your Dream Life!

Goal: The goal of Stop 1 is to design the social impact model behind your social venture, outline the change you want to create in the world, and explore how you will measure your social impact.

Stop 2: Financial Planning for Your Business and Life

Goal: The goal of Stop 2 is to outline your products and services, identify start-up financing sources and strategies, and design your revenue model.

Stop 3: Customer Discovery and Customer Segment Research

Goal: The purpose of Stop 3 is to create a customer discovery map and connect it to your value proposition to best understand how to identify, connect, and engage your target customers.

Stop 4: Asset Mapping and Action Planning

Goal: The mission of Stop 4 is to outline an asset mapping-based marketing and action plan for launching.

Stop 5: 90-Day Action Plan

Goal: The purpose of Stop 5 is to integrate the knowledge from the first four stops of this roadmap into a 90-Day action plan that guides social entrepreneurs in achieving their legal and organizational startup goals. Intellectual property and financial planning tasks are included.