13 Lessons Learned from Social Enterprise Start-ups

In the Micro-Success social enterprise start-up support group that I facilitate at Hub Brussels, 7 entrepreneurs (including me) meet monthly to share experiences and talk through the issues we are facing in building our social enterprises.

One of the homework assignments that group members prepare before coming to the meetings is to identify a lesson they have recently learned. The following is a list of some of the lessons group members have shared since January. I thought it worth sharing more widely.

1. assess your work volume & set clear times to work on your project vs paid work (Bess)
   
   
2. keep things simple - Don’t try to do too many things at once (Martina)
   
   
3. less is more. Focus on 1 project at a time. (Filip)
   
   
4. don't drag things out with intense perfectionism (Martina)
   
   
5. don't overbook yourself at holidays or when visitors in town (Christina)
   
   
6. figure out what to focus your time on; learn to delegate (Phillippe)
   
   
7. be the authentic you - don't put on a show (Geert)
   
   
8. come to grips with asking people to pay for services (Geert)
   
   
9. understand your cost structure details - including hidden items (Martina)
   
   
10. stress management - respect days off for yourself (Phillippe)
    
    
11. define your deliverable (Bess)
    
    
12. define and accept your own limits (Antoine)
    
    
13. collaborative approaches take time (Christina)