Ensure Your Social Enterprise is Financially Sustainable

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PORwuJX3okA

Social Entrepreneurs are often those who are passionate about their social impact and thrive in social entrepreneurship. They are often very involved in trying to change the world, in trying to gain a social return on their time and their energy.

The point for today is to think about your financial sustainability as a social enterprise.

Non-Profit Social Enterprises & the Challenge of Finances

This is especially important for non-profit social enterprises.

Now I’ve been involved with, and helped out, and worked with quite a number of non-profit social enterprises. What I find at times is the major challenge that some face, especially those starting up, is the area of finances.

Social entrepreneurs come up with great innovative ideas, and many of them come from backgrounds that are not from within the financial area. They may come from a more social …

5 Ways That Companies Can Be Socially Responsible

One of the great things about entrepreneurship is that you help stimulate the economy, provide goods and services at competitive prices and you help provide jobs for others. There’s service already in entrepreneurship as a result of the value you provide through social responsibility.

Social entrepreneurship takes it a step further – and that’s what excites me even more!

It allows you to be innovative and value-driven like traditional businesses. But you also provide social contribution to your community.

Social Entrepreneurship – Doing Good and Doing Well

Rhonda Abrams has written a really engaging and easy-to-read post about the features and benefits of social entrepreneurship. Check out her article here.

There’s alot of gems in her post, as she wraps up the major features of social businesses – and how you yourself can add greater social value in your own business.

Through her experience …

2 Types of Social Business Models

“Paper = Food” is the newest social business campaign by Give Something Back (GSB) Business Products. They address local hunger issues in the USA, while helping the environment through recycled paper and helping the local community with food bank donations. This is a great example to help you figure out what business to start.

Triple Pundit writer, Amie Vaccaro, wrote a wrap-up of GSB’s campaign in her article, ‘Give Something Back: Turning Paper Into Food.’

2 Categories of Social Business Models

From examining GSB, Amie points out 2 general categories that social businesses can use to solve social issues with entrepreneurial spirit and profit. This was the most interesting part, in my perspective, and this can be useful for you as a social entrepreneur.

I see two general categories.

In one case, a business provides social value through its operations, so investing profits …

Focus On the Strengths of Your Team Members

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2iAd2uTORk

When you’re working with a social enterprise team – a team of people – one great tip that I have is, in order to build the synergy of the team, I recommend you to recognize the strengths and the weaknesses of your team members. This is a core function of business development.

Recognize the Strengths of Your Teams Members

As a leader of a social enterprise team, examine your people look at not only how they work but also their own personal strengths, what they’re drawn to, what they’re good at, what they love to do even in their spare time. Focusing on their strengths and recognising the strengths of others, will help you and your social enterprise especially when you tap into your team’s strengths.

An example could be for instance, if you got someone in your social enterprise …

Challenges with For-Profit and Non-Profit Social Enterprises

There’s a great article on business management by Mary Catherine O’Connor, from the Triple Pundit, entitled ‘The Business of Alleviating Poverty.’

In it, she interviews the inspiring founder of Samasource (a social enterprise), Leila Chirayath Janah. Samasource is focused on linking people from developing countries to people in the USA, in order to provide computer-based work. Alot of interesing questions are asked and answered, but the most fascinating response from Leila was in regards to the challenges of social enterprises.

Regarding for-profit social enterprises, she mentions:

While there’s a lot of talk about social investing, ultimately investors who are in the for-profit space have to measure their performance on the returns that they’re getting. That’s starting to change a little bit, but for the most part that’s what you see in the for-profit sector.

Non-profits, on the other hand, face a different type of …

Page 186 of 192« First...102030...184185186187188...Last »