What better way to
celebrate than with a tasty SFC cheesecake and an awkwardly long, grandiose
letter…
One twentieth score and seven minutes ago, my inability to
find a job and ever present desire to help others brought forth in the
marketplace, a new company, conceived in social inequality, and dedicated to
the proposition that business strategies could be used to improve nonprofit
organizational effectiveness and efficiency.
With a business plan in one hand and uncertainty in the
other, I started to build the SFC brand and extol my dreams to anyone who would
listen. What started as monologues became conversations.
Then summer came, and
“I” became “we”. Just four months prior, everything was on paper. To see it
come to life by having over 20 amazingly talented business students, the “SocialFolks”, join SFC was just as inspiring as it was overwhelming. Although we struggled in creating what I would call an “ideal culture”, we managed to get
things done. By the end of the summer, we learned more about the market (and
potential markets) which set clear direction for September onwards. We also
managed to further build our brand, culminating in SFC’s first annual
networking event.
Recognizing the benefits of managed growth, we began to prototype
services with a small team at Queen’s. Within a month, we brought on our first
client (pro bono), Youth Diversion, and are on track to deliver the project on time January 2013.
Although we have yet to make a single penny, we’ve managed
to build a growing community of team members, partners, clients, and general
supporters. Within this community, our brand building over the last year has
paid off. Clients are starting to approach us for projects.
Established
organizations are sending us proposals for partnerships. Intelligent and
ambitious students are continuously inquiring on how they can become involved. Competitors
are talking about us in their meetings. We’ve made noise!
And in 2013, we’ll make even more noise. Multiple clients,
projects, and strategic partnerships are in the pipeline and we aim to be
profitable by the summer. With prototyping complete, we’re increasing the number of consulting teams at Queen’s and expanding into other markets –
especially London, Ontario.
As in its first year, SFC’s journey for the coming year will
be strife with turbulence. We’ll continue to experience hardships and failures
mixed with celebrations and successes. Regardless of what happens, we’re going
to have an epically fun time doing it.
YOU are the reason why we’ve made it this far. Thank you
thank you thank you to everyone for all your continued love, well wishes,
support, and most of all…for walking with me through the fire.