This article is also published on ChangeTheCompany.com
In an educational age like no other, Generation Z is being taught collaboration skills and how to use them like they are second nature. Starting from the earliest years of education, we are assigned to sit in groups in the classroom. Many major assignments are group projects, and those of us who attend traditional school do all of our learning in medium-to-large sized classes. Thanks to technology (particularly the Internet) and increasing globalization, we’re also receiving more worldly influence and experience early on in our lives. This is why our generation is likely very well-suited to the mode of “social entrepreneurship.” Passionate young entrepreneurs, read this post to get a taste of one particular mode of business and entrepreneurship, and see if it sparks your interest!
What Exactly is Social Entrepreneurship?
There are many different types of social entrepreneurship, but all of them ultimately have to do with doing entrepreneurship to further a social, often altruistic, cause. Thanks to this, it is also sometimes referred to as “altruistic entrepreneurship.” Many social entrepreneurship endeavors in the modern era have to do with technology, particularly introducing technology into the workspace and daily life, thanks to fast-increasing globalization and technological advances. If you’re passionate about addressing and solving social issues in your community and the larger world, and you want to address them through the medium of business, then social entrepreneurship may be your calling!
Community Development
Community social entrepreneurship focuses on community development, especially addressing the social needs of a population within a more narrow location. For example, if a disease breaks out in a certain underprivileged town or region, you may start an enterprise to help give medical attention to the people living there. This type of entrepreneurship is, as you can imagine, very needed in the world, and you can be sure you’re doing a good deed by venturing into this field. You should be aware, however, that the success or failure of your company is entirely dependent on the shifting needs of society. Making major decisions with so many people involved can be a challenge. Community social entrepreneurship is viewed by many as desirable; due to targeting hot topics that society is continually invested in, more often than not, these enterprises become more sustainable and popular over time, and make people’s lives better in the process.
Nonprofit Entrepreneurship
You might be wondering how nonprofit organizations qualify as entrepreneurial, since they don’t exactly operate to generate revenue for their founders and owners. Well, you’d be surprised to learn that people who found nonprofits are indeed also considered entrepreneurs! Nonprofit entrepreneurship generally works in the same way as other forms of entrepreneurship: founders partner with like-minded individuals to start up an organization designed to solve certain social problems in a particular population or geographical location. As you may be able to guess, nonprofits focus their development around charitable missions, founded on the basis of providing community and social benefits, rather than to rake in the cash. However, as the CEO of a nonprofit social enterprise, you can still earn a good salary through funding from the government and other institutions, as well as funding from individuals—although this should not be your primary goal if you’re looking to found a non-profit! Of course you deserve fair compensation for your work, but the need for compensation should never get in the way of your nonprofit’s higher mission.
Transformational & Global Social Entrepreneurship
Remember how we talked about technology meeting social development? This is where transformational social entrepreneurship comes into play! All social entrepreneurship aims to channel the energy of the industry towards fixing pressing social issues, and transformational entrepreneurship focuses on creating spaces for society to ease into the new age of information and technology. Specifically, this type of entrepreneurship strives to create sustainable and systematic solutions to global issues. The desired change is within the name; transformational entrepreneurs want to create transformational change, and they want to create this change through enterprises that don’t create a harmful impact on the world over time, like fossil fuel companies and others do. When these endeavors stretch to a global scale, enacting social transformation by addressing society at a root level, this entrepreneurship becomes global-social as well. Generally, the main goal of this type of entrepreneurship is not to generate personal revenue, but rather to adequately address the societal issue in question; the business endeavor does not “end” and is not “successful” until the societal change they were aiming for has become the norm. As a result, these types of enterprises can last much longer and prosper more over time, if they are established with sound foundations.
Conclusion
You’ve gotten to know the basics of entrepreneurship, and a wide variety of different subcategories of the industry. Social entrepreneurship is just one among many types, and if, after reading this article, you feel that contributing to the world via large-scale business is your calling, maybe you are destined to be a social entrepreneur!
Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash