Feasibility analysis help sheet

It's important to evaluate whether your new social enterprise activity or model will be successful by asking yourself two key questions:

1. Do we have the resources to implement this idea?
2. Will the return on investment be worthwhile?

As a social enterprise, you want to ensure that when assessing the return on investment, you include the positive impact on the community and the income generated.

This help sheet will guide you through the key areas to consider and questions to ask so you will have a good understanding of the feasibility of your new idea. It will also be a useful tool when developing your business plan.

Work through the questions with your leadership team to figure out if your idea is a winner!

10 Key Questions to Assess Project Feasibility

1. What's your idea? Be as detailed as possible so you can capture all the details.
2. How does this idea fit into your theory of change or strategy?
3. What are the social, cultural and/or environmental benefits of your idea? Think about the short-, medium- and long-term benefits as well as the secondary and tertiary beneficiaries.
4. How much will the idea cost to implement? How will you fund it? Think about initial start-up costs as well as ongoing costs. What is the cost of time needed for planning, implementation and management? Will this idea detract from other operations?
5. What's the financial return? When do you expect to break even or make a profit?
6. Who are your competitors and why? What are the points of difference and how will you prove your unique selling proposition?
7. What ability and expertise do you have to make this project happen? Be realistic so you can plan to fill any gaps.
8. What are the risks involved with this idea? Consider financial, reputation, safety, governance and culture. How will you avoid or mitigate these risks? Prioritise in terms of likelihood of the risk occurring and the greatest impact if it occurs.
9. Who else can you get to help? Investors? In kind support? Promotion? Volunteers?
10. How will you know its successful? What metrics will you use to analyse performance? Will there be any costs involved (time, funds) in capturing this data?