A social entrepreneur is an individual who recognizes a social problem and uses his entrepreneurial skills to organize, create and manage a social venture to bring social change. He does not focus on profits like other entrepreneurs in other business ventures. He is instead focused on bringing social change in the society.
The ideas that drive social entrepreneurship include:
- Making a profit while making a difference
Social entrepreneurship is described as a business enterprise that has goals extending to more than just making profits. It has an aim of making money while solving social problems at the same time. These social problems may include climate change, high illiteracy levels, high teen pregnancies and saving the endangered species from extinction.A social entrepreneurial business is not synonymous to not-for-profit organization. It is instead a business concept which makes profits at the same time solving a social problem.
Today, it is very clear that every business ought to include a social entrepreneurial element in its objectives. For instance, businesses generally have to include the object of combating climate change and depletion of natural resources if they are to survive for a long time. This follows the saying that we cannot insist on killing the goose and expect to keep enjoying golden eggs.
- Shifting our focus from serving consumers to serving businesses or governments
This idea involves serving businesses or governments. An example is when you develop a software program intended to automatically run calculations which assist dirty factories to improve their efficiency and to reduce pollution. The business enterprises that own the factories benefit as their productivity increases and the environment is conserved.
- Donating your business’s earnings to a worthy cause
This idea involves donating a portion of your profits to a microfinance organization in developing countries. These give financial assistance to entrepreneurs in those countries. If your customers know that you donate a percentage of your proceedings from business to worthy causes, your sales increases.
- Be a point of difference
Consider a market where every business enterprise is harming the environment. You can take the opportunity to capture the market share by offering to sell an alternative which is environmentally friendly. The same can apply to any market in which most businesses are carrying out activities which have negative externalities.
For this endeavor to be successful, many people need to be aware of the social problems. Otherwise, they will not make decisions that are socially conscious. Problems like climate change have quite wide awareness and many people are willing to buy environmentally-friendly products.
Jinhwa's Social Entrepreneurship 