Entrepreneurs as Change Agents-Can you Make a Living and a Difference?

When friends and family ask me what I do, my description often includes the term “social entrepreneurs”. Typically, I see puzzled look and I explain that I help inspired entrepreneurs to make a difference in the world. This is frequently followed by, “you mean you work with non-profits?”. 

While some social entrepreneurs do run non-profit or not-for-profit organizations, and draw a nice salary as director, many social entrepreneurs are in private enterprise.  The terms “social entrepreneur” and “for profit” are not in conflict.  There’s a common misconception that making a difference means living on peanuts. That’s absolutely false.

Social entrepreneurs can make a substantial living, however their mission is to for “more than profit.”  Unlike “cause marketing” which is attracting customers by promoting the fact that a percentage of profit goes to a particular cause, social entrepreneurs are moved by a specific social problem and use entrepreneurial principles to aid in social change.  As opposed to a business deciding to donate to a cause, the cause is the impetus for the business.

According to an article in Business Week last fall, there are now 30,000 known social entrepreneurs producing $40 billion in revenue. The same article reported that President Obama  suggested starting a new government agency to help socially conscious startups gain more access to venture capital. 

Although we’d all love to make changes on a global scale, social entrepreneurs can make a positive impact by using their business acumen to facilitate change in their own community. 

Daily, I hear from entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs who’s priority is making a difference.  Coaches, counselors and other re-careering professionals report that the most common criteria  their clients express for an ideal livelihood is that it must have meaning. A traditional career counselor hears this and steers the client to social work or other helping professions.  The idea of entrepreneurship isn’t part of a career counselor’s toolbox. 

Do you have a strong pull to make a difference in your community or the world but no idea where to begin to build a business around it? Or are you already an entrepreneur looking for greater meaning in your business and your life but can’t figure out how to have both? Either way , you’ll not want to miss the summer “Inspired Livelihood Tele-Summit” where you’ll learn from entrepreneurs who are making a living, doing what they love and making a difference.

My Ideal Client is a Social Entrepreneur

While discussing my ideas about a new series of “Inspired Livelihood” Workshops that I am planning, Alice Barry asked me who I see as the ideal seminar attendee. This question got me thinking about my ideal client, who I’ve always described as an aspiring entrepreneur who knows her purpose but needs guidance in turning her passions into a profitable business aligned with her values. But there’s more. 

I realized that my closest friends and ideal clients share a common mission. They don’t just want to start a business and make a living. They know they are here to make a difference in one life, one community or the world. They are called to be an agent of change and they are ready to start NOW. 

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Ghandi

How do you Fuel your Passion and Serve the World?

People often associate Stephen Covey with organization and efficiency and while these are absolutely factors in ‘the Habits”, the line below from The 8th Habit spoke to me as someone who is a true true Social Entrepreneur. “When you engage in work that taps your talent and fuels your passion – that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet – therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code.“  Many of us grew up with such a sense of responsibility that we forgot that serving, unless it is also fueling a passion, can be a disservice to ourselves and those we serve.  If your heart is not in your work,  the recipients of your labor feel it. But, all of us have at least one calling and when we are truly engaged in doing that “thing” and while  we may not realize the impact it has on others,  NOT doing it is with holding a gift from others. 

Over the next couple of months, we will be introducing you to Social Entrepreneurs who are not only doing work that feeds their soul but making a living while making a difference in their communities and in the world. 

Make a Difference

Make a Difference

« Previous Page