A Dive into Social Entrepreneurship
As the co-founder of joni, I have a deep why behind creating this period care brand that started when I learned that one in three young Canadians can’t afford period care. I felt strongly that launching a social enterprise would allow me to make the biggest positive impact.
A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make a social change (a social venture). Often, social entrepreneurs come from certain backgrounds or have certain values that force them to build their business in a way that’s concerned with more than just the bottom line.
If you’re a business major, you might ask, “Isn’t the sole purpose of business to increase shareholder value?”
The answer is yes, it is.
If you really care about social problems, why don’t you open an NGO (non-governmental organizations that are non-profit)?
That’s an excellent idea. Not denying that.
The problem with both questions is that they are both very superficial, only focused on the outcome and not the fundamentals. On the other hand, a social enterprise is focused on solving a social problem while making money. Sounds perfect, right? It’s actually a little more complicated than that — and even more impactful.
Why I am bullish on social entrepreneurship with a for-profit business model
When you build a social venture, the solution you develop is built around real large-scale social problems that people can see. For example, joni fights for period equity because one in three young Canadians can’t afford period care.
By doing that, you’re building alliances with like-minded brands and customers who care about the cause. You are also providing them with the tool to fight their fight instead of you fighting their fight. Imagine the increase in force compared to you fighting the cause on your own!
Since the problem is visible, you don’t have to convince customers, media, government, or investors about the problem's existence. It makes sense on its own. Instead, you can focus on developing solutions that your audience will fall in love with.
The only condition is you have to make ethical choices such as being transparent and keeping the triple bottom line principle at the core of the business (people, planet, and profit).
Basically, all you’re doing is what you should do in the first place:
Pay fair wages, instead of just the minimum
Be transparent, and don’t hide details
Be truthful, and don’t make false claims
Design solutions that solve problems holistically, not superficially
Be sustainable and don’t waste resources
Don’t these ideas lead to an increase in shareholder value? Tangible and intangible. That’s the answer to the first question.
The results of social entrepreneurship
Because entrepreneurship is based on results, let’s dig in a bit more.
Customer Result
You are building a brand your customers love because they are fighting the problem alongside you. They feel part of a community that’s solving the problem they care about. This leads to increased brand awareness, trust, and overall brand value. Doesn’t this increase brand loyalty?
Employee Result
Your employees are being paid fair wages and are not just doing volunteer work. They can see the impact of their work and are focused on greater goals. You don’t have to waste time on team-building exercises and convincing them to do the job for money. Doesn’t this lead to higher productivity and increased employee satisfaction?
Consumer Satisfaction Result
Your solution is holistic and solves a complete problem with the highest quality material, not just a fraction of the problem. Isn’t this what your customers expect out of the products they use?
Since you are transparent with them, they will feel confident talking with you about problems they face and errors in your products that need attention. This would help you with the iteration of product development and build better futuristic solutions without having to pay the consumer for their feedback.
You are mindful of waste and not using fancy material on things that really don’t matter to the end-user. This increases the overall quality of the solution while saving money on useless materials. This leads to an increase in brand trust and a decrease in material cost.
From this profit of every product purchased, we donate one product to people who can’t afford the product. This activity has created a user who wouldn’t be a user of such a holistic solution otherwise. This leads to increased brand reach to the segment otherwise completely neglected by large players.
Now that’s what I call win, win, win, win, win…!
Your company wins with higher brand value and consumer trust, your consumers win with higher quality products and power to fight the problem creating impact in the local community, your shareholders win with increased value and return on insane brand reach at a fraction of the cost, your employees win with fair wages and work satisfaction, and as an entrepreneur, you win because you get to do what you value the most.
I believe that social entrepreneurship is actually just a better or refined version of entrepreneurship that focuses on a holistic approach to creating stakeholder value rather than just shareholder value. Such ventures solve large-scale problems, creating empowered consumers while reaching segments of consumers otherwise neglected. Believe it or not, your current consumers are present, and those neglected consumers that your venture and your current consumers are helping right now will shape the future of your business and your community.
Now, that’s why I am strong on social entrepreneurship because instead of you fighting the cause, you have a force fighting for the same cause creating an insane ripple effect and immediate impact.
