How to be a Social Entrepreneur

Make Money and Change the World

Robert Ashton

• Publisher: Capstone
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780857080608
• eBook ISBN: 9780857080622
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Imprenditoria
• Index: Business

Don't just make money…make a difference.

As a social entrepreneur, you can build a business that changes the world. But you will face some unique challenges. This book will prepare you for them. 

Packed with advice, inspiration and real-life stories, it will help you:

• Define what you want to do and why you want to do it
• Find the right kind of funding
• Build a brand that makes you unique
• Find a team as motivated and inspired as you are
• Measure the impact you're having

How to be a Social Entrepreneur is the only social enterprise start-up guide you'll ever need.

"This is the seminal book on social enterprise"
—Martin Murphy, Network 2012

"An essential read for any aspiring or existing social entrepreneur. Full of practical examples of real life social enterprise scenarios and written in Robert's usual uncomplicated format"
—Marc Davies, Wales Co-operative Centre Limited, walescoop.com

"Social enterprises need social entrepreneurs. This book will help you decide is you've got what it takes to be one"
—Peter Couchman, Chief Executive, Plunkett Foundation, plunkett.co.uk

"This very practical book will guide you as to what it takes to be a social entrepreneur. Enjoy it and then do it!"
—Lord Andrew Mawson OBE, author of The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work, amawsonpartnerships.com

"I was genuinely impressed by how comprehensive it is!"
—Peter Holbrook, CEO, Social Enterprise Coalition, socialenterprise.org.uk

"A treasure trove filled with practical insight and knowledge that will give you the edge to start, grow a sustainable and successful social enterprise"
—Stephen Gyasi-Kwaw, CEO/Founder Youth Enhancement Int.Ghana

"I particularly enjoyed the section on sales, which is a fundamental topic too often neglected"
—Andy Brady, '3rd Sector Futures', Anglia Ruskin University, anglia.ac.uk

Robert Ashton is a leading small business troubleshooter, entertaining small business speaker and the bestselling author of many business books including How to Start a Business for Entrepreneurs, Instant Entrepreneur and The Entrepreneur's Book of Checklists.

Part One

What

1

The Essence of Social Entrepreneurship

‘The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.’

George Bernard Shaw – The Devil’s Disciple, Act 2

A new way to view the world

Social entrepreneurs are people who see the world differently. They see opportunity where others see challenge. They see potential where others see problems. What makes them different from other entrepreneurs is that they have a very strong social conscience. Creating vast personal wealth or a large corporation does not excite them half as much as creating sustainable social change.

There is a difference clearly between a social entrepreneur and a social enterprise. This was explained to me very clearly one day by Charlotte Young who chairs the School for Social Entrepreneurs. It’s obvious when you think of it. Of course one is an individual and the other an organisation but here’s the point Charlotte made that most people miss:

‘Not all social enterprises are started by social entrepreneurs and not all social entrepreneurs start social enterprises.’

The School for Social Entrepreneurs website defines a social entrepreneur as:

‘someone who works in an entrepreneurial manner, but for public or social benefit, rather than simply to make money. Social entrepreneurs may work in ethical businesses, governmental or public bodies, quangos, or the voluntary and community sector.’

What makes a social entrepreneur?

A social entrepreneur is usually someone with a real, urgent driving passion to change something they feel strongly about. Often they have witnessed first hand the indignity of a particular social problem and decide to do something about it.

Qualified by personal experience, they are driven by a desire to right a social injustice or simply to make the world a better place. What they may lack in enterprise skills they make up for with doggedness and relentless energy. Give them the skills and you can see world-changing results.

It’s really important for you to understand this difference between the social entrepreneur and a social enterprise. Some people find themselves running social enterprises by default, rather than choice. They may not have the attitude, skills or experience or even desire to be a social entrepreneur. More often than not it is an additional responsibility that’s been thrust upon them by someone further up the line in their organisation.

