Surviving Social Entrepreneurship

Marice Cumber

What is social enterprise?

Why is it relevant?

Focus on one areas that has resonance and explored as part of MA journey:-

Issues and needs for consideration in setting up and surviving as a social entrepreneur in comparison to that of a creative entrepreneur.

What is a social enterprise?

Driver - achieving social good through enterprise - not a charity!

Concern that uses entrepreneurial activity to tackle social and community based problems

Reinvests profits back into the business

Profits used to increase social impact & benefits

Profits are locked into the social enterprise and cannot be used for anything apart from the social purpose or objective of the social enterprise

Can have same legal structure as mainstream businesses, but are limited with community interest guarantee.

And here are some examples…..

Relevance

Reduction in public sector funding for community led projects and charities

Solution to social issues - driver

Minimises dependencies

Means for charities to bring in commercial revenues

Values, motivation - taps into “good”, social change activism

Targets become the project’s own rather than driven by funding criteria

Research: most important factors for setting up & running a social enterprise

Persistence

Funding and cashflow

Costs and pricing

Publicity

Network

Legal Entity

Reliable Volunteers

Having a good idea

Balancing Profit and social impact

Sustainability

Understanding sector

Support

Having a narrative

Measuring Impact

Market Resilience

Balancing two jobs

Emerging Creative Enterprises

Not motivated by profit or business growth but by act of being and continuing to be creative

Success defined by being able to create “good work” within commercial context

Having a market for their work

Having creative integrity and values

Gaining respect from peers

Being socially responsible, innovative, original and destinctive

Setting up a social enterprise Setting up a creative enterprise

Persistence Persistence

Funding and cash flow Funding and cash flow

Costs and pricing Costs and pricing

Publicity Publicity

Network Network

Legal Entity Legal Entity

Reliable volunteers Reliable interns

Balancing profit and social impact Balancing being in business and being creative

Sustainability Sustainability

Support Support

Having a narrative Having a narrative

Measuring impact Getting peer respect and an audience

Market Resilience Market Resilience

Having social values Having creative integrity

Balancing two jobs Balancing two jobs

Shared characteristics - enterprise??

Interns / Volunteers

Difficulty achieving sustainability when motivators are not financially driven

Grant and funding led business culture / dependency

Business model determines ability on surviving insecurity, precariousness, risk

Going from the margins to the centre

Most aligned interventions to grow creative / social enterprises

Sector specific business support

Network development

Skills Development

Funding

Market Intervention and Support

It’s all a bit of a struggle…..

also an opportunity And also an opportunity