The travails of being a social entrepreneur

Though entrepreneurship is the buzzword now, social entrepreneurship is not as popular.

Though entrepreneurship is the buzzword now, social entrepreneurship is not as popular. Focused on solving social challenges even as they try and make a profit, social entrepreneurs are faced with myriad problems -- not least of which is a distinct lack of enthusiasm from investors who flock to their more commercially oriented counterparts. 

“It is very difficult to get investments for these ventures. Any investor expects a seven to eight-fold return within a set period of time. That works for a commercial enterprises, but not a social one,” says Nalini Shekar, cofounder of Hasiru Dala, a Bengaluru-based waste management enterprise focused on bettering the lives of waste pickers.  

The challenge is to find an investor patient enough to wait until these firms start becoming financially healthy. “We need time to make profits,” Shekar notes. Social enterprises also struggle with the very people they are trying to help. In Hasiru Dala’s case, Shekar says that there are bottlenecks in trying to work in sync with the multitude of stakeholders -- from local grass root decision and policy makers, to the legal system and beneficiaries themselves. 

All is not dark, however. Instead of philanthropic donations, bigger firms are now making equity investments and funding mentorship programmes.Recently, Tata Trusts and Social Alpha began the Social Alpha Entrepreneurs For Impact(E4i) program: a 12-month fellowship aimed at equipping these entrepreneurs. Pernod Ricard India Charitable Foundation (PRICF) also launched a social Impact incubator recently. Manoj Kumar, founder and CEO, Social Alpha says their focus is to “impart useful and practical know-how”. 

But, being a social entrepreneur requires a rather rare bent of mind. “People who venture into this space need to be passionate, and not look at the beneficiary community as just another market..,” 
says Shekar.

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The New Indian Express
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