WHAT IS
THE STUDIO?

The Swinburne Social Startup Studio helps build impactful and sustainable social enterprises. We offer evidence-based, practical support, mostly for startups – but we help existing social enterprises too.

WE HAVE TWO STREAMS OF RESOURCES IN THE STUDIO:

Our Fundamentals program provides the important basics that you need to know before you think about starting a social enterprise. It’s free to access and suitable for anyone looking to, or in the process of, starting a social enterprise.

The Building Blocks for Impact Capital (BB4IC) Tool is an online diagnostic tool designed to help early-stage social enterprises identify and assess the ‘building blocks’ they need to have in place to access social finance and funding.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?

Sometimes, it is hard to tell at the very early stages of an idea if it is a social enterprise or some other form of ‘for purpose’ business. It’s highly likely that you are a social enterprise (and The Studio is the place for you) if:

  • Your foremost reason for starting an enterprise is to solve a social and/or environmental problem; and
  • You have a plan to achieve this through the sale of a product or service.

If you need more help on this, our Fundamentals program has more information on this, including a great video and other resources.