Entrepreneurship Management

• WHAT IS THE PRIMARY DRIVER OF THE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR?

I believe that the primary driver of the social entrepreneur is the interest of making a difference and finding innovative solutions to social problems such as global warming, natural resources conservation, pollution, and water or food shortages.

• SHOULD A GREEN OR CLEANTECH VENTURES BE CLASSIFIED AS SOCIAL ENTERPRISE? IF SO, WHY?

I think green or cleantech ventures should be classified as social enterprise as long as they are concerned about social problems and as long as they are doing something about it. Since green ventures do care about social problems such as global warming, pollution and natural resource conversation, I think they should be considered social enterprise; these ventures are trying to minimize and avoid damage to the environment.

• WHAT ARE SOME OF THE NEGATIVES OF FORMING THE SOCIAL VENTURE AS A NONPROFIT?

Some of the negatives of forming the social venture as a nonprofit is that  there is a limited potential that can be developed. The venture unfortunately would have to rely on other sources to perform, if the social venture lacks of these resources (such as volunteering, government help,  etc) it will not be able to support itself unless it is funded by the founder of the venture. Another negative to this is even if the  social entrepreneur is willing to fund and sustain the social venture with his/her own money, unfortunately, he/she wouldn’t be able to benefit or get some money back if the nonprofit  are sold or stops operations because the money from the venture would have to go into another nonprofit.

• WHY DO STAKEHOLDERS VIEW THE SOCIAL VENTURE DIFFERENTLY FROM A TRADITIONAL VENTURE?

I believe that stakeholders view the social venture differently from a traditional venture because the venture is not focused on their own benefit or success but they are focused on finding innovative solutions to society’s most social problems not necessarily on making wealth for them. So, stakeholders view the social venture as a “change agent” that can make a difference and impact the world for better not as a primary way of making a living or money for themselves.

• WHAT ARE SOME OF THE GROWTH CHALLENGES OF A SOCIAL VENTURE?

Some of the growth challenges that a social venture faces is how to manage their team and how to keep them satisfied and motivated.  If the employee feels to be more of a follower than an employee, there is a risk that at some point of the growth period, the employee might feel like the company is losing its mission and the company must make sure that there is good communication and that employees don’t feel betrayed but are aware of the important function they play in the company.  The company have to decide whether it would be better to hire   “passionate employees who are likely to be true believers in the social goal of the venture” or just hire someone who wants the job. The challenge is that the communication must be efficient with all of its members and the mission must keep clear and consistent.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY,  SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND PHILANTHROPHY:

A Social Entrepreneur is characterized by the pursue of an innovative and creative idea to solve a social problem; the focus is not on solving the need or problem of a market, but of a community. A corporate social responsibility has some similarity with a social entrepreneur but they are not the same, they are similar in that it also cares about social concerns; however, they are different it is more  about the integration of not just one person but  the companies who  try to do business and generate profit while also concerning about the society and environment. Philanthrophy is characterized by the efforts of supporting charities and non profits companies to improve the human welfare, also not driven by the desire of making a profit.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

Social Entrepreneurship and Business entrepreneurship are not the same; social entrepreneurship focuses on wealth creation just like the business entrepreneur does; however, this one not only does it for its own benefit but for the benefit of society, without the financial resource or profit they can’t achieve their social mission and impact society in a positive way. In the other hand, business entrepreneurship pursues wealth for its own benefit and the benefit of its stakeholders not necessarily for the benefit of the community.

Obesity is a problem throughout the population; therefore, I believe there is a need for a healthy diet and overall a healthy lifestyle. My venture idea is to provide and deliver pre-packed Paleo meals that will help people get the nutrients they need while also helping them get in shape and save money and time.

We would offer affordable meals delivered to our customers starting as low as $8 per meal. We would encourage our clients to choose their own meals for the week from our menu, and we would strive to update our menu twice every 3 weeks, and if our customers want to buy on bulk we would offer them discounts.

We would try to eliminate middlemen and connect directly with local farms, in this way we can reduce costs and as a result, we can reduce our prices for our customers.  Another key partners would be FedEx and UPS to deliver our pre-packed Paleo meals.

I believe that the best customers would be people in New York who are already aware of the benefits of the Paleo diet; however, people who are new to this kind of diet, will see huge positive changes in their bodies and will be satisfied with the results and our service. A challenge would be to keep these customers long enough for them to see the changes because at the beginning they might not like the idea that the diet is composed mainly of vegetables, lean meats, nuts and seeds and very little starch and no sugar.  Our society is used to eating more carbohydrates than healthy fat and protein. So one of our challenges would also be the need to educate people about the importance of a good nutrition and why we believe in the benefits of our Paleo meals.

One way to market our service would be through local papers and magazines as well as our own website. We would also use social channels such as Facebook and Instagram. We would provide our service to people in New York and we would focus on this market segment and depending on how well we do and the demand for our service, we will then decide how to expand.

Some of our competitors (Blue Apron, Hello Fresh and more) provide their service not only in New York but nationwide, they have the money and brand as an advantage, but I want to remain positive and I believe we can succeed if we focus first in New York area, and help New Yorkers get healthier, in better shape, and save money and time.

• WHAT ARE THE FACTORS IN DECIDING WHAT FORM OF OWNERSHIP IS BEST SUITED FOR THE POTENTIAL BUSINESS?

There are several factors that need to be considered when deciding what form of ownership is right for a business. Some of these important factors are:  how many owners the business will have, what kind of product or service will be provided, the capital that will be needed to start the business, the financial situation in general, and also what sources of income there will be.

• BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A SOLE PROPRIERTORSHIP AND PARTNERSHIP.

There are some advantages and disadvantages for both a sole proprietorship and partnership. A sole proprietorship is a very simple type of business structure; an advantage is that it is easy to start compared to a partnership since it is only owned and managed by the same person. Unlike a sole proprietorship, a partnership is owned by more than one person and can be more complex.  A sole proprietorship is required to do some filing, but these filings are not as complex as and the requirements set up for a partnership.  Another advantage of a sole proprietorship is that the owner of the business can report the business income and expenses as his/her own individual tax return, and all the profit that is made does not have to be share, it is only collected by the owner. A disadvantage, however, is that a sole proprietorship can be very risky because having a business is a lot of responsibility and if the business is sued, then the owner will be sued too, if the business goes bankruptcy the owner will be the only and most affected one too because since there is no separation between the owner and the business, if the business goes bankruptcy, the owner will too.

• EXPLAIN THE CORPORATE FORM OF OWNERSHIP AND HOW A BUSINESS IS INCORPORATED

The form of ownership in a corporation consists in that the business is declared separate, legal entity and it incorporated and guided by a group of officers known as the board directors.

• LIST THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE S-CORPORATION AND THE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY.

Some of the differences between the s-corporation and the limited liability company are:  In a S-Corporation the ownership is restricted by the IRS, and they can have directors and officers, whereas, in a LLC, owners can choose whether to have managers manage the corporation.  S-corporation can sell stocks while the LLC can’t; and also unlike the LLC, the S- corporation can be transferable as long as the IRS ownership restrictions are met.