“I’m a Social Entrepreneur” — Prove It.

I used to want to call myself a Social Entrepreneur — Now i realise that being able to call yourself that is something you earn through the weight of evidence.

If i call myself an entrepreneur, i need to be able to prove that i am in the process of starting a business.

If i call myself a social entrepreneur, i need to both prove that i am an entrepreneur and that my business produces social benefits.

‘Social’ is an additional claim. If i tell you i am ‘a runner’, for you to believe me i only need to prove that i run. If i tell you that i am ‘a fast runner’, i have to prove something in addition to me being a runner.

But proving social (or environmental) benefits requires work and time. Proving social and/or environmental benefits means taking the time to understand the complexities of any system and what improvement looks like in that system and how much, if any, your solution has added to the benefits.

Calling yourself a social entrepreneur means more than proving you are starting a business in education, healthcare or renewable energy.

We place such a high demand on the proof of a not-for-profit’s value, but fewer demands on the proof on the social value that the social entrepreneur creates. That’s fucked up.

When i see the title of social entrepreneur now I think it’s cool that the person wants to create more value than *just* customer and employee satisfaction and shareholder value, but most of the time it speaks to intention rather than outcomes. I think that is wrong.

If you haven’t even run a pilot, what proof do you have? If you’ve only run a pilot, what proof do you have? etc etc

If you start a business selling cell phone recharges (using solar power) to customers without regular access to electricity, are you a social entrepreneur?

If you sell FMCG goods to low-income customers through a different distribution mechanism than big brand supermarkets, are you a social entrepreneur?

If you offer digital payment services to the unbanked, are you a social entrepreneur?

…maybe i’m being unreasonable…