According to Hayes, “An entrepreneur is an individual who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards. The process of setting up a business is known as entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures.”
When we hear about entrepreneurship, we cannot deny that most of us think that it is a successful startup raking in big profits. But we never thought that being a social entrepreneur is a fulfilling thing to do as we are starting a business more than just for profit. In addition to our revenue, we measure success by our impact on people and our communities.
CSEF stated that, “A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change (a social venture). Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur focuses on creating social capital. Thus, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to further social and environmental goals.” With this, social entrepreneurship is all about developing business opportunities that have positive impact. It is using the business as a force for good, looking at the company’s role in this world and ways the business can influence positive change.
Moreover, according to Council, “People in their teens and early 20’s are full of passion and questions: For years, they’ve seen how the world is, and now they are ready to step onto the stage to help change it for the better. This vigor and passion can bring energy and new ideas to a non-profit, as well as guarantee that another generation will take up the fight to improve lives.” In addition, this article stated that there are ways we can encourage more young people to pursue social entrepreneurship such as;
1. Find areas of interest to get them involved
2. Help them to embrace their passion for social good
3. Teach them that empathy is the key
4. Let them know about meaningful opportunities as they seek for it and;
5. Show them other youths who are pursuing social entrepreneurship to be inspired, etc.
In conclusion, we think that the social impact of social entrepreneurship is vast. As consumers are empowered and more companies begin supporting community causes and the possibility of businesses having a significant role in social and environmental change will grow. Through social innovation, organizations are no longer beholden to profit only, but also to greater ideals that make consumers and employees proud and stronger than ever before. By creating jobs and giving back to the society, companies can create a cycle of social impact that is sustainable and inspiring. Moreover, social entrepreneurship is not just a great way to have an impact on society. It is also a great way to ensure that discrimination and social exclusion will no longer be the massive problems they once were. Young people in social entrepreneurship will eliminate the problems and will focus on creating a more unified labor market that will have a place for everyone. This is why we need to encourage the young generation to participate and why it is so important to our society because social entrepreneurship is an obvious solution that is waiting to make our lives easier.
References:
Hayes, A. (2022, April 10). What you should know about entrepreneurs. Investopedia. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/entrepreneur.asp
Tilt: The social initiative. What is a Social Entrepreneur? | The Canadian Social Entrepreneurship Foundation | Canadian Definition of Social Entrepreneur & Social Enterprise. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.csef.ca/what_is_a_social_entrepreneur.php
Council, F. N. (2017, May 16). Council post: Five ways to encourage youths to pursue social entrepreneurship. Forbes. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesnonprofitcouncil/2017/05/16/five-ways-to-encourage-youths-to-pursue-social-entrepreneurship/?sh=2f93fe52f48a
Members:
Kim Patrick Desamito – 0075962
Marie Camille Rose Kho – 0076180
Maribeth Villamor – 0075706
21 April 2022 at 1:38 pm
Hi Patrick, Camille, and Maribeth.
Excellent article! I have read it completely and also perused the links that you have given regarding the sources of your article.
The one critique that I can say, actually a wish, is that I hoped there is more on the Forbes article (Five ways…) and/or maybe added more info from the CSEF article (Tilt…). I would have loved to see more on the attributes of a Social Entrepreneur as stated by CSEF.
Other than that, I commend you guys on the flow of the article. You have written a great piece, and even though you need to integrate three distinct sources, the theme you have chosen works very well for the sources. It is both very informative and easy to follow, something very hard to do that I found out in my own blogging experiences. In my opinion, this essay quickly gets readers curious about what is a social entrepreneur and how it benefits society. It gets them interested, enough to whet their appetite and entice their curiosity to read the source materials, or at the very least search more about the topic.
Thank you for providing this great article!
22 April 2022 at 3:07 pm
After reading through your post, I’ve managed to develop some questions that could be used to discuss further…
1. Why some businesses don’t practice social entrepreneurship
2. What drives a strong social entrepreneur to success
3. Should all businesses practice social entrepreneurship
Not all businesses can successfully run as social entrepreneurs, there are values you must have to be successful. Since social entrepreneurship is not all about profit, you must have faith that your practices are worth while. Your values connect to your passion, if you have a passion to do something it will be easier to commit and keep consistent. you should be able to enjoy doing this on a regular basis. Another important step in Social entrepreneurship is to allow freedom and flexibility. Having the ability to work out your own schedule and move things around will allow you to continue to enjoy and make it feel less like a chore.
Social entrepreneurship goals can be used even if you do not run a business, here are some examples I found that we can do
1. Use reusable bags
2. Use clean energy (ex. solar, wind)
3. buy sustainable clothing
As for the peer review part of my comment, I’d like to share how well written your blog post seemed to be, it was very easy to understand and the quotes were nicely integrated. A great point made was how social entrepreneurship benefits the removal of discrimination and social exclusion. My only critique would be, the lack of your own words… I would have enjoyed hearing more about your opinions, especially having 3 of you on this post, there may be different views and it would have been interesting to read. your thoughts are just as important.
References
TheTRUiCTeam. (n.d. ) 15 Startup Ideas for Social Entrepreneurship, best social enterprise to launch today(retrieved, April 22, 2022).
https://startupsavant.com/startup-ideas-for-social-entrepreneurs#:~:text=%20Social%20Entrepreneurship%20Startup%20Ideas%20%201%20Crowdfunding,people%20who%20cannot%20qualify%20for%20loans…%20More%20?msclkid=cec75f73c26511eca8a732bfb7a8621e
Dragan Sutevski(n.d. )What Drives an Entrepreneur to Achieve Extraordinary Success?, Entrepreneurship in a box.(Retrieved April 22, 2022)
https://www.entrepreneurshipinabox.com/14321/what-drives-entrepreneur/#:~:text=%20What%20Drives%20an%20Entrepreneur%20to%20Achieve%20Extraordinary,innovation%20both%20short%20and%20long-term%20are…%20More%20?msclkid=b49ab244c26611ec9837a4cc6fd029a8