Dumpster Diver or Entrepreneur?

written by Juliane Rowat

With the way the economy is right now there are a lot of dumpster divers, which use to be call trash pickers. A story of some one that went back to college. They had to give back their car due to funds and found a wheel cart in the trash. They used that to haul groceries back and forth to the apartment they lived in. Also found a halogen lamp to use while studying late at night.

They we’re able to pretty much furnish their apartment off of things that people threw away. Candles, picture frames, cleaning supplies, books, coffee mugs and dishes. Some people think this is appalling to go diving in the dumpster. Others wonder how people can just throw away perfectly good things. And some think that it’s being eco-friendly, as it’s less things that go into the land fill.

Dumpster divers feel that if something is thrown away then it’s garbage, it’s free for the taking. Which it is, but they also have a choice. Do it or don’t. If it saves them twenty bucks then their happy with that, plus they say their saving the environment.

Entrepreneurs would rather continue to work hard at their business and be able to buy the things that they need rather than look in the trash for them. Entrepreneurs help the environment by recycling rather than just throwing everything in the garbage. Entrepreneurs also help others become successful.

The choice is yours to be a dumpster diver or an entrepreneur. Everyone in this world has a choice of which path their life takes. A lot of people will argue with that fact. But the facts are you make your own bed you lie in. Look at the choice Superman made after he wound up in as a paraplegic. He didn’t just choose to sit there and die, he continued to motivate millions of people. What do you choose to be?

Julianne Rowat, the author, has other articles and videos on motivational and self improvement. She is an internet marketing consultant that enjoys helping others with different types of advertising to grow their business without all the expense. If you want to know more about her, visit her blog at: http://www.juliannerowatsblog.com or her website at: http://www.ultimatewealthfromhome.com

Retrieved on 24th September 2009 from http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/dumpster-diver-or-entrepreneur-1255160.html

The Importance of Social Entrepreneurship for Development

written by Jürgen Nagler

Especially since Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and a renowned example of a social enterprise, won the Nobel Peace Price in 2006 there is increasing interest in social entrepreneurship for development yet the current academic literature does not provide is a sufficient link between social entrepreneurship and economic development policies. How important are social entrepreneurs for economic development? What value is created by social entrepreneurship?

To answer these questions I researched the work of over 20 authors from Bornstein, Schumpeter, the OECD, the World Bank and many others for a paper for the UNSW. My findings conclude that the social entrepreneur sector is increasingly important for economic (and social) development because it creates social and economic values:

1. Employment Development
The first major economic value that social entrepreneurship creates is the most obvious one because it is shared with entrepreneurs and businesses alike: job and employment creation. Estimates ranges from one to seven percent of people employed in the social entrepreneurship sector. Secondly, social enterprises provide employment opportunities and job training to segments of society at an employment disadvantage (long-term unemployed, disabled, homeless, at-risk youth and gender-discriminated women). In the case of Grameen the economic situation of six million disadvantaged women micro-entrepreneurs were improved.

2. Innovation / New Goods and Services
Social enterprises develop and apply innovation important to social and economic development and develop new goods and services. Issues addressed include some of the biggest societal problems such as HIV, mental ill-health, illiteracy, crime and drug abuse which, importantly, are confronted in innovative ways. An example showing that these new approaches in some cases are transferable to the public sector is the Brazilian social entrepreneur Veronica Khosa, who developed a home-based care model for AIDS patients which later changed government health policy.

3. Social Capital
Next to economic capital one of the most important values created by social entrepreneurship is social capital (usually understood as “the resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of ... relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition"). Examples are the success of the German and Japanese economies, which have their roots in long-term relationships and the ethics of cooperation, in both essential innovation and industrial development. The World Bank also sees social capital as critical for poverty alleviation and sustainable human and economic development. Investments in social capital can start a virtuous cycle (for more explanation see my PDF below):

4. Equity Promotion
Social entrepreneurship fosters a more equitable society by addressing social issues and trying to achieve ongoing sustainable impact through their social mission rather than purely profit-maximization. In Yunus’s example, the Grameen Bank supports disadvantaged women. Another case is the American social entrepreneur J.B. Schramm who has helped thousands of low-income high-school students to get into tertiary education.

To sum up, social enterprises should be seen as a positive force, as change agents providing leading-edge innovation to unmet social needs. Social entrepreneurship is not a panacea because it works within the overall social and economic framework, but as it starts at the grassroots level it is often overlooked and deserves much more attention from academic theorists as well as policy makers. This is especially important in developing countries and welfare states facing increasing financial stress.

Retrieved on 15^th September 2009 from http://www.business4good.org/2007/04/importance-of-social-entrepreneurship.html

Defining Social Entrepreneurship

hosted by Patrick O’Heffernan (July 2007)

There is an ongoing discussion over precisely what is social entrepreneurship and who is a social entrepreneur.

One argument is that only founders of socially beneficial organizations that primarily rely on earned income from paying consumers are social entrepreneurs. Others say that this definition is too narrow – that income should also include contract payments, grants and donations. There are those that restrict the term to founders who start something new, and exclude intrepreneurs who change an organization or company from the inside. But many object, saying that "intrepreneurs" are those who have made the most change.

So just how should social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneur be defined?

The Skoll Foundation defines a social entrepreneur as "society's change agent: a pioneer of innovation that benefits humanity." Wikipedia reads, "A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change" – but does not say the change must be positive.

In his Social Edge blog, NYU Professor Paul Light writes:

The challenge is not to define social entrepreneurship so broadly that it becomes just another word that gets bandied about in funding proposals and niche building. Other terms such as innovation have gone that route, and may never be rescued from over-use. At the same time, social entrepreneurship should not be defined so narrowly that it becomes the province of the special few that crowd out potential support and assistance for individuals and entities that are just as special, but less well known.

In Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition, Sally Osberg and Roger Martin writes:

Our view is that a clearer definition of social entrepreneurship will aid the development of the field. The social entrepreneur should be understood as someone who targets an unfortunate but stable equilibrium that causes the neglect, marginalization, or suffering of a segment of humanity; who brings to bear on this situation his or her inspiration, direct action, creativity, courage, and fortitude; and who aims for and ultimately affects the establishment of a new stable equilibrium that secures permanent benefit for the targeted group and society at large.

Definitions given by interviewees in the Social Edge Peace Corps Entrepreneurs on the Edge series range from people who teach others entrepreneurial skills they need to better themselves, to people who start businesses along the lines of a responsible corporation, to those who generate new revenue for a non-profit through profit-making ventures. The only common thread if the socially beneficial nature of the endeavor.

Retrieved on 15^th September 2009 from http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/social-entrepreneurship/defining-social-entrepreneurship/