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2019 is upon us. As the music business slowly returns to normal, we wanted to take a few moments to reflect. The past year has been a busy one for us. From traveling the country to appear at conferences and colleges, to creating a wide array of content covering our changing industry and the best ways to navigate it, we did our best to bring you a little bit of everything.

Everyone knows music professionals are busy so we wouldn’t blame you for being unable to keep up with our every post or activity. Instead, we decided to compile our favorite posts from the past twelve months and present it here for easy access. 

Use the links below to catch up and prepare for the year ahead.

An SEV can be defined in many ways. A large problem in the social entrepreneurial field is the lack of a common definition of what social entrepreneurship exactly is. These six characteristics construct a framework for what an SEV can look like. 

Social change is placed above making a profit:

One of the most important qualities of an SEV is that it prioritizes social change and making an impact over monetary gain.  When examining your SEV, make sure you understand what you really want to achieve. Questions to keep in mind when considering this characteristic:

What are your goals for the venture?

How will this venture impact the world?

Shifts an unjust equilibrium:

“You could give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Or you could teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime.”

Your SEV should not be limited to temporarily helping its customer segment. Rather it should create a sustainable solution for its customers, that permanently improves their condition. Focus less on creating smaller, immediate changes, and more on balancing out the whole system.

Uses innovative solution:

There exist thousands of social entrepreneurs, much like yourself, but what makes your venture unique from all the others? SEV’s must bring to the table some new, unique aspect that no one has ever accomplished before.  That is the entrepreneurship part in creating your own SEV.

Aims to help a target group in need:

SEV’s should be targeting a group of people who do not have access or resources to accomplish the specific service that your product provides themselves.  By targeting a group of people in need, it ensures that you are targeting a community that actually needs the help and not just a group of people who can afford the service/ product.  

Has a plan for financial sustainability:

Although the focus of an SEV shouldn’t be making a profit, it still needs a stable cost structure in order to maintain the SEV. Whether your SEV is a leveraged non profit or a social business, there must be a concrete idea of where the venture’s source of revenue will come from.  

Takes a risk:

Your SEV or idea must include some risk factor. Ideas that are already existent in the business world already possess predictable outcomes. That is why innovation and risk taking go hand in hand. With new innovative products and services, you are never one hundred percent sure of its success.

Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition [Article]

The Meaning of "Social Entrepreneurship" [Article]

Product-Market fit describes how well a product is adapted to its chosen target market. A product needs to solve a problem or pain point that is clearly evident in the target market. A product that fulfils this need will sell easily. Conversely, if a product does not fit the market well, no one will want/need to buy it.

Serial Entrepreneur Steve Blanks coined the term customer development to describe testing whether or not a target market actually wants to purchase a product.

Blanks outlines four stages to the customer development process as iteration loops with the following success end goals:

Customer Discovery – Hypothesize what group a product caters towards. This guess should take into account factors like income range, location, age, special interests, etc.

Customer Validation – Confirm through tests and sales that the hypothesized target group actually wants the product.

Customer Creation – Increase marketing and penetration to the target market to sell to more customers.

Company Building – Scale the business up after sufficient demand is generated.

Blanks defines as achieving Product/Market fit as a repeatable and scalable sales model.  It is only after achieving product/market fit that substantial effort should be spent on marketing and demand creation. With good customer development and by getting feedback from customers, entrepreneurs can avoid making a product no one wants, build a more valuable product, and even gain new startup ideas.

Using Survey.io for market surveys [website]

The base of the economic pyramid is constituted by the 4 billion low-income people, a majority of the world’s population. The analyzation of this group’s specific behaviors, purchasing powers, and needs in recent years has allowed for new market-based approaches, which empower the entry of the group into the world economy, to arise. Although individuals that fall under the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) segment live in general poverty and do not have much purchasing power, the BOP as a whole makes up a $5 trillion global consumer market.

One notable characteristic of BOP markets are that they are usually rural and poorly served. As a result, these markets are relatively inefficient and uncompetitive. Much of the BOP population suffers from significant unmet needs, including lack of water, sanitary services, electricity, health care, etc. Furthermore, most in the BOP are easily taken advantage of in the marketplace. Because they generally do not have direct access to sell their labor or goods, those in the BOP must go through middlemen who often exploit them. Another disadvantage to being in the BOP market is what is often referred to as the BOP penalty. Many of those in the BOP ironically pay more than most consumers for lower quality products.

The market-based approach is one which is based on the idea that being poor and being in the BOP does not completely eliminate commerce and the market processes. This approach fundamentally focuses on the consumers and producers and works to present solutions which make markets more efficient and competitive. In fact, there are several BOP business strategies popularly employed. First and foremost, focusing on the BOP specifically and engineering unique products or services for that BOP market can make those products or services more appealing.

Moreover, localizing the creation of value by franchising and by treating the community as a whole is a strategy frequently employed. In addition, giving the BOP population access to goods and services both financially and physically remains essential.

Overall, the key idea of the BOP market-based strategy is that targeting the impoverished, yet vast, market can not only make money for the companies, but also help bridge the economic gap between the BOP and higher-class markets.

Market Size and Business Strategy at the Bottom of the Pyramid [Article]

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid [Article]

There are three main types of SEVs: Leveraged Non-Profit, Hybrid Non-Profit, and Social Business. Leveraged Non-Profit ventures aim to meet the needs of people who are ignored by the current market. These ventures receive grants, loans, and donations from private investors and banks.Their revenue stream does not solely focus on beneficiary profit, because that is not a sustainable source of income.  Hybrid Non-Profit ventures aim to help those who are not served or underserved by mainstream markets. Their revenue streams include a mix of grants, loans, and donations, along with customer profit. The revenue stream of Hybrid ventures provides the greatest chance for innovation, because there is a dual source of income. There are other struggles that Hybrid ventures can face due to their innovative models. What balance should be placed on grants vs profits? Can they classify as non-profit ventures when applying for business or government grants?  Social Business ventures aim to create significant and sustainable social change in an obvious and existing market. They have a revenue stream created completely by the products and services they provide. The profits of social businesses are reinvested in growing the venture, opposed to the profit uses of regular businesses.