At the core of social entrepreneurship is developing a solution to a persistent social issue that can, ultimately, result in a positive impact on our community. Although established institutions have guidelines which employees must abide by, entrepreneurship involves personal initiative, wherein professionalism and perseverance serve as vital characteristics. In addition to these attributes, the process of establishing a successful enterprise is in itself a daunting task, however, a long yet rewarding journey begins with one small step. Therefore, to begin this journey in materializing my research over entrepreneurship and impact investing, I plan to take that important first step.

In the realm of entrepreneurship and investing, the first step is the development of a business plan for a potential business idea. In a globalized and connected environment, progressive business ideas that provide unique solutions for societal issues are revolutionizing the way us humans are operating daily. In a similar fashion, I have generated a business idea wherein I plan on developing a comprehensive business plan for my original work proposal.

Through preliminary research and instruction about the fundamental concepts of social entrepreneurship, I have discovered the potential of unconventional solutions to issues, ranging from scheduling work schedules online to managing all aspects of payroll processing on one online database. As I continued to explore this multilayered concept, I realized that, although critiquing others’ ideas was a simple task, innovating one of your own was rather frustrating. However, as I shifted my perspective from solving global issues to focusing on how I could expand my skillset to solve a local issue, potential ideas began to populate my brain.

My proposal, easier said than done, is to develop a professional business plan, wherein I develop an idea, articulate my vision, formulate a company and along with that a product, conduct effective market analysis, formulate a potential management strategy, analyze potential opportunities and challenges, develop a cash flow statement, and form revenue projections. However, the body of the business plan succeeds the idea generation phase. For this fundamental component, I have chosen to investigate a common part of our lives which we frequently overlook, coffee.

Coffee grounds, a byproduct of coffee production, despite their beneficial qualities, are annually wasted away in local landfills, causing the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. Contributing to an increase of greenhouse gasses, I plan on establishing a business venture that can effectively collect spent coffee grounds from local cafes, process them at a processing facility, and at the end of this reuse process, distribute the processed coffee grounds to a variety of industries. These coffee grounds, as I have discovered through intensive online research, can be processed into skin exfoliants for the skincare and makeup industry, effective firewood for the camping supplies, and agricultural compost for local agriculturalists and urban gardeners. With this idea, I plan on utilizing my acquired business acumen, professional skills, and technical knowledge to construct a professional business plan. I strongly believe that this idea has a strong potential in the market as it helps repurpose a prevalent yet harmful byproduct which has continued to worsen environmental conditions into a recycled product which serves a wide array of profit-generating industries.

At a first glance, this idea seems rather unconventional. Nevertheless, I believe that this potential business venture has legs. It will be difficult to make it run, but I have the capability to guide this idea to success. However, as action speaks louder than words, I plan on utilizing knowledge I have gained from research interviews as well as from my personal research to execute this seemingly daunting venture. As my venture serves as an intersection between environmental science as much as it follows traditional business concepts, gathering knowledge both in the field of entrepreneurship as well as biological sciences would aid me in developing a quality product. Whether I have talked to business professionals who have created successful startups to environmental engineers, incorporating valuable primary knowledge with research conducted through articles will allow me to fine tune my business plan and ultimately, create a sustainable business which serves the community in a positive manner. After this primary research is complete, I will look to begin the development of my business plan. As I have been accepted into the Youth Entrepreneurship Program at the Frisco Chamber of Commerce, I will utilize their workshops led by professional instructors to further perfect my formal business report. Following a working business plan, I will strive to send me this report to various individuals with who I have connected with, requesting them to provide feedback and critique my work. Carefully analyzing the feedback received, I will then move on to successfully reset a business plan which serves to delineate my business idea, which I plan to put into motion later in my Independent Study and Mentorship journey.

With the creation of this business plan, I hope to have created an effective document which delineates the specifics of my business idea when put into motion. As this task will take effort on my part, I plan to incorporate my research, mainly business centered, that I have gained through insightful research interviews and demonstrate a high level of understanding though the undertaking of such task. My knowledge of entrepreneurship will come into play as I look to begin the foundational step in establishing a business: the plan. In addition, my extensive research on the chemical and biological components of coffee as well as their environmental implications will help me dictate the technical specifics of the business itself. Ultimately, I plan to, through this business plan, establish groundwork for my future in Independent Study and Mentorship while creating a prototype for a project that will impact our community in a positive manner.