Start Young!

“Start your venture young. You’ve got nothing to lose.” That is what various successful social entrepreneurs would hearten young people during their pep talks.

In America, 4 passionate and dedicated undergraduates set up a social enterprise, “My Card My Story” with a common mission to present every underprivileged child in Mumbai an educational opportunity. How? By incorporating the artwork of underprivileged artistic Mumbai children into unique greeting cards, selling them in US and plough the proceeds back to the children to support their education.

As claimed by the 4 undergraduates, their dream of setting up a social enterprise would never become a reality without the exposure and resources their school proffered them. Personally, I agree very much with them.

To begin with, how exactly did these 4 young social entrepreneurs come together and generate their business idea? Well, it all happened during one of their lessons whereby their professor formed the class into teams, pinned large sheets of paper on the wall asking all to brainstorm business ideas and present in 5 minutes. It was then that these 4 individuals realized they had a common passion to alleviate the social issues in India. With a common goal and armed with a business idea they all believed in, they began embarking on a journey, turning a presupposed assignment to a reality.

Following, the school further presented these 4 individuals countless opportunities to enter into business competitions which provided mentoring programmes, funding and resources to take their business model from paper to product. However, reaching any goal involves sacrificing other things to get there. At the initial stage, the team put aside their hobbies and interests, toiled day and night working on business plans, etc. in the midst of juggling with school exams and assignments.

I personally feel their story is a reflection of where my team, Songjie, Bixuan and I are going through to bring our dream of assisting individuals who are recovering from depression to reintegrate into society through employment and rehabilitation. Thus far, the journey is never smooth sailing, many business ideas were pinned down, many logo designs were rejected, and it was also never easy to juggle between school, business and other commitments. However, just like the 4 individuals, working on campus had a way of pushing open doors we have never ever imagined. Encouraging school mates rendered whichever help they could with their talents. Supportive lecturers brushed up our business ideas and introduced competitions for us to participate in. Gladly speaking, our team is currently on the top 10 finalists of the Singapore International Foundation’s Young Social Entrepreneurial Programme, which presented many prestigious world mentors to guide us in our endeavors as well.

In truth, in the long run, it is unfeasible for non-profit organizations to build a robust society without interminable philanthropy. Whether our society will emerge for the common good, that question will be answered by social enterprises ultimately. Currently, Singapore has created a friendly environment to pursue social entrepreneurship – introducing social enterprises courses, organizing social enterprises competitions and conferences, etc. So, as young adults, be bold and courageous, take a leap of faith to step forward and bring innovative ideas to solve world social issues today.

Reference

The Huffington Post. (2012). Why you should start a social enterprise in college. Retrieved July 29, 2012, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/my-card-my-story/my-card-my-story-princeton-university_b_1695390.html

Individual Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is no longer a buzzword. In short, it is a company’s commitment to behave ethically and contribute to social, cultural, economic and environment development. Undoubtedly, we are all familiar with CSR, but barely anybody will have known about individual social responsibility.

What is individual social responsibility? It is all about doing unto others what we would like others to do unto us. In fact, it is at the root of corporate social responsibility as a company is formed by many individuals who determine the social responsibility culture in the company.

In our day, we are conscious of what we buy, but even more conscious of how the things we buy are produced. Are the products manufactured through child labor or other inhumane conditions? Given 2 products with one produced in an unethical way and the other advocating a good cause, more likely we would purchase the latter one. In truth, whilst consumers are becoming more socially conscious, companies have to become more socially responsible to meet consumer demand as well.

Successful and well-to-do people like Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation give back to society by donating to charities, etc. However, I realized a large bulk of these money used to give back to the community is their private money and not the money of their corporation. A person like Bill Gates is an example of how we can each practice individual social responsibility.

Someone who practices individual social responsibility primarily, has a mindset to contribute to the society and therefore always endeavors to have a positive impact on the society and environment.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that one person can make a difference, and so can one can. In this world, we are never short of causes to contribute to. As long as we are willing, we can easily make a difference in our society by starting a social enterprise to employ the disadvantaged, helping out in events organized by voluntary welfare organizations, giving free tuition to children from low-income families, visiting lonesome elderly staying at one-room flats and many others.

George Bernard Shaw mentioned, “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.”

Neither today, tomorrow, nor the day after tomorrow is where our life is, where our life starts. As a member of your country and community, we can all do a little to make the less fortunate life better off by taking part in solving some of the local social issues. Even as a social entrepreneur, we must ensure our partners, employees and consultants adhere to the same value system and level of ethical standards as us -viewing our projects not only from a business perspective, but also from a social and environment one.

Reference

Anonymous. (n.d.). What is social responsibility? Retrieved July 22, 2012, from http://www.imasocialentrepreneur.com/social-responsibility/

A Socially Conscious Bank

“We are committed to partnering social enterprises to help them achieve commercial viability while pursuing their social causes,” remarked Mr. Lim Chu Chong, DBS’s head of enterprise banking.

Looking to open a bank account? Before you fill up those forms, make sure you are getting into the right relationship!

Today, in Singapore, we have DBS Bank increasing its commitment to do well and do good. Unlike other commercial banks, it’s not all about making money for DBS. Social enterprises (companies with a social purpose) can open a corporate bank account with DBS and enjoy several benefits.

• While small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must maintain at least $10,000 in their account, there is not a minimum monthly account balance that social enterprises need to maintain.
• While SMEs have to pay up to 12.8% per annum interest rate on a loan, social enterprises are only required to pay an interest rate of 5% (less than half) on borrowed funds.
• Each month, social enterprises can also take in 20 Giro payments and issue up to 30 cheques at no cost.

