6 social entrepreneurship projects to help people with disabilities

It is possible to make money and simultaneously solve social problems. Rehabilitation, training, and employment of people with disabilities are examples of areas of work for social entrepreneurs. In Russia, this type of business is still in its infancy, but there are already successful examples. Especially for DISLIFE, Everland specialists prepared an overview of 6 business projects that have already changed and continue to change the lives of people, including those with disabilities.

BuySocial

Project founders: Lyubov Ermolaeva, Alina Zubareva

Founded: 2021

BuySocial is a social online store. Any purchase at BuySocial. e is helping people in need, contributing to nature conservation or developing cultural projects.

All producers are Russian social entrepreneurs and charitable organizations. They provide jobs for people with disabilities or elderly people in the provinces. This is an opportunity to earn money and feel needed doing what you love. Some manufacturers donate their profits to charity, helping people with serious illnesses, children from orphanages, girls who have suffered from violence, grandparents from nursing homes.

BuySocial's mission is to unite buyers who care about how and why the goods are made, and sellers who, along with the quality of the goods, care about their contribution to the development of society and the preservation of the environment. The project tries to solve the problem of poverty and usefulness to society.

Lyubov Ermolaeva: “If you decide to start activities in the field of social entrepreneurship, I advise you to start trying a little! Make prototypes and go to show people - potential buyers of your product or service, constantly testing your hypotheses in practice. Find support from like-minded people - within and outside your team. Share your ideas and you will be attracted to people who share your values, perhaps become partners or clients. You may have an idea for a social entrepreneurship project that no one else has done. Do not be afraid of this, sometimes ideas work that at first seem completely unrealistic! And at the same time, do not fall too much in love with your idea, check whether other people really need it - your clients and beneficiaries. Be prepared for the fact that you will often have to balance between business and social contributions. Go for it! "

You can learn more about the project on the website.

Everland

Project founders: Elena Martynova, Igor Novikov

Founded: 2021

Everland's mission is to help professionals with disabilities in professional self-realization.

Good deeds: how to succeed in social entrepreneurship

We all remember the famous proverb: "If you want to help a hungry man, give him no fish, give him a fishing rod." It is the best fit to describe the activities of a social entrepreneur - a person trying to solve those problems that the state does not have time to solve.

The owners of social enterprises do a lot of useful things: help troubled teenagers, disabled people, sick animals, create cultural and educational projects. Therefore, social entrepreneurship is sometimes called the "new philanthropy". The management of such projects has some peculiarities associated with the fact that social projects are aimed primarily not at making money, but at fulfilling an important mission.

Innovation to the masses

Social startups are often associated with the implementation of unique ideas that solve existing problems at a minimum cost. A social entrepreneur usually has little or no money, so he is forced to invent original and, if possible, cheap approaches.

It is impossible to exaggerate the role of a social startup in remote regions and small towns: local authorities, as a rule, do not have enough time to solve all problems, and the center's money simply does not reach these places. In this sense, a good example is the project "Liberty" by Natalia Gasparyan from St. Petersburg, who was able to solve the problem of tourism for wheelchair users with the help of special buses.

Vyacheslav Gorelov, founder of the "School of Farmers" for orphans in the Perm Territory, believes that it is not difficult to come up with an innovative solution to the problem, you just need to "mentally immerse yourself in the problem with partners, and then find its solution with the help of method of brainstorming, then there will certainly be an option that is acceptable to all business participants. "

“In my opinion, an entrepreneur should always understand that he must have a certain circle of contacts that can help him,” says Ekaterina Smirnova, founder of Gorky Hostel in Nizhny Novgorod. - I am glad that today there are more and more organizations ready to support entrepreneurs, including those of a social orientation. I advise all start-up entrepreneurs to be confident in what they are doing, then everything will work out. "

Where to get money

The most important indicator for a social project is not even profit, but self-sufficiency. It turns out that an entrepreneur, having tackled a problem, cannot turn back and say that he has gone broke. And if people can live without a food delivery startup, then many will have a hard time without a small kindergarten or rehabilitation center. It is this fact that forces the owner of a social startup to carefully calculate all costs and soberly assess their capabilities even before entering the market.

A new type of small business, not aimed only at making a profit, is social business. However, this type of business also makes a profit, no matter how paradoxical it sounds. And this profit is not traditional, but is created by solving social problems by helping society in matters of more efficient functioning.

