ENDEAVOUR PERSPECTIVES /

Three Things to Kickstart your Social Enterprise

By KV Soon
Co-founder / Director
Spirit of Endeavour

(Image from Pixabay.com)

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21 June 2022 - My partners and I recently started a venture to develop, support and assist in fundraising for social enterprises. Entrepreneurs with great ideas often write to us for advice on how to set-up shop. As Endeavour strongly believes in innovation, information and entrepreneurship that focuses on positive social impact, we’ve decided to share three basic principles you need to get right as you embark on your social enterprise.

1. Articulate a Clear Social Benefit. This is what it’s all about. Doing good. It must be at the core of every social enterprise - to practice and convey this simple yet vital social agenda. Articulate concisely who the benefactors of your enterprise will be, and make a clear connection between your creation and the intended benefits.

Do not be afraid to dream and think different – rather, be afraid to stop dreaming and think as your neighbour does. Put equal efforts in both creating a bigger picture and refining the smaller details, lest you risk the whole foundation of your project to collapse.

2. Create a continuous "Be Good." Beyond the pre-planning of your project, it is imperative the ongoing internal operations are based on the values of social and environmental sustainability.

Firstly, this includes managing the wellbeing of your employees, staff or co-workers, by providing realistic work load, fair pay, strong leadership and compassionate benefits.

Secondly, your good actions should also extend into the community: one can achieve this by supporting harmony between your community’s individuals, improving infrastructure, providing for the less fortunate and overall playing an active role to improve your surroundings.

Finally, environmental sustainability cannot be ignored. Do you have policies for renewable energy? Are you minimizing the use of harmful factories? Are you planting trees? Mangroves, perhaps? Do you recycle your waste? Reduce the use of plastic?

Although we cannot be everywhere and do everything at once, one must strive to do as much they can to exist as a positive presence for their surroundings. These values must be the air you breathe, reiterated towards everyone in your setup so the many roots of a single tree are strong.

3. Build Financial Sustainability. It goes without saying that you need money to run and maintain your entrepreneurial endeavours. However, there is a difference between having money to spend versus having a plan to sustain and grow your project.

This planning includes developing sufficient forecast and budgeting. It also includes exploring scenarios and understanding risk and success factors so you can work around them. Especially in a rapid digital world, this must be consistent throughout the entire lifecycle of your project to keep up-to-date with opportunities or adversities. Thus, we recommend a three-to-five year business plan which incorporates the above.

There you go, some key principles that may help you as you start your social enterprise.

Good luck!

Drop us a note to talk more if you are keen to start a conversation and share across your ideas waiting to kick-start. Email us at info@endeavour.asia

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