In truth, we are all familiar with the biggest challenge that social entrepreneurs confront. That is finding sources of capital to either help them covert their idea into a viable business operation and meet their social and environmental aims or scale up their social enterprise and do more good in the world.

“We are realizing how do we get out of this first stage of growth into the second stage of growth, and that is where banks and investors can come in and say, ‘This is an area we want to support you with, here is a loan or investment that can help you’,” pointed out by Richardo Chua, the managing director of a social enterprise named Adrenaline Events and Education which employs at-risk youth to organize corporate events.

Richardo Chua is just one of the 80 social entrepreneurs who bank with DBS. In Singapore, we are progressively coming to a view that social enterprises would be the right way to get the economy rolling. Indubitably, social enterprises would necessitate investment in order to become much more independent, gain a competitive advantage and economic footing in the marketplace.

Therefore, Singapore would need more financial institutions like DBS who put away profit-making mindset for a moment, and commit themselves in helping socially conscious clients grow and get off the ground. As such, making more attractive funding options, like DBS’s social enterprise package, available for social entrepreneurs to more possibly embark on their meaningful endeavors. 

References

Sim, P. K. (2012, July 9). More funding options available to social enterprises. Channel News Asia. Retrieved July 15, 2012, from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1212560/1/.html

Brand It!

Are you starting a social enterprise like me in the near future? You could be more wrong if you deem that brand management is something you will not have to worry about in the social sector. Well what is a brand? And why is it so essential?

In brief, a brand will be a social enterprise’s reputation you have for delivering on your promise. It comprises of a social enterprise’s logo, promotional materials and presence on the internet. For instance, McDonald is a brand on its own. It has successfully branded itself and created a positive perception among the public who are then able to define its mission – providing a cheap, convenient meal – easily.

So therefore, a strong brand will have some key benefits. Firstly, the brand is what our customers will remember. Secondly, it enables customers, investors, and the community to immediately recognize value and trust the social enterprise. Thirdly, it distinguishes a social enterprise from its competitors and demonstrates the real value it is offering to its customers.

Now, do you wonder how to build a brand? Well, to put it simply, there are 3 key components to create a brand.

Distinguishing
Social enterprise is a form of business on its own. In just Singapore alone, there are over hundreds of businesses with a variety of branded products and services. To distinguish your social enterprise, it is essential to know you business’s unique position, its value proposition – unique features of product/service, a compelling social story, etc. - and build your brand around that.

Credibility & Authenticity
A consumer will only patronize a business that they deem its product or service will serve its inherent promise. One way to gain consumers’ trust and advocacy is by being transparent about the obstacles confronted and the expertise brought into creating a product or delivering a service. In this fashion, you may be surprise that not only will your business begin to attract customers but will also form a loyal customer base which then further attract a wider audience.

There are multiple tactics that social entrepreneurs can used to develop a brand. Through the online platform, one can create websites, blogs, email campaigns and social media sites to reach mass potential customers with little or no cost involved. Through the offline platform, one can also set up events to build awareness of the social enterprise and its cause or even create materials that possess testimonials of customers’ experiences with the business’s programmes and services. This carry more credibility than anything the social entrepreneur could say about his business.

In my opinion, I feel that starting up a new business is not easy at all. Having a compelling product or service is not enough. An effective marketing and brand management plan is a key to bring positive attention to my social enterprise and enable my social enterprise to communicate effectively with my targeted public.

People will not know who I am and recognize what I do unless I brand it and speak for my social enterprise. 

Reference

Poston, B. (2012). Why social enterprise needs effect brand management. Retrieved June 15, 2012, from http://www.justmeans.com/Why-Social-Enterprise-Needs-Effective-Brand-Management/12462.html

Women More Active in Social Start-Ups

A study conducted on different start-up types on over 10,000 individuals from 52 countries reveals that women are 1.17 times more probable than men to establish social enterprises than economic enterprises. Personally, I am not surprised by the finding. Why?

By tradition, men play the primary role of breadwinners while women are the primary caregivers of a family.  Generally, women are found to be more active in community activities than men as well. This kind of traditional upbringing has instilled women with qualities like resilience, empathy, intuition to be successful social entrepreneurs. Moreover, in comparison to traditional businesses, profit maximization is not social entrepreneurs’ key priority. As such, women who juggle multiple roles (e.g. career and motherhood) could have less work stress and more flexibility in their working practices and working hours.

On the contrary, in the face of several social and cultural barriers, women’s potential is not fully utilized and thus women social entrepreneurship activity remains low. 

The key barrier to entry is gender inequality. In developing countries especially, because of gender inequality, women are expected to perform their primary role as caregivers and are not given access to educational opportunities or networking platforms.  As such, by and large, women do not have the required knowledge, contacts, capital, guidance and confidence to carry out their initiatives and pursue their social goals.

I strongly feel that there is a vial need to eliminate gender gap to create a favorable environment for social entrepreneurship to flourish. Surrounded by umpteen social problems, the world cannot afford to disadvantage women from opportunities to exploit their talent and expertise to create greater social change.

For instance, to help various women to enter into the social entrepreneurship sector, successful women social entrepreneurs can conduct mentorship or training programmes to enhance other women’s know-how and competence. Based on their experiences, successful women could also boost others’ confidence by sharing how they actually overcome certain odds and protect their legal rights to educational and career opportunities.

In brief, the progress against world social problems will improve if more than a few social entrepreneurs believe they can solve them. Women social entrepreneurship matters. We will need more favorable policies to encourage and develop more social entrepreneurs, especially the women to create sustainable social impact and make our world a better place.

References

University of Cincinnati (2012, April 3). Men start businesses for the money: Women for the social value. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120403124404.htm