For example:

• A Board of Trustees decide that they want the charity they govern to reduce its reliance on grants and generate income. A very capable, caring senior manager finds themselves leading in a new area they barely understand;

• A major funding source is lost and faced with imminent closure, a charity team decides to sell their services to paying clients to subsidise service delivery. In theory, this is possible. In practice it means learning to sell and market to a discerning customer group what has until then only been offered for free to the disadvantaged;

• A public sector department finds itself at risk of closure. Some jobs will transfer to a larger contractor, but most will go. The team decides to form a social enterprise and bid for the contract themselves. They also plan to win work from neighbouring authorities to create the additional budget they need to survive. Driven by concern for their jobs and service users, they are taking a giant leap into the unknown.

Social entrepreneurs, as the School for Social Entrepreneurs suggests, can be found in all kinds of organisations, as well as working on their own. In fact as my own experience illustrates, you don’t need permission to be a social entrepreneur. You just need the passion and drive to make a difference, coupled with the enterprise skills to make it happen.

Finally, here are three well known examples of social entrepreneurs who have started very successful social enterprise.

Michael Young (of Dartington) – helped set up more than 60 organisations in his lifetime, including the Open University, the Consumers’ Association and the School for Social Entrepreneurs.

He became a political researcher early in his career which gave him an insight into how communities worked and were influenced. His vision for a more equal society grew out of this work. Empowering individuals to take greater responsibility for themselves and their neighbourhoods became a theme that ran though his work.

Jamie Oliver set up Fifteen to provide opportunities for disadvantaged young people to enter the catering industry. His own background, raised in an Essex pub and leaving school without qualifications to attend catering college, was far from unique. His big break came in 1999 when spotted by the BBC whilst working at The River Café in Fulham. His media career grew from there.

As well as founding Fifteen, Oliver has campaigned widely on issues close to his heart. He bought the varying quality of school dinners to national attention, doing much to improve what schools offer young people to eat.

Muhammad Yunus was a university academic who set up the micro-finance organisation Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. It was witnessing a famine in 1974 that prompted him to explore ways of increasing the self sufficiency of the rural poor.

He recognised that very small loans, although they could make a huge difference, were not being made because the poor could offer no security to the bank. His Grameen Bank developed a business model where the whole community took responsibility for borrowers repaying their loans.

Leadership beyond authority

You do not need authority to lead social change. Too often it is those in authority who are holding back the change you want to see. Of course there is a fine line between rebellion and campaigning for positive change. Perhaps the difference is in the extent to which others have a hunger to see you succeed. For example:

• Without the Suffragettes’ very public protests in the early 20th century it might have been many more years before British women won the right to vote.

• Without Nelson Mandela and his fellow ANC campaigners, it would be harder for black people in South Africa to start and grow their own businesses. ➙

Without Stephen Whittle, a campaigning academic and founder of the organisation ‘Press for Change’, transgender people in the UK would probably be facing greater prejudice.

You could say that these three were all political campaigners. In part you would be right, but what drove them was their desire for social change. Challenging the political status quo was just one way they brought about the changes they wanted to see, for those they cared deeply about. Each of the examples above fits with the School for Social Entrepreneurs’s definition of a social entrepreneur.

But what, you might ask, about some of the other campaigns we have seen in recent years? Are all of them examples of social entrepreneurship? Take ‘Real Fathers for Justice’ as an example. It’s a lobby group campaigning for a better deal for divorced dads. Like the Suffragettes, their members chain themselves to railings and get arrested. Like Nelson Mandela, their members are prepared to go to prison for their beliefs. The difference perhaps is that they are campaigning for their own rights, rather than for the wider social or public good.

What works

To bring about the social and environmental change they want to see, social entrepreneurs often bump into political barriers. What works for them is that they want to change the lives of others more than they want to change their own life. Use this as an Acid Test of any social entrepreneur you meet.

Leading Beyond Authority is the ethos that underpins the work of the independent and international leadership development charity, Common Purpose. The organisation runs leadership development courses in 13 countries around the world. The courses bring together people from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

The organisation takes people from a broad cross section of the community and exposes them through a learning experience to the complex issues and leadership challenges in various sectors, cities, regions and countries. The courses have a local, city, regional, national or international focus.

The charity’s founder, Julia Middleton, set up Common Purpose because she realised how few people have the opportunity to really understand how to lead in partnership...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One - What
• Part Two - Who
• Part Three - How to Start
• Part Four - How to Grow
• Part Five - How to Share
• About the Author
• Other Books by Robert Ashton
• Index