Social Business Responsibility

Today, interest in social business in the circles of small entrepreneurs has increased significantly. But most businessmen still believe that this activity is aimed only at those citizens who are forced to use social benefits and cannot afford to purchase high-quality goods and services.

Social business is a niche between philanthropy and entrepreneurship, the goal of which is to maximize profit.

The protracted crisis has made adjustments to the understanding of the principles of building a business. Now there are quite a few of those who only yesterday took out a loan and were confident in their abilities, today they began in every possible way to avoid repaying debts to banks.

Credit means trust. In this case, it is a relationship of trust between the bank and the borrower. But the relationship of trust and preliminary agreements on the terms of the debt repayment suddenly turned out to be impracticable. Thus, the entire banking business was under threat.

In such a situation, the interest of banks begins to shift towards those clients for whom, first of all, the ethical principle of doing business is important. It is these clients that become the target audience for lending.

The current situation forces us to develop business projects that set as their goal not instant financial profit, but responsibility in addressing social issues.

Agricultural Social Business Project

In the recent Soviet past, it was the norm when the chairmen of collective farms created conditions for attracting young specialists to work at their enterprise.

For this, houses were built, infrastructure in the countryside was developed. With the collapse of the USSR, this practice has become a thing of the past. But today entrepreneurs have already appeared in Russia who purchase agricultural land, special equipment and technologies, and then attract representatives of the unprotected segments of the population to work.

Business ideas of social projects for the benefit of society in the year

What is social business?

This is a unique area of ​​business that involves innovation, the introduction of new ideas and proposals related to helping people and ennobling human society. One of the most creative business areas with new business models.

Are you determined to start your own business in the social sphere? Improve the world and earn! Tips from Experienced Businessmen

If you decide to shoot in this controversial and in its own way difficult field, pay attention first of all to

Three approaches to the business model of social projects

• a) do charity work and donate a percentage of profits to public organizations,
• b) create goods or services for organizations or charitable foundations,
• c) use fundraising (fundraising).

Fundraising is money given to opportunities. Formula: Trust = Success.

A fundraiser is someone who raises funds for charitable or commercial projects.

Fundraising will provide a steady stream of funding to help your organization fulfill its Mission correctly.

Social business combines profit and helping people

Social entrepreneurship, being at the intersection of business and charity, solves important social and cultural problems of society, and also allows socially vulnerable categories of citizens to adapt. Moreover, this type of business can also bring profit to its owners. In July 2021, the concept of "social entrepreneurship" in Russia was enshrined at the legislative level.

The aspiring entrepreneur Marina has already opened a small cafe and is now planning to make her business not only profitable, but also useful for society. Social entrepreneurs and experts shared useful tips with Marina to help her realize this idea.

What can social business be like?

You can build your activities based on the development of services and services in socially significant areas, for example, to engage in the production of rehabilitation means for the disabled or launch an educational program for pensioners. Or you can employ people in your company who need support and socialization - graduates of boarding schools and orphanages, retirees, single mothers and disabled people.

Ekaterina Khaletskaya, co-founder of the Impact Hub Moscow Center for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, explains:

Today, in the social entrepreneurship community, we see three of the most in-demand areas. Firstly, these are educational services in different formats for people of different ages. Secondly, the employment of people with mental and physical disabilities and, thirdly, environmental projects, the purpose of which is to change the attitude of people towards environmental protection, their own behavior and responsible consumption. These are the projects that are already being developed. And here an advantage for a novice entrepreneur will be a large number of already created business models that can simply be localized in your city.

Why do I need a social mission?

At the start-up stage, it is important for aspiring entrepreneurs to define a social mission. It is she who should become the starting point from which the company's development strategy will flow. In addition, it will become the basis for all subsequent important decisions. Thanks to a clearly formulated mission, you can find not only your clients, but also future partners.

Ekaterina Khaletskaya, co-founder of the Impact Hub Moscow Center for Support of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, recommends:

You can define your social mission by asking a few questions: what and for whom you would like to change, and what will ultimately change with the appearance of your business among the beneficiaries. Next, determine which legal form is more suitable for the implementation of the mission that you have outlined for yourself. There are social entrepreneurs who register their business as a limited liability company or individual entrepreneurship and at the same time operate a non-profit organization. This largely depends on the fact that most social startups at the beginning of the journey are hardly funded by their own income. This hybrid legal form allows you to take full advantage of various measures of state support.

Which clients are interested in social business?