Social enterprise and its features

First of all, let’s discuss the notion of the social enterprise. Unfortunately, there is no one recognized definition of it. If to generalize, we may state that a social enterprise is a kind of the entrepreneurial activity which is aimed at solving social problems or has a target to help the society. There are various forms of the social enterprises, but all of them have some traits in common. These common features are:

• Social influence. The activities of the enterprise bring changes into society and often help to solve various issues.
• Innovations. They use new approaches in order to solve the issues and make some positive changes.
• Self-repayment and financial sustainability. The enterprise is able to act and survive basing on their own income and they don’t need any governmental subsidies.
• Scaling. Their target is to create a big scale of their activity in order to leverage and boost the impact for the society.
• Entrepreneurial approach. The members of the social enterprise see the drawbacks of various processes and activities, can find the opportunities on the market, accumulate the resources, create new solutions and make a long-term impact on the society.

Types of social enterprises

And now, let’s look deeper into the existing types of the social entrepreneurship. There is no strict classification of the kind of such enterprises, but if we analyze their peculiarities and activities we may separate the following types:

• Charity sales enterprises. As usual, these are the stores that sell goods or services and send their income to the charity funds, organizations or just help various orphanages, care homes, etc.
• The companies that help with employment of the invalids, single mothers, people in difficulty. For example, the deaf can sew toys and they will be sold by this organization.
• The enterprises which create the services which are not or poorly provided by the government. As an example, we may cite the special schools or kinder-gardens for disabled children.
• Social enterprises which provide exclusive services. For instance, the enterprise, which provides taxi services for invalids or provide the specialists who can help around the house (e.g. to hang a shelf, to move the furniture, etc.)
• The organizations aimed at the development of the districts or territories as well as their community. As an example, there may be a company which is in charge of the provision of urban amenities and it tries to get the local community involved into their projects as well.

So, there is a great variety of social enterprises and they may differ in type, missions, targets and business styles, but they are all combined with one noble aim – to make a positive contribution into the development and future of the society.