Advice for social entrepreneurs — Part 3

Three final lessons to keep in mind as you build your social enterprise.

It’s time for part three of our advice series for social entrepreneurs (catch up on parts one and two). Over the last few weeks, we’ve shared crowd-sourced advice from entrepreneurs and social changemakers with years of experience in the field. Here are three final lessons to keep in mind as you build your social enterprise.

7. Simplify and streamline

Focus. Find your single best idea and hone in on it. It’s much better to do one thing beautifully than to do a lot of things adequately.

• “I think with some of our products, we came out with them too quickly and they weren’t quite perfect. Don’t move too quickly and make sure that everything you produce is as perfect as it can be.” — Anonymous, Breakfast food company
• “The best decision we made was coming out with only one shoe. If you look at any footwear company, whenever there’s a launch, that launch is a collection of a dozen styles of something. It’s really really hard to say no to everything and we said no to so many things, but I think that people have appreciated the simplicity of the message.” — Travis Boyce, Manager of Strategy and Operations at Allbirds

8. Make good hires

Oftentimes, social enterprises can’t afford to pay market rate, which makes it difficult to find qualified employees. It may take time to find someone who is the right fit, but invest in talent with the right skill sets, not just a passion for your mission.

• “Finding the right people is probably the biggest challenge overall. You have to find the person who’s the right fit for the industry. Hire first on business and industry fit and second on mission.” — Beth Palm, Founder and CEO of BAM Essentials
• “A lot of our business comes down to the people in it, and being extremely careful and precious with how we hire talent is key to how we grow. Jack Welch, the CEO for GE used the catchphrase ‘hire slowly, fire quickly,’ which is interesting, but it resonates. It might feel kind of harsh, but it’s true. You should fill an organization with the right people.” — Rob Holzer, Founder and CEO of Matter Unlimited
• “We made one hire who turned out to be a sociopath and he was hard to get rid of. So vetting — that’s important. And at one point, we needed money and this impact investor came in, checked all the boxes and then turned out to be a nightmare. There are sharks even in this space, and you sometimes have to be careful.” — Anonymous, Tech company

9. Be all in

Ultimately, running a social enterprise is hard. It’s not for the faint of heart, and it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. To survive the difficult days (and weeks and months), you have to believe in your organization. Otherwise, it won’t be worth it.

• “You better really have a good idea — it better be the real thing, and it has to be in your core. Then you have a shot.” — Tom Willits, Co-owner and President of MRW and Olive Branch
• “If you want to sell your mission and sell your idea, you have to be all in. It has to be heartfelt. You have to really want to change the world. Otherwise, there are so many easier ways to make money.” — Anna Noyons, Chief Product Officer of Peerby
• “When things got hard, when we went broke, I tried to remember why I’m doing this. We’re providing life-saving soap to mothers in Haiti. That gets me through the days when most businesspeople would have gotten out. The mission side sustained us when times got tough.” — Shawn Seipler, CEO and President of Clean the World

Whether you’re just starting out or growing your social enterprise, we hope you can glean some wisdom from your peers. By finding strong mentors, tapping into educational resources, understanding your customer, setting realistic expectations and carefully crafting your business model, you’ll set yourself up for success.

What’s the best business advice you’ve gotten? We’d love to hear in the comments below.