Entrepreneurs hold the key to creating many of the solutions that are needed to re-establish a world where people thrive as part of a stable, pleasant, and rich ecosystem. Entrepreneurship is a powerful tool, but like any tool, it needs direction and can be used for good or bad. I want to contribute to making forceful and successful new businesses that thrive while making the world a better place.
Today I am thrilled to share with you the launch of the “Impact Entrepreneur Academy”. With this initiative, I give away free world-class training on how to use circular economy as a profitable business tool and create business with embedded environmental impact. If you are a regular reader of my newsletter, you will know that this is my response to the recent COP27 and the lack of progress and a call to everybody to step up and do something in their professional and personal life. This is my response from my professional life.
Each seat in the Academy comes as a result of well-established companies engaging with my company Business With Impact to get help turning their company into a force for good. The more clients – the more free seats. It is my way of giving back and paying it forward to the next generation of entrepreneurs. So, a huge thank you to all my clients for making this possible! I have decided to pretend I launched by the beginning of 2022, so for this first cohort of the Impact Entrepreneur Academy there will be 19 seats!
What to expect
The Impact Entrepreneur Academy is centered around the Impact Blueprint and its 5 steps, normally packaged in a structured 5-month program for business leaders in well-established smaller to medium size companies in the manufacturing space. Now I repackage and refocus it for start-ups into a 15-week program with five sessions of 3 hours packed with content, tools and advice. Every session is given in person by me.
Over the sessions, we will dive into each of the five principles in The Impact Blueprint.
- Mindset – Here the entrepreneurs will get the foundation in place for turning sustainability into a business driver. I will walk them through the five common mindset problems that hinder companies from getting business success and significant impact with their sustainability effort and give them the corresponding “Five to Thrive”. This right mindset and thus approach is the prerequisite for getting business success. For most people this step is transformational.
- Mission – Here the entrepreneurs will develop a new, or upgrade of their existing, mission statement. I will give them the background and understanding needed and a process they can use to create their strategically sound and great answer to the central question “why is the world a better place because we exist?” We will kickstart the work on a new statement they can utilize both internally and externally. This step provides the context for choices and communication going forward.
- Mapping – Here we build on the five circular economy disciplines to understand how they can be used to spot business opportunities/solutions in the areas they work with. A cornerstone of the Mapping step is to filter all ideas up against their ability to contribute to solving some of the most pressing problems the start-up and/or their customers are facing. When I work with clients it is quite common that this step alone generates more value than the total cost of the whole exercise. The end product they will produce is a roadmap for how to progress towards the chosen mission.
- Movement – This step is designed to kickstart implementation and thereby start to create business value with embedded environmental impact. I will take them through some of the essential actions need to succeed and have them create their version of my tool “Plan on a page” no matter if the next step is testing, strategizing or implementing.
- Magnify – Here I will tackle the elephant in the room, communicating about sustainability. Why it is something that every business must do today and some tools to help them get a crisp pitch that gives them clarity and the ability to spread their message effectively and inspire others to go down the same path.
There will be specific tasks for the entrepreneurs to do that will fast forward their journey if they put some effort in and do the work.
Going through the steps, doing the work, and creating the assets in each step will transform the starting point for a new or young company and put them in a position to get business success while making the world a better place.
Target group
Founders in start-ups that make physical products that want to use their business to make the world a better place.
The company must comply with the following:
- As a minimum have proof of concept/idea understood as having sold the first product
- Annual revenue is less than 150.000 €
- The start-up is less than 3 years old
- Goal is to create a real business with a minimum of 10 employees
- Want to use business as a tool to make the world a better place
- Are ready to commit to the program and make it a priority to create the assets in each of the five steps.
How to apply
If you know of an entrepreneur that you think would find this a valuable program and within the target group, please tag them in the comments.
To apply simply submit your application to ImpactAcademy@bwimpact.com with the subject “Impact Academy”. An application should consist of a 1-page cover letter with a clear explanation of how you match the criteria, company details and your contact info. Furthermore, a link to a brief video where you pitch your idea and why you should get one of the 19 free seats at the Impact Entrepreneur Academy (maximum 3 min in total)
The program is expected to start in March and deadline for submission is February 12th 2023.
Please help me spread the word by tagging relevant people
I will be back in 2023 with this newsletter and wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (if that is your thing).
Jasper
