PART I - How to Be an Entrepreneur Who Creates Social Impact

The search for profit does not prevent the search for improving the conditions of a community. In the case of social entrepreneurship, companies that consider themselves as such are concerned exactly with the collective and the goods and services they produce contribute to this purpose.

Global Entrepreneurship Data Monitor, reveal that social entrepreneurship involves between 2.5% and 5% of the European population. In Portugal, the percentage is 3.2%, that is,around 160 thousand Portuguese people are launching projects with the aim of making the world a better place.

In simple terms, social entrepreneurship consists ofcreating an innovative business with the objective to solve a social problem in a sustainable wayl, seeking, more than profit or investment, to create social value.

But what are these problems? What is a ?social problem?? It is a recurring situation that affects several people or that is not working as ideally, whether related to education, health, human rights, the environment or any other area. However, working with social issues is still complicated by the required creativity and common sense, in considerable measures.

And is it possible to make a profit and be in solidarity with society? Yes, it is possible to make a profit and make a valuable contribution to others by developing, proposing and applying measures that are simultaneously profitable and beneficial (and with a quick search there is no shortage of good examples!).

Companies that present themselves as a social entrepreneurship project have been classified in the ?two and a half sector?. Starting from the sociological division of first sector (public, State), second sector (private) and third sector (non-profit institutions), these companies fall into an intermediate position between the second and third because they seek profit (for sustainability business) and social well-being at the same time.

Fortunately, all the fuss surrounding this new concept that is so in vogue has aroused the interest of many companies that are beginning to take on a social mission or implement good environmental management practices.

These companies discovered thatsuccess in the market is easily related to social well-being and therefore direct human and financial resources to the social development of sustainable actions and actions that contribute to improving the community's standard of living.

With this, a global movement called B Corp? has more than 2200 companies around the world, including Portuguese companies ? whose objective is to create competition between companies, to be the best forthe world and so that society moves towards egalitarian and durable levels of well-being.

To this end, ?B companies? seek to ?develop innovations that respond to society's concerns, believing that this is what they should do in ethical terms, but also that it is the most right for your business.? In other words, they go beyond the objective of generating profit, innovating to maximize their overall positive impact, whether on employees, the communities in which they operate or the environment.

Finally, could these social concerns not represent a distraction for companies in conducting their business? On the contrary, data from the Financial Times has already revealed thatinvestment strategies based on social criteria bring more returns than investment strategies without social concerns. The same publication even deduced that the failure to include social enterprises in companies will lead to the risk of losing financing opportunities and the ability to retain talent.

With all this, we begin to conclude that the foundation stones are being laid for a new economy of real impact, where there is a reward not only for short-term profits, but also for focusing on long-term concerns and, mainly, for making them the guiding thread of the business.

Think social, change the rules!

Rafaela de Melo

Sources: Dinheiro Vivo, Economies, Jornal de Business, New Business, Small and Medium Enterprises