16 WAYS TO BUILD A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE THAT MAKES MONEY

Article
The difference between a social enterprise and a non-profit organization is that SEs should be self-sustainable instead of accepting donations. In my definition of a social enterprise, I feel that it is not an issue to rely on funding in the earlier days of your set up but public donations is unacceptable.

This article talks about how to 16 ways to build a social enterprise that makes money by sharing experiences from 16 social entrepreneurs.

I would like to share my views on what some of the social entrepreneurs have shared.

4) Jude Ower, PlayMob – Think about the structure early on, it’s important to define who you are.  It affects the way you make money, and who your customers are.  If you don’t know who your customers are, you will have a hard job selling and consequently, generating revenue.

I agree that it is important to have a structure and know who your real target audience is. I think most of us side track a lot and the main message we are trying to bring across often gets lost. This doesn't only apply to starting a social enterprise but it is an issue that I faced even in one of my project. My group is supposed to come up with a marketing collateral for the VWO that we are working with and we did not identify the main target audience. This makes us harder to design the marketing strategies as we did not have a focus.

6) Michael Wilkerson, Own Your Own Boda – Few companies thrive right away and it is essential to make adjustments quickly.  Finding what really works often means looking foolish or blowing your nice, clean business plan to smithereens

Another important point is that we need to be flexible, quick to adapt to the ever changing surroundings and not be afraid to take a gamble. I think this relates back to the previous point where it is important to have a focus. The main focus should be how to let your SE survive and progress instead of holding on tightly to your business plan and by refusing to think outside of the box and letting your business plan go, you have already lost your focus.

This reminds me of what Mr Koh, founder of Diginity Kitchen, had shared, that a business plan is not much of a use when you are actually in the business itself.

Do it, make mistakes and learn from it. There's no use in clutching onto the textbook if it is not going to help your SE survive and make money.