Social Entrepreneurship
Dr. Dax Basdeo
Cayman Islands Investment Bureau

Overview
 Entrepreneurship
 Starting a Social Venture

Entrepreneurship
 Comes from a French word “entre prendre”
which means to undertake
 “The process of creating or seizing an
opportunity and pursuing it regardless of the
resources currently controlled”

Entrepreneurial Opportunity
 An opportunity exists in a situation in which
economic resources (goods, services, raw
materials) can be shifted out of an area of
lower productivity and into an area of higher
productivity

A problem with Markets…
 In business, the goal is wealth creation,
where a market values a business according
to customers’ willingness to pay
 Markets do not do a good job of valuing
social improvements, public goods and
harms, and benefits for people who cannot
afford to pay

Social Entrepreneurship
 “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”
 A focus on social wealth creation rather than
economic wealth creation

Social Entrepreneurs
 Susan B. Anthony
 John Muir
 Dr. Maria Montessori
 Frederick Law Olmstead
 Florence Nightingale
 http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/meet/

Starting a Social Venture

Core Themes
Passion
Success
People Planning

Phases of Venture Start Up
 The Idea
 Planning & Development
 Ready to Start Up
 Venture Growth
 Maturity
 Exit

Skills & Abilities
 Creativity
 Self-knowledge The Idea
 Research
 Analysis Planning & Development
 Negotiation
 Communication Ready to Start Up
 Management
 Marketing Growth & Maturity
 Accounting
 IT Skills

The Idea: Be Realistic
 Satisfaction and rewards
 Sense of accomplishment
 Build a meaningful entity
 Solve an important problem
 Do something no one else has done
 Do what interests you
 Potential pain & sacrifice
 Uncertainty, stress
 Very long hours, few vacations
 Financial/lifestyle sacrifices
 May have to give up “child” to see it succeed

The Idea: Your Vision
 Why is this idea important to you, and what
do you want to achieve?
 Milestones are progress markers along the road
to success.
 Assumptions are factors upon which achieving
your milestones are based.
 Tasks that are necessary to building your
venture.

Planning & Development
 The Business Plan
 Identifies resources needed
 Helps you to better understand and communicate
your idea
 Useful for soliciting advice and opinion and for
raising funding
 Forces you to set goals and targets which will
enable you to track progress

Outline of a Business Plan
 Executive Summary
 Venture Description
 The Social Issue
 Generating Social Value – effecting change
through action & innovation
 Management
 Financials

Starting Up: Pitching your idea
 ‘Investors’ rarely put money into a "product" --
they invest in you!
 The “Elevator Speech”
 A 1 minute verbal ‘sales’ pitch describing your
concept and why someone should pay attention to
you.
 Be clear and to the point
 Project the confidence that you understand your
proposed venture and will be successful

Growth & Maturity
 Essential Skills for Entrepreneurs:
 Networking
 Creating Trust
 Managing Conflict
 Exerting Influence
 Dealing with Stress
 Recruiting, Motivating, and Retaining High-
Performing Employees

Avoiding Failure
 Poor or inadequate research
 Understanding of the situation you are trying to
address, lack of objective feedback
 Weak financial planning
 Insufficient capital (money), lack of experience
 Setting sights too high
 Over-optimistic forecasts, poor planning
 Hiring the wrong people
 Failing to delegate

Exit Strategy
 At some point, every entrepreneur ends their
relationship with their venture
 Loss of interest
 Goals accomplished
 Venture ‘outgrows’ you
 To ensure that sustainable improvement
results from your venture, it is essential to
plan for this occurrence

Venture Stages
3 4
Value Created
2
1
Startup Emerging Decline or
Maturity
growth renewal
Time

e: dax.basdeo@investcayman.gov.ky
t: 244-2268
Thank You!