Funding isn’t Revenue. You Owe it to Your Business to Have Both.

Earlier this week, I was invited to hold a lunch-and-learn at the Regent Park Centre for Social Innovation. The topic was about Social Enterprises – and how even though their mission is to better the world, ultimately they are still enterprises. They owe it to their cause and their constituents to generate revenue. In other words, that they need to make money. We discussed money mindset, finding something to sell, confidently pricing offerings, and more; the core tenet was this: sometimes social enterprises confuse funding with revenue. The two are quite different, in terms of the impact they have on your business. It strikes me that there are many founders in other sorts of startups who might benefit for a refresher on this, also. ​In short, these are the key differences between funding (be it from investors, or from lenders), and revenue (money generated from selling something – a product or a service:

Funding is the fuel. Funders provide it on their timeline, not yours. It has the benefit of using other people’s money, but also the drawback: once they own a piece of your company, their power and motivations can force you in directions you didn’t intend. Use funding wisely and judiciously, as it can completely obscure the reason you initially started your business.

Revenue, on the other hand, is the generator. It is the engine that creates power in your business to make decisions, to choose your direction, and to invest in the future. It provides operating costs, which funding is often not intended (or allowed) to cover. Assuming you’re working at selling and you understand your sales cycle, you generate it on your timeline. You get to harness this resource, and direct its use to your chosen purpose. That means the money serves you and your business – not the other way around.

So, whether you’re a social enterprise, or a pure-play for-profit company, make plans for revenue, and take control of the future of your business.

I’m Megann Willson, and I’m one of the partners here at PANOPTIKA. That means “see everything”, because we work with our clients so they can see everything they need to know to make better business decisions. You can also find us on LinkedIn, on Twitter, or on Facebook. If you have a challenging customer project, give us a call and let’s talk about how we can help. And if you’d like to see more content like this every week, click the button below.