Social entrepreneurship is all about businesses that are focused on purpose, as well as profit.
There's huge appetite for this kind of entrepreneurship, among young people in particular, so we've created a toolkit to help you promote social entrepreneurship during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Toolkit for social entrepreneurs
Changing the World Toolkit
A perfect source of information for organisations looking to introduce people to social enterprise.
UnLtd, Global Entrepreneurship Week UK co-host, gives their advice on how social entrepreneurs can get started on their journey:
1. Identify a social issue
Make it personal. Social entrepreneurs people who are passionate about solving the problems in their community or relate to them in some way. Being a social entrepreneur involves taking active steps to tackling these issues through social action. This can be anything from improving your community, breaking the cycle of re-offending, closing the attainment gap in education, solving health issues we face as a nation, or reducing isolation amongst elderly.
2. Develop a strong social mission
Social ventures are businesses that trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances or the environment. They make money from selling goods and services in the open market but they reinvest their profits back into the business or the local community. So when they profit society profits. How will your social venture bring about social or environmental change? As a social entrepreneur it’s important to have this set out in your governing documents.
3. Get support
It’s great to have an idea but actually starting up takes a lot of passion and determination. Every social entrepreneur maps out the practical steps it will take to make get things running. What resources or connections do you need to get your venture off the ground? Do you need access to funding, guidance or support? Support for social entrepreneurs is growing at a healthy rate. As a social entrepreneur in the making it’s worth it getting familiarised with resources for social entrepreneurs. The national body for social enterprise is Social Enterprise UK. They represent members to support and help grow the social enterprise movement so it’s worth checking them out. UnLtd is the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. Their award managers and partners help to Find, Fund and Support social entrepreneurs across the UK. They can provide support if you have good ideas for social ventures.
4. Work out a sustainable business model
Although social entrepreneurs run businesses that are changing the world for the better they still need to generate a sustainable income to pay for overheads such as services and staff. Consider ways you could make sales through your services or products.
5. Measure your social impact
You’ve got the idea and now you’re up and running it’s time to assess the results. What kind of social impact has your social venture made and how can it be measured? Have you helped to create employment opportunities for a number of people? There are many different methods for monitoring and evaluating social impact. Since your social venture is adding value to society it’s always a good idea to try and capture this data in some way such as surveys or testimonials to help communicate your story, grow and also gain additional support.