Entrepreneurs are many, but social entrepreneurs are quite rare. Who wants to take the risk of investing monies that are not only expected to yield profits, but also advance a social cause? Entrepreneurs have enough tensions of their own. Why care about seeing how your business is synergized with the needs of your community? Here’s why.
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Top 5 reasons to become a Social Entrepreneur
Reason #1: You are extremely passionate about a cause
Are you the type who wants to be the change agent of the world? Do you dream big about India in 2020? Are you in the lookout for an angel investor who can support your business plan that aims to alleviate unhygienic sanitation facilities in urban slums? If these are the kind of causes that bring a spark to your eye, then by all means go for social entrepreneurship.
Reason #2: The country needs people who can ‘walk the talk’
If you are a person who believes that everything cannot be left for the government to resolve, welcome to the club of budding social entrepreneurs in India. If you have qualities of making the best of the efficiency of the private sector and the powers and influences of government agencies, set up a community venture of your own. Very few people have such combination skill sets.
Reason #3: If you love making sales and talking to local people
One of the biggest reasons why many entrepreneurs are not cut out to be social entrepreneurs is because they lack the ‘connect’ that they need to form with local communities to gain inclusive growth. If you’ve volunteered a lot with not-for-profits of if you’ve dealt deeply with local communities before, this critical skill will come naturally to you.
Reason #4: You will create goodwill
Imagine the kind of blessings you will receive from people living on the streets, if you construct a series of hygienic public toilets services. Or for that matter, develop a system though which there are lesser cases of stealing electricity from our country. The point is that once your brand garners enough goodwill from the society, you can trade off its benefits anywhere you want to.
Reason #5: Get to know what the country is all about
Doing market surveys on the internet and sitting in the comfort of your air conditioner won’t help you in knowing what your country and its people are all about. Your social venture will make you travel extensively, make you talk to people, see how and where they live, examine social conditions and deal with beauracratic systems. That’ how you’ll learn to gauge the pulse of the community.
As a social entrepreneur, you will need to put in double the hard work and commitment as compared to any other profit seeking entrepreneur. Social entrepreneurs are at a much higher risk of getting funding for their business or making profits at a consistent rate. But if the venture turns out to be successful, it can be the single most thrilling experience of your life.
Have you come across any successful Social Entrepreneurs